Wednesday, April 14, 2004
"The Stone Mage and the Sea" and "The Sky Warden and the Sun" - Sean Williams
Another Australian fantasy author who I heard talk at the Brisbane Writer's Festival. He has also co-written some Star Wars books, I am not sure if I think that is a good, or a bad thing.
My general apathy and laziness has caused this review to be posted several weeks after finishing the books, and conequently much of the detail will be mssing. The fact that I only have vague recollections of the books also points to the fact that they don't really stand out. They also probably fit into the YA category. The two main characters are in their early teens. The first book was nominated for the Aurealis fantasy award (the Aurealis awards are held annually for Australian speculative; horror, fantasy, and sci-fi have separate categories), and the third book in the series won it.
The first thing you notice about this books is the amazing cover design. Some of the best pictures I have seen, and in another first for fantasy novels - they are actually relevant to the story. If you are interested the illustrator is Shaun Tan. The pictures can be viewed here and here. There doesnt seem to be much on the net about him and unfortunately he shares his name with a mind reader who has nabbed www.shauntan.com. But it is good to see a quality Aussie artist drawing Aussie fantasy covers. I have noticed that this review is taking on a slightly overly patriotic slant, but I am not going to apologise. I am unashamed in my love of Australia and all things Down Under.
The most memorable thing about the books themselves is definitely the landscapes. The story takes place in a world that is geographically very similar to southern and central Australia, and as the author is an Adelaide local it is easy to see where he gets his inspiration from. This change in scenery from your standard western European fantasy milieu is refreshing, and to be applauded, but I think that Australia critics and readers need to be careful that this does overly bias them in their reception of the book.
For me the prose felt jolty, it suffered very badly in comparison to Kim Wilkins lovely flow I had read previously. The sentences were often elongated by excessive (in my opinion) use of commas and semi-colons. eg -->
Putting the incident behind him, he headed west, parallel to where he knew the beach to be, although it was hidden by dunes on that side; he wasn't ready to face the sea, either.
As I went further through the books this seemed to become less of a problem though, and there are some good pieces of writing in there as well.
They had been studiously ignoring each other all morning. It took a great deal of his attention.
Another problem I had was the youth of the characters, I just didn't connect with them at all. I will give the author the benefit of the doubt and claim that is was their ages, and not poor characterisation that caused this distance. So while the plot was moderately interesting I found it difficult to get involved.
Overall the books were adequate, neither really good nor really bad. Definitely something that kids in lower secondary school could be reading after they have discovered Tolkien. The Australian setting is something that I would hope more people could be exposed to, possibly encouraging more people to write about it. I have wondered if it is our lack of 'civilised' history and a caution about treading on Aboriginal toes that is preventing more writers from using these landscapes. I don't know, but I would like to see more of it.
My general apathy and laziness has caused this review to be posted several weeks after finishing the books, and conequently much of the detail will be mssing. The fact that I only have vague recollections of the books also points to the fact that they don't really stand out. They also probably fit into the YA category. The two main characters are in their early teens. The first book was nominated for the Aurealis fantasy award (the Aurealis awards are held annually for Australian speculative; horror, fantasy, and sci-fi have separate categories), and the third book in the series won it.
The first thing you notice about this books is the amazing cover design. Some of the best pictures I have seen, and in another first for fantasy novels - they are actually relevant to the story. If you are interested the illustrator is Shaun Tan. The pictures can be viewed here and here. There doesnt seem to be much on the net about him and unfortunately he shares his name with a mind reader who has nabbed www.shauntan.com. But it is good to see a quality Aussie artist drawing Aussie fantasy covers. I have noticed that this review is taking on a slightly overly patriotic slant, but I am not going to apologise. I am unashamed in my love of Australia and all things Down Under.
The most memorable thing about the books themselves is definitely the landscapes. The story takes place in a world that is geographically very similar to southern and central Australia, and as the author is an Adelaide local it is easy to see where he gets his inspiration from. This change in scenery from your standard western European fantasy milieu is refreshing, and to be applauded, but I think that Australia critics and readers need to be careful that this does overly bias them in their reception of the book.
For me the prose felt jolty, it suffered very badly in comparison to Kim Wilkins lovely flow I had read previously. The sentences were often elongated by excessive (in my opinion) use of commas and semi-colons. eg -->
Putting the incident behind him, he headed west, parallel to where he knew the beach to be, although it was hidden by dunes on that side; he wasn't ready to face the sea, either.
As I went further through the books this seemed to become less of a problem though, and there are some good pieces of writing in there as well.
They had been studiously ignoring each other all morning. It took a great deal of his attention.
Another problem I had was the youth of the characters, I just didn't connect with them at all. I will give the author the benefit of the doubt and claim that is was their ages, and not poor characterisation that caused this distance. So while the plot was moderately interesting I found it difficult to get involved.
Overall the books were adequate, neither really good nor really bad. Definitely something that kids in lower secondary school could be reading after they have discovered Tolkien. The Australian setting is something that I would hope more people could be exposed to, possibly encouraging more people to write about it. I have wondered if it is our lack of 'civilised' history and a caution about treading on Aboriginal toes that is preventing more writers from using these landscapes. I don't know, but I would like to see more of it.
