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Scratch Pad 32 Based on the non-Mailing Comments section of The Great Cosmic Donut of Life No. 17, a magazine written and published by Bruce Gillespie, 59 Keele Street, Victoria 3066, Australia (phone (03) 9419-4797; email: [email protected]) for the March 1999 mailing of Acnestis. Cover: ‘Astro Ant’ by Ditmar. This one’s for you, Andy Sawyer. The top half of the picture shows the Trifid Nebula. Ditmar says to look for the little goblin-like face in the Nebula, proving that ‘Von Daniken was right’. Contents 3 BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS: AUREALIS NOMINEES 8 FAVOURITE BOOKS, FILMS, SHORT STORIES 1998 1998, AND OTHERS by Bruce Gillespie by Bruce Gillespie BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS AUREALIS AWARD ENTRANTS 1998 What could I say? I could hardly say ‘Show that man the door’. All I could say was the truth: ‘Well, we didn’t see them.’ Ghod knows what Peter Nicholls was on about this My first list here is of the books I couldn’t write about during time. As far as I know, he did not volunteer to be a judge in 1998, i.e. the entrants for the Young Adults section of the the category in 1998, but no doubt he was trying to hint that 1998 Aurealis Award. he was the real expert in the field. Okay, volunteer for active The award was begun four years ago by the editors of service, Mr Nicholls. I certainly won’t be doing so again. Melbourne’s Aurealis magazine to provide Australia’s first Although the average quality of the entrants was quite high, jury prize system for excellence in SF, fantasy and horror reading a swag of books in one category during one year writing. Categories are Science Fiction, Fantasy, Young ruined my year’s reading. Adults, and Horror. Usually there are two awards in each But I didn’t say any of that. I gave the award to Alison category: Novel and Short Fiction. Heroic administrator Goodman, who was genuinely astonished (since the win- during 1998 has been Peter McNamara, working by email ners had been kept secret). Her novel is a first novel; I’ll be from Adelaide to coordinate the four sets of judges and watching out for everything she writes from now on. persuade publishers to send books to the correct set of The other winners were: SF Novel: The Centurion’s judges. Empire, by Sean McMullen (Tor); SF Short Story: ‘The In the Young Adults section, the other judges were Truth About Weena’ by David J. Lake (Dreaming Down Rosaleen Love and Sean Williams. Sean wasn’t able to travel Under); Fantasy Novel: A Dark Winter by Dave Luckett (Om- from Adelaide for the awards ceremony of 26 February, and nibus) and Fire Angels by Jane Routley (Avon); Fantasy Short Rosaleen dobbed me in to give the presentation speech for Story: ‘A Walk-on Part in the War’ by Stephen Dedman our category. Not for us the black-tie ceremony of the (Dreaming Down Under); Horror Short Story: ‘A Positive’ by Arthur Clarke Awards. Not much money in evidence — only Kaaron Warron (Bloodsongs No. 10); Conveners’ Award: two publishers put money into the Aurealis Awards. All the Rabbits by Saun Tan (Lothian). catering was done by Justin Ackroyd at Slow Glass Books, Here’s the speech that I didn’t quite give: Swanston Walk, Melbourne. In turn, Slow Glass sold a lot of books to people who turned up for the awards ceremony. No black tie, either. It was 25°C that afternoon, and the ‘For many years now, Children’s and Young Adults’ Fiction palatial premises of Slow Glass Books don’t run to air-con- has been the Australian general publishing category with ditioning. the least prejudice against science fiction, fantasy and hor- Nobody wanted long speeches, so nobody provided ror. Such books often feature in the winners and runners- them. The idea was to read out the nominees; make a few up of the Australian Children’s Book Award. As a result, to remarks about the difficulty/ease of arriving at a winner; read an Australian Young Adults’ SF or Fantasy book is make the award; and allow the winner or the winner’s pretty much a guarantee of quality. representative to look suitably astonished/overcome. ‘We did not award the Short Fiction category this year Hence I threw away almost all of my speech (original because there simply weren’t enough stories to choose version below). You won’t be astonished to learn Peter from. There was only one anthology specifically devoted to Nicholls did his usual Peter Nicholls thing. As I finished the field, and we saw only a few other notable stories. We saying why we weren’t giving a Short Story award, Nicholls felt that if we could not provide a strong short list, we would interrupted from the front of the crowd: ‘There were at least not give a winner. In 1999, perhaps, the short story field will 100 short stories available for the Young Adults category.’ again be very strong in this area.’ 3 Peter Nicholls disrupted at this point. I tried to stare at some other stories in book form. The ratings are: face — any face — in the audience. I left out the following two ** Books highly recommended. paragraphs, then gave a shortened version of the rest of this spiel: * Books recommended. ! Books about which I have severe doubts. ‘Thanks to the hard work of Peter McNamara, the publish- ers were persuaded to send us virtually all their Young * SWEETWATER NIGHT by Alison Stewart Adults titles for the year. Only one or two books were (Hodder Signature 0-7336-0570-2; 1998; 170 pp.) boring. Many were funny, and an even greater number had The publishers seem to think this has a horror/super- strong story lines. The standard of characterisation varied natural element merely because it has some suspense somewhat, according to authors’ interests. Among the SF towards its end. Teenagers put themselves through a titles, we noticed an emphasis on the doings of mad scien- sort of trial when they return to Sweetwater Forest, tists. We’re not sure what this says about the current status where horrible things have happened. of science in Australia. ** KILLING DARCY by Melissa Lucashenko ‘We found only one general fault, and it puzzled us. We (University of Queensland Press 0-7022-3041-3; 1998; noticed that many writers can maintain a strong story line 230 pp.) for the first three quarters of a novel, then allow too much Despite her surname, Melissa Lucashenko is an Abo- to happen too fast at the end. The resulting confusion often riginal writer who is quickly building a strong reputa- spoilt an otherwise fine novel. tion as a fine novelist. Of all the authors I read for the Aurealis Award, she has the greatest ability to create ‘The short-listed nominees for the Aurealis Award for strong, ferocious characters that come to life in front Young Adults Fiction, Novel, for 1998, were: of you. Darcy Mango has a chip on his shoulder, which ● Horsehead Boy by Rory Barnes (HarperCollins) is not helped by being forced to work for a White ● Singing the Dogstar Blues by Alison Goodman (Harper- farming family. However, the members of the family Collins) are down on their luck, so reluctantly he forms a ● Killing Darcy by Melissa Lucashenko (University of friendship with them. He also discovers an old house Queensland Press) hidden in the bush, and in it a camera that takes ● A Dark Winter by Dave Luckett (Omnibus Books) pictures of the past. Lucashenko writes an urgent tale ● The Night is for Hunting by John Marsden (Pan Macmil- that combines realism and some elegant science- lan) fictiony effects. ** COLD IRON by Sophie Masson ‘Horsehead Boy is the best example of a group of funny books (Hodder 0-7336-0583-4; 1998; 185 pp.) about mad scientists. It tells of a boy who wakes up to find ‘When the penniless Tattercoats is included in an himself as a disembodied head in a vat. The result is an invitation to the Earl of Malmsey’s grand ball, the effective mixture of social comedy and speculative SF. servant-girl Malkin and Pug the gooseherd are deter- ‘In Killing Darcy Melissa Lucashenko shows a special gift mined that she will attend and claim the inheritance for writing about very strong, even startling characters. denied her since birth.’ Thus the blurb; and yes, the Although she is best known for writing about being Aborigi- book could just have easily have been written by a nal in Australia, she also knows how to write very spooky British writer, and perhaps it’s already been published fantasy scenes. overseas. Masson has a lively, light style, and her group ‘A Dark Winter override the judges’ prejudices against of characters (who form a family of pilgrims) make heroic fantasy. It is the most original, realistic, vivid and pleasant company for the reader. When Masson tries amusing example of the heroic fantasy genre to appear for to play games with metaphysical mirrors at the end, she years. When overseas readers discover Dave Luckett, loses me as a reader. The social comedy of the first half there’ll be no stopping him. of the book is more convincing than the Great Revela- ‘The Night is for Hunting posed a real problem. Is it tions at the end. science fiction or not? Yes, it is, for it continues Marsden’s * THE LYREBIRD’S TAIL by Sue Robinson series of books about the near-future invasion of Australia (Lothian 0-85091-883-9; 1998; 158 pp.) by an unnamed Asian country.