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First collection impresses

1/2/2019

Plague Ship & Other Tales: Dark Fancies & Strange Whimsies
by Jonathan Natusch

This is the author’s first collection of short stories, numbering twenty in all. I was impressed by the variety, not only of subject matter but also of style.
From the horror and suspense of tales such as “The Marionette” and “In the Wall”, the wit and satire of “The Trouble With Time Travel” and “Selected Cards From A Defence Lawyer’s Tarot Deck”, to the futuristic threat to the human race of the title story “Plague Ship”, I was largely entertained.
Some of the offerings are short, as in the case of the very funny “The Trouble With Time Travel” at one and a half pages, without losing effect. A lot of the stories have a strong science fiction theme, with some reading like they would not be out of place in a Dr Who episode, but I felt the title story to be the jewel in the crown.
“Plague Ship” is well constructed as a short story and could well make for the basis of a full novel. The characters are realistically drawn and the story told in timeline (not always in order) as a count-down to the clincher. The sudden outbreak and rapidly spreading virus taking the world completely by surprise requires the best medical minds to unravel the mystery and find a cure. The question of where it came from remains unanswered but the why is delivered in the final two sentences. Nicely done, Mr Natusch. This is truly a science fiction thriller and it could sit quite comfortably in such a compendium alongside a sample from Ian M. Banks’ “State Of The Art”.
The selections and the order in which they appear in this publication are what make the book such an entertaining read. The longer, and sometimes darker tales, are nicely balanced with the shorter ones and the mix avoids what some collections suffer from – sameness. When turning the pages can take the reader from the ghost of a New Zealand gang member rising from the dead to wreak revenge, to a very clever alternative take on a famous fairy tale, or from the arty surrealism of Carl’s hangover, to the satire constructed from a Tarot deck, there is little room for monotony.
The book concludes with “The Last Romantic”. Built from the preface of an excerpt from Lord Byron’s poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” regarding the beauty of nature and a world unspoiled by humankind, it closes the collection wonderfully. I am sure there are many who would be envious of Simeon Coppell’s choice of the perfect life. Well, maybe….
Altogether a great read.

Review by George Hollinsworth

Title: Plague Ship & Other Tales : Dark Fancies & Strange Whimsies
Author: Jonathan Natusch
Publisher: Occasionally Erudite Publications
ISBN: 978-0-473-41663-8
RRP: $19.99
Available: Softcover from bookdepository.co.uk, amazon.com or by emailing publisher jgnatusch@gmail.com

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Coffee-table book for ecologists

28/1/2019

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Rivers Rare: The first 25 years of Project River Recovery 1991–2016
by Neville Peat, with Brian Patrick & Aalbert Rebergen

It was with some excitement that I picked up this book to read. I’m a great supporter of protecting bodies of water from the ravages of human intervention and pollution, so gung-ho I went in only to discover it was not quite what I expected.
     Rivers Rare is about an ecological project (Project River Recovery), officially set up in 1991 to observe, save and protect the native flora and fauna of New Zealand’s Waitaki catchment braided rivers subject to ‘hard engineering control’, primarily by the hydroelectric power scheme in place above these rivers. It is a project funded by Meridian Energy and Genesis Energy in co-operation with the Department of Conservation. This book is a historical record of small beginnings, big undertakings, and chronicles the work of the staff and helpers involved in Project River Recovery to clear the rare braided rivers of introduced and native-life-threatening plants and animals in order to save native species and their homes from extinction.
     What is a braided river? I like this beautiful quote from page 6 to help one understand: ‘From the air, braided rivers are a network of shimmering silver ribbons, more pretty than powerful. But gently powerful and unpredictable they are, always creating new channels, new twists and turns, and reworking the gravel islands and sand bars into new shapes.’ The constant about braided rivers is that they constantly change.
     At first I enjoyed the flow of this work, learning about how the rivers operate unpredictably and the life that they sustain, also how rare they and their inhabitants are in this world. It got a bit too technical for me though, too scientific for this arty mind.
     This small book represents a huge amount of work, the first 25 years of a project full of ecological highs and lows, but all the facts and figures, all the scientific language seems particularly tailored for those in the know and closely affected by the findings. It is a celebration of sorts, even if the results aren’t satisfactory in all cases, a coffee-table book for ecologists perhaps?
     My thoughts were on water quality itself, something that wasn’t quite mentioned enough for me, but I am glad to have learned a little about the native life trying to live in a rare slice of New Zealand.
     This book will suit those with scientific minds, and perhaps anyone attempting an ecological report for a university paper? Rivers Rare feels like a findings report that belongs quite comfortably in a university reference section for serious review.

Review by Penny M Geddis

Title: Rivers Rare: The first 25 years of Project River Recovery 1991–2016
Author: Neville Peat, with Brian Patrick & Aalbert Rebergen
Publisher: Project River Recovery, Dept of Conservation
ISBN: 9780478150995
RRP: $36.99
Available: online and instore University Bookshop https://www.unibooks.co.nz/

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Book for parent-child interaction

24/1/2019

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Mini Whinny: Happy Birthday to Me!
by Stacy Gregg
Illustrations by Ruth Paul

I just love a quality hardcover children’s book!
Especially when it is well bound and has glossy pages. And each page contains bright pictures with lots of action going on. And this is definitely one of those.
This book is for any child who loves horses.
It’s simply for any child whether short or tall, curvy or as straight as a beanpole.
It’s about having different feelings, like feeling bad or grumpy, and how to cope with them.
It’s about feeling small and unnoticed in a world of big: about wanting to be special: about NOT wanting to share.
So now in this story it’s official. It is the OFFICIAL HORSE BIRTHDAY 1st August. That means every horse, not just some, every single horse gets to celebrate its birthday on 1 August.
But is Mini Whinny happy about this arrangement? No, she’s definitely not happy.
Mini Whinny wants to have her own special birthday. She throws a tantrum and stomps around and makes some noise about it. Fancy having to share her very special birthday with all those other horses!
She comes up with a plan.
In the middle of the night, when everyone is asleep, she rearranges the birthday decorations and celebration into her own stall where she will have her own party.
But there is no one to cheer her on when she blows out all the candles on the carrot cake, or smashes the piñata, or anything. She is alone, in tears, and finds it is not much fun after all.
Kindly Palomina comes to her rescue.
Surely celebrations are more fun when shared with friends?
Can the pair make things better for all the horses?
This is an excellent book for joint interaction between parent and child.

Review by Susan Tarr

Title: Mini Whinny: Happy Birthday to Me!
Author: Stacy Gregg Illustrator: Ruth Paul
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 978-1-77543-537-2
RRP: $19.19
Available: bookshops

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Emotional ride for sci-fi and paranormal fans

19/1/2019

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Take Flight
by JL Pawley

The second book in the Generation Icarus series, 'Take Flight', dives immediately into an adrenaline-fueled opening scene.
    When the Flight’s mountain hideaway is shattered by the abrupt arrival of mercenaries acting on behalf of the Evolutionary Corporation, most of the Flight is captured. Those remaining at large, flee towards the uncertain sanctuary offered by the religious group, the Angelists.
    The storyline unfolds through chapters with alternating characters’ point of view. This structure effectively conveyed the storyline and added character depth. Explosive revelations about Raven and Owl’s past answered the questions left open in ‘Air Born’.
    The story is based in the United States, but has a distinctive ‘kiwi’ flavour with the inclusion of Tui, a New Zealand teenager, who has plenty of mana.
    The Evolutionary Corporation crosses moral boundaries by mistreating the Flight, designating them as mere ‘lab rats’. But, even within the depths of depravity, they find allies willing to risk their own lives to help the Flight. New bonds and emotional connections are forged within the Flight’s tight formation.
    ‘Take Flight’ is an emotional ride and the ‘Generation Icarus’ stories would make a phenomenal movie series, one that would appeal to sci-fi and paranormal fans of the Hunger Games or Divergent Series.

[Ed note: a FlaxFlower review of Air Born, the first book in the series, was published on this site in November 2017]

Review by WJ Scott
award winning author

Title: Take Flight
Author: JL Pawley
Publisher: Eunoia
ISBN: 9780994138736
RRP: $19.99
Available: order from bookshops

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Drama and darkness in true story

14/1/2019

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Innocence: a true story of a journey from darkness into light
Ludovic C.M. Romany

I fully support the premise of this biography. It highlights the appalling levels of abuse towards children particularly but also the violence prevalent in New Zealand society, the terrible levels of domestic abuse and the increasing abuse by women.
The need for us to confront the terrors forced on the innocent by those who are meant to love and protect is paramount. For anyone to speak up, to challenge those who committed the abuse, to face scepticism and disbelief from family and friends takes such courage. And for Wi Peepe, not only was his childhood one of severe neglect, abuse and crushing poverty, there were the later added struggles with substance abuse as well.
The author, Ludovic C.M. Romany begins with a foreword making what seems to be a vital explanation about his first meeting with the seven year old beggar, Wi Peepe. There was drama and darkness and this section left me expecting the resolution of their next meeting, when that first sad introduction would, years later, be acknowledged as a kind of powerful eureka moment – ‘That poor, lost starveling was you?’ Yet this never happened and for me this left a sizeable gap in their story.
     Belief is vitally important for anyone who has been abused and I wanted to believe everything I read. If even a third of what was stated happened to this man, then it would be terrible enough. Yet, things jarred.
     Another problem for me was that Wi chose to write in the first person, using the child he was as the story-teller. This is a difficult premise and it didn’t work for his young years. Too often the child of pre-school to mid-teens was given the maturity and understanding of adult hindsight. For example: ‘An old adage came to mind, ‘That out of every adversity comes some good.’ This from an eleven year old with the barest of education.
     I have an issue with the section given to the story of Wi’s capture and taming of a wild horse. Would an underfed, starving child of eleven have the strength to capture a wild horse? Would he have managed to control this bolting, terrified, unsaddled, unbridled creature? Would he have trained it to obey his hand commands, all in less than one hour? From the moment I read this I was unsure, and spoke with someone who has a lifetime of equestrian training and breaking behind her. The answer was no. If Wi did indeed manage this feat, I offer my sincerest apologies. But, I’m sorry, I have my doubts.
     There were strange contradictions.
Pg 86: ‘No one would believe me if I told them what Mum had done to me, or what Jimmy had done, for that matter.’ Yet time and again family members knew the character of the various abusers, at times had witnessed their terrible violence.
Pg 78: Uncle Bill: ‘He’ll end up killing someone soon and that’ll be it.’
I appreciate there are cultural differences at play, with a Pakeha reader of these Maori relationships, but surely loving grandparents or aunt and uncles as Wi had, would have moved heaven and earth to keep this child safe? They knew of the abuse but time and again they chose to not intervene to protect a child they loved. Then again, maybe that merely highlights another frightening aspect of domestic abuse. The enabling.
Pg 111/112 ‘The authorities knew of the difficulties and abuse in our home environment. They knew about the broken bones and the whippings.’ Yet there was no one to take Wi out of that environment until he was in his mid-teens? When Wi did experience great positivity from authorities, being sent to a Health Camp, given to loving foster care I’m unsure why he didn’t contact them again when he was returned to the people who abused him. I appreciate people in traumatic situations don’t and can’t always think straight yet Wi makes much of his maturity, his street-smarts, his survival skills, his ability to think clearly through these times. Surely with a beacon to walk towards and acknowledged arms to care, highly tuned survival skills would have led him where he would be safe?
     There are obviously plenty of things that need to be addressed in Pakeha and Maori society regarding drinking, violence and abuse, both physical and sexual. Wi bravely brings scenes to life that reinforce the images and the kind of people New Zealand was first introduced to in mainstream media through Once Were Warriors. God help the children growing up to perpetuate a life of abuse and fear through knowing no other life and God thank those like Wi who saw and experienced the worst yet came through with their humanity and ability to love and nurture.
     If I have my doubts about some things portrayed, I don’t doubt that awful, unforgivable things happened to a child who should only have known love.
     Kia kaha.

Review by TJ Ramsay

Title: Innocence: A true story of a journey from darkness into light
Author: Ludovic C M Romany
Publisher: Copy Press Books
ISBN: 9780995104006
RRP: $34.99
Available: bookshops

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An absorbing read

7/1/2019

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I Have Loved Me A Man: The Life & Times of Mika
by Sharon Mazer
with a Foreword by Witi Ihimaera

The author is an academic specialising in theatre and performance studies, and, as stated in the publisher’s explanatory publicity, in this book she ‘takes readers inside the social revolution that has moved New Zealand from the 1960s to the present day through the story of…gay Māori performance artist: Mika.’
Adopted at birth into a Pākehā family, Neil Gudsell, later Mika, is the natural son of a Pākehā mother and a Māori father. From an early age he knew that he was gay, and embraced that knowledge. Somewhat later, he discovered his Māori heritage, and that, too, he embraced with enthusiasm.
As an openly gay Māori adolescent in Timaru in the 1960s and 70s, it might be expected that his life would have been a constant struggle against prejudice and worse, but from the beginning Mika seems to have had an abundance of insouciant self-belief as well as considerable physical strength and athleticism, and thus was able to be what he is without disguise and only minimal overt hostility directed against him.
Later, in Christchurch, Mika (still Neil Gudsell at this stage) developed his physical and artistic skills through aerobics, jazzercise and various types of dancing, and from this base he established a career as a performer, and, for a time, as a television and movie actor.
With the support of others, such as Carmen and Dalvanius Prime, Mika developed his own style typified by an exuberant physicality and sexuality, and was soon directing, dancing, singing and generally starring in a series of performances in New Zealand and overseas, particularly at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. There was always a political edge to these performances, a deliberate fostering of Gay Rights and Aids awareness, and they also incorporated the imitation of aspects of traditional Māori ritual, stylised Māori or Pasifika costume and set design and the use of props such as taiaha.
Mika’s idiosyncratic interpretation of Māori culture was not always welcomed by Māori traditionalists, nor did his ‘camp’ style have much appeal to those who saw it as something quite distinct from ‘high’ art. But, as the author notes, Mika is a performer, a ‘quintessential showman’, whose whole approach challenges any such distinctions. The author describes Mika’s performance art as ‘postcolonial camp’, and as such, as being ‘celebratory but not utopian, political without being prescriptive, and critical without losing its sense of humour.’
To some, the major interest in this book will be in the author’s analysis of the ways in which New Zealand society’s attitudes to matters of sexual identity and race have changed since the sixties. Others will be more interested in Mika the performer and the man. But an attempt to identify Mika is something like trying to shape a recognisable figure from quicksilver. Clearly there is something protean about him, just as there is about his performances. Perhaps the most identifiable trait is his empathy with young people, particularly Māori and Pasifika, who are struggling to establish a personal identity. In this regard, he has established a Trust with the mission to ‘ignite young minds and transform bodies towards better lives through the performing arts and physical culture.’
The book is copiously illustrated with photographs from Mika’s own collection. Some of these are decidedly uninhibited, but that is Mika’s style. As Witi Ihimaera says in his Foreword: ‘He’s still fabulous… Still a star.’
Whether your main interest is social history or the career of Mika himself, this is an absorbing read.

Review by Tony Chapelle

Title: I Have Loved Me A Man: The Life & Times of Mika
Author: Sharon Mazer
Publisher: University of Auckland Press
ISBN: 9781869408862
RRP: $59.99
Available: bookshops

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First collection impresses

Coffee-table book for ecologists

Book for parent-child interaction

Emotional ride for sci-fi and paranormal fans

Drama and darkness in true story

An absorbing read

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