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Story keeps one involved

14/2/2016

The Chain
by Antony Millen

It’s 2043 and in the 27 years between now and then the world has changed a lot.
The Cloud holds all information about every person, the Eartizens. They are tracked constantly via the Blanket, and gathering in groups larger than six is forbidden in order to avoid social protest. But there are a few dissenters who choose to be off-liners from the Domain, effectively making themselves renegades. Worldwide language purges have resulted in many changes to place names, and whole languages and cultures have fallen into disfavour.
The Blanket is meant to connect everyone and maintain unity, but it has proved to be not impervious to correction.
On the death of their father in Ngatini, King Country, New Zealand, two young men set out on a journey to learn more about him and what he was involved in years before. It turns out to be a quest with political implications that will end in danger to themselves or expose the corruption and result in less oppressive government.
     A chain of clues leads them to Canada, Israelistine, France, Australia, Turkey, Greece, India, Sri Lanka. It’s an Amazing Race sort of journey with clues to be deciphered and tasks completed.
Along the way we get hints as to what is in store for the world in the next few decades. The Eiffel Tower is in ruins, the result of terrorism. Greece is all but abandoned due to ultimate financial collapse, though Turkey is thriving, and there’s a curious unexplained reference to the dilapidated airport terminal at Singapore. Experienced world travellers or people very familiar with specific places might wonder about some further descriptions or references.
     It’s a good story that keeps one involved throughout. Though the text is not free from errors the writing is generally good.
     Overall, The Chain should appeal to YA readers and adults.

Review by Alderaan Hoth

Title: The Chain
Author: Antony Millen
Publisher: Publisher: Maple Koru Publishing
ISBN: 9780473341978
Available in paperback and Kindle editions on Amazon. Also available in paperback on Fishpond, Wheelers, Book Depository

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Intelligent combative dialogue

9/2/2016

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A to J The Wandering Jew
by Peter Dornauf

Many years ago I, like Saul Wasserman, went on a bus trip around Europe. Reading A to J The Wandering Jew brought back some memories of places visited, those obligatory for such package tours – the Sistine Chapel, Pompeii, Pisa’s Leaning Tower, the Uffizi Gallery, St Marks Square, Amsterdam’s red-light district, and more.
However, the differences between the two tours are crucial. Saul, the first-person narrator, is a New York Jew, the time is post-9/11, and his coach is not full of she’ll-be-right Kiwis and Aussies.
There are a couple of New Zealanders. The driver hails from here though he gets just a mention, but Saul’s room-mate throughout the journey, David, is a larger character through whose expertise in art history we tag along to galleries en route and listen to discussions about art.
     Others on the coach are a varied lot. Among them, young giggly women, an ailing clergyman, an astronomer who is a recent widow, a couple whose relationship doesn’t fully satisfy the woman, and Ahmed a Muslim man on his own. It is the friction between Saul and the latter that provides the novel’s conflict. Saul’s wife has recently left him so he’s not in a good frame of mind, and he blames all Muslims for the attack on his city. He’s belligerent, and his attitude to the man he refers to as ‘the Arab’, and ‘Ahab the Arab’ provokes growing enmity between them, leading to violence.
Much of the text of 452 pages, is taken up by discussions on religion, politics, philosophy, art and music. Saul’s disgruntlement and harsh judgement of the major themes of life is well-drawn –
– Sitting in this concoction of bad taste, I knew myself that religion was a fib, a forgery, one of those comforting fabrications constructed to make life manageable, make death amenable. It was a white lie, perhaps a mauve blue lie to calm the nerves, control fears and coo the spirit. Like air-freshener sprayed in the room of the rotting corpse.
– The universe, it’s a dangerous place. It spawns its young in great numbers, lets them sniff the air, then slaughters them promptly in equal vast numbers.
This is not a book for a relaxing read at the beach. It’s for readers who revel in the cut and thrust of intelligent combative dialogue and are prepared to invest in the mental effort to keep up with it. Some will be challenged by frequent use of swear words.
While there’s much here to recommend this book, the quality of the printed volume lets it down. Though there’s good clear type, any reprint should include a laminated cover to protect it from marking. More importantly, a professional proof-reader needs to be employed to purge it from the large number of errors.
     The passengers on my coachload of tourists might have been less intelligent and memorable, but they were more congenial and much less contentious. For that I am very thankful.

Review by J.M.

Title: A to J The Wandering Jew
Author: Peter Dornauf
Publisher: Handmade Press
ISBN: 978-0-473-21818-8
Available: Paper: from the author at peterandclare@xtra.co.nz or website Peter Dornauf.com; Ebook from Smashwords.

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Warm and evocative story

2/2/2016

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Backwards Into the Future
by Bronwyn Elsmore

A middle-aged widow returns to her hometown of Waimamae to re-connect with old friends and family. Most of them have in fact died, but they populate Mary’s memories to a powerful degree and she feels them to be more real, and more significant, than the acquaintances she has left behind. Her best friend Ana, however, has not died but has unaccountably disappeared. And Ana’s wise and influential grandmother Kui, from beyond the grave, is urging Mary to find her and call her home where she belongs.
   What follows is the back-story of the young Mary’s friendship with Ana throughout their schooldays. It is a warm and evocative story, full of misty memories of simpler, sunnier times when children skipped rope, biked around the neighbourhood and went to the movies once a month. It was the era of the Monday washday, home-cooked family meals and the outside dunny, although by the time Mary returns some modern improvements have been made.
   She is content to settle down to bottling plums and talking to Ana’s younger cousin, who is convinced that Ana will never return but can’t, or won’t, reveal why. Mary’s occasional efforts to find her friend through the internet tell her nothing she doesn’t already know. The book is, however, more about the nostalgic return to Mary’s girlhood, complete with lingering descriptions of the lives and times, the manners and attitudes, and of course the people of Waimamae of half a century past.
   The pace of life is leisurely, and this is reflected in Bronwyn Elsmore’s treatment of the narrative. It is essentially a gentle story, with a little mystery in the background. Whether the past will be revealed is another matter. Readers who remember their golden childhoods will love it.

Review by Joan Curry

Title: Backwards Into the Future
Author: Bronwyn Elsmore
Publisher: Flaxroots
ISBN: 978-0-9922491-4-4
Available: Paperback from some bookshops, Wheelers, AllBooks, Academy Books, Total Library Solutions. Or send an enquiry to flaxroots@gmail.com. Ebook for Kindle via Amazon.

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Story keeps one involved

Intelligent combative dialogue

Warm and evocative story

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