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Well written stories

24/3/2017

The Lost of Syros
By Emma Timpany

Emma Timpany is a New Zealand-born writer who currently lives in Cornwall, England, where she has been successful with her entries in several short story competitions.
This collection is slim but all 16 stories are worth reading as their author shows herself to have mastered the genre.
They are well constructed, the situations and observations perceptive, and the writing is well-judged – not verbose or overdone. Word use is well chosen to reveal scenes and evoke thoughts and memories in the reader.

The diagnosis is pleurisy. Outside, a gorgeous spring’s dispensing its own medicine, a string of warm blue days. Katie’s told to rest and eat, and do nothing else. I fill her room with bluebells. She says they smell like honey. An elderly maid, her skin as crumpled and brown as a walnut shell, brings Katie gooseberry jam on thin slices of buttered bread cut into little triangles. Food to lure fairies from their lairs, Katie calls it.

Many are of the stories are set in New Zealand, but there are other locations to provide variety. The title story, for instance, is a memory of a holiday in the Greek Islands, recalled from its narrator’s residence in London.
Lengths vary from under three pages to ten pages – none too long for their subjects. The choice of narration in each case is appropriate. The order in which they are placed, and the interior design could be tweaked, but these are minor quibbles in a collection of well-written stories.

Review by J.M.

Title: The Lost of Syros
Author: Emma Timpany
Publisher: Cultured Llama Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-9932119-2-8
RRP: RRP £12.00
Available: Print from www.culturedllama.co.uk, Amazon, The Book Depository, Waterstone's and other online retailers.
https://emmatimpany.wordpress.com @CornishShorts

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Different fascinating story

14/3/2017

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Te Tini o Toi, Book 1
By Narena Olliver

A great amount of thought and preparation has gone into the writing of this book. Narena Olliver has worked to fuse fact with fantasy and the result is a different and fascinating story set in this country about one thousand years ago.
     Despite the title, it is not the new arrivals from Polynesia, the Tauhou under the leadership of Toi, who are at the forefront of the story, but the original race of Kaiwaiata, human-like light-skinned creatures reminiscent of the patupaiarehe of Maori tradition. Humans, they say, are closely related to them, though a mutation that occurred long ago – “like ourselves but not like ourselves”.
The matrilineal society of the Kaiwaiata is egalitarian. Though human-shaped, they nest in trees and some fly, either on the backs of huge eagles or they glide with the help of feathered suits. They are aligned with other living creatures, with which they cooperate and do not exploit. Moreover, through telepathy they communicate with other such peoples elsewhere, and precognition serves as protection from most danger.
     With the new arrivals come kuri and kiore, all of which they find “breed so fast”. And there’s the Tauhou’s practice of setting fire to the forest. Together, the result is an immediate detrimental effect on the inhabitants – birds, particularly moa and other ground-dwellers, as well as on the Kaiwaiata.
     It is not just the issues between the Kaiwaiata and the Touhou that keep the novel moving, but an added factor in the settling of old scores between the first set of canoes and the next.
     The book ends quite abruptly without a real conclusion – no doubt because there is another one to follow – Te Tini o Toi, Book 2.
     Though particularly accessible to New Zealand readers with prior knowledge of the history and traditions of this country, there are ample explanations throughout the text to guide someone new to the subject, plus a full glossary of perhaps less familiar words and terms used.
The disappointing aspect is that the author’s care taken with the preparation has been let down in the later stages of publishing. When the book has undergone more rigorous proofing to eliminate the many errors it will be a worthy addition to the fiction-folk-history of this country.

Te Tini o Toi, Book 2

Book 2 in the series carries on the story of the alternative people the Kaiwaiata, and the new arrivals from Polynesia, the Tauhou.
     It is necessary to read Book 1 first, as this second work lacks sufficient explanation for a new reader to understand the situation and characters. In fact, it is not clear why this is separate – it would be better for the two to be made into a single book.
     The sequel is shorter than Book 1, and though there is some development in the matter of relations between the two peoples, it does not add a lot.
     There is an attempt at a liaison between the races, but the result is as the Kaiwaiata feared. The Tauhou proliferate and the natural environment suffers, particularly the birdlife with the moa at the top.
Again, this book ends abruptly, with a short, prosaic epilogue stating what happened to the various characters.

Review by Alderaan Hoth

Title: Te Tini o Toi, Books 1 & 2
Author: Narena Olliver
Publisher: Icon Press
Available for Kindle from Amazon
Book 1: ASIN B00FIHCNVE
RRP: 3.49
Book 2: ASIN B0IF325KRC
RRP: 3.31

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Novel deals with social issues

2/3/2017

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I Too
by T E Stazyk

This book relates the experiences of three young men, school buddies, and their progress through their postgraduate lives in New York City.
There is Ridge, a very right wing businessman intent on carving out a career in a major consulting firm. He has a girlfriend, Julia, from a mega-rich family who moves in all the ‘right’ circles and to whom money has no meaning, because her father provides more than she could ever spend. Ridge’s view of anyone who is poor or unemployed is that they are lazy and useless. Taxation is theft by the government in order to transfer wealth to the poor.
Then there is Paul, also a corporate climber, but who is much more moderate, and has a partner, Michelle, who is an HR consultant also for a major company. Paul’s company has some policies that are more enlightened that those proclaimed by Ridge’s firm.
The final member of the trio is Ben, a history teacher at a community college, teaching civics and history to people trying to break out of the vicious cycle of unskilled jobs provided by companies that see the only way to make more money is to grind down their workers by cutting hours and removing benefits. Ben is idealistic and loves to debate with Paul and Ridge the ethics and morals of their consulting projects which often involve making people redundant. Ben has a friend Asha who is a lawyer working for a social agency dealing with women’s refuges.
Ridge progresses well in his job by agreeing with everything his bosses say, until he is given responsibility for overseeing a project that attempts to factor in the real environmental impact of doing business. How he copes and changes when the bean-counters interfere with the project, and how the conspicuous consumption of Julia affects his outlook on life, are the drivers of his story.
Paul is required to undertake an aid project in Laos and comes back from that experience a changed man. He questions the effect that aid has on the local population and sees no need for capital intensive intervention in the Laotian state. He worries that his views may make him unpopular with his firm.
Ben has had to live with the insecurity of having a non-tenured position in a college facing funding cuts because his subjects do not fit the model of producing workers for industry. However, he persists in giving what he can to his pupils, and is very popular with them.
How these three resolve all the issues facing them makes a satisfying story, and there are twists in the story line.
The characters may seem a little too stereotyped, and some of the attitudes of the firms employing them are a little too forced, but this may be because there is not space in a small book to delve deeper into their characters, and they do illustrate the story.
The book jumps between narratives from each of the men and although this could become disjointed, in this case it works well. It is a very topical book, citing the Brexit event in the UK and the rise to power of big business in the United States. It raises some interesting topics regarding the environment and also such issues such as a universal minimum wage and the social responsibilities of big business.
This is a book that makes the reader examine how one regards social issues and attitudes to the environment, and as such makes a good read. I recommend it.

Review by Harold Bernard

Editor’s note: All proceeds from the sale of I Too go to support CUE Haven, a project to restore an old Kaipara dairy farm back to a native New Zealand forest for the community.

Title: I Too
By: T. E. Stazyk
Publisher: Createspace
ISBN: 978-1535581233
RRP: Paperback NZ$ 25.00, ebook NZ$ 8.00
Available as a paperback or ebook from Amazon and Amazon Kindle and as a paperback from The Book Depository; also via Auckland Library.

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Well written stories

Different fascinating story

Novel deals with social issues

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