Reviewed by Jamie Marriage

If given the opportunity to avoid extinction would you take it? Even if it meant abandoning or even destroying everything you know?

This is the major question that David Brin’s novel Existence doesn’t so much try to answer as investigate from every angle.

During a routine space-junk collection mission astronaut Gerald Livingstone goes against protocol and lassos a crystalline object that has been drifting in Earth’s orbit for longer than anyone imagined. And when the crystal egg begins to speak with the voices of alien entities, welcoming humans to join them, the already precarious balance of Earth society is thrown into chaos.

Existence is a complex entity built primarily CyberPunk and Hard Sci-Fi components, but they aren’t the only elements that have been crafted together to tell this tale, and with stunning cohesion.

Hamish Brookeman, acclaimed novelist and director, is tasked with unravelling a plot that risks the plans of his secret society. And in turn exposes far more than he expects.

Hacker, an eccentric playboy, ends up in an extreme sporting accident that results in falling into a world of strangeness and grants him a new sense of purpose.

And Tor Pavlov, pop-culture reporter extraordinaire, prevents a terrorist bombing and becomes immersed in an online culture of unimaginable proportions.

But these are only a few of the many varied characters intertwined within Existence; each of whom have a vital part to play in the overall scheme of things. The tangle weave of betrayal, suspicion and subterfuge is constantly tinged with the hint of hope and progress. Especially when a second egg is discovered that refutes the grim tale of the first.

The writing of Existence is amazing, the characters flawless in their scope and the setting a fascinatingly erratic ride through worlds often difficult to comprehend, but never hard to picture with this level of storytelling. But be warned, this is a dense parable; filled from end to end with twisting points of views and narrators-a-plenty.

It isn’t a fast book, but it is a great book. And one worth taking the time to enjoy.

There’s something very compelling about survivor stories. Probably because we all have moments when we wonder what we would do if … any number of things happened to us.

In this new series hosted by Charisma Carpenter, we get to hear  stories from women who’ve survived violent attacks.

The series begins with Charisma’s own personal recount of fighting back when she and some friends were attacked in San Diego by a then police officer.

You only have to spend a moment speaking with Charisma (and her wonderful mum) to know that she’s a woman with enormous spirit and perfect to host this kind of show. I wish her the best of luck with it, I have a feeling it will be incredibly successful …

SURVIVING EVIL (from TV Mole)
Featuring dramatically and emotional stories of women who fought back against their attackers and survived against
amazing odds, SURVIVING EVIL is hosted by Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel.) Carpenter is the survivor of a real-life incident that she endured more than 20 years ago and the series begins with her story. The actress and two friends were swimming at San Diego’s Torrey Pines State Beach in 1991 when they were violently attacked by an armed, rogue police officer. Carpenter fought for her survival after being held at gunpoint, but her two friends were both shot by the attacker and seriously wounded. The police officer was sentenced to 56 years in prison for the attacks in addition to a series of rapes and robberies.

Charisma tells TV Line: 

“It’s about empowerment, about victims who take fate into their own hands and rescue themselves, or seek justice and find it,” Carpenter says of I Survived Evil‘s mission. “It’s about heroes, stories of survival. And happy endings.”

Reviewed by Joelene Pynnonen

One Small Step is the perfect title for this anthology of stories by some very prominent Australian speculative fiction authors. It offers hope for the future and suggests the possibility of things that mere years ago seemed impossible. When taken in context of the famous quote ‘One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’, there is the sense that though the hope may only be a glimmer, it will grow.

Given the original context of the title, I was expecting an anthology of sixteen science fiction stories. Instead, it is a more eclectic mix of the many genres under the speculative fiction banner. Fantasy and sci-fi dominate, but some of the stories might be classed as horror. The genre differences keep this anthology refreshing as each story is very different in content and context, even if they uniformly take a small step towards something better. There are some incredible stories in this selection and while some are merely a good read, I can’t imagine anyone who would not find that many of the stories in here will stay with them.

The steps that are taken are not only within the stories, I am glad to say. The anthology itself is taking steps away from the comfort of its usual perceived market and target audience. All of these wonderful tales are by women writers and many of them revolve around a female character. The ones that don’t are still markedly female-centric. For a genre that is improving but still lacks women-centred tales, One Small Step is a welcome addition. Stories with people of colour as main characters also feature heavily in the anthology, and not in a way that makes race the central or only focus.

There are too many stories that I loved to discuss them in as much detail as I would like, but Morning Star by DK Mok was one that I wished would go on forever. I would want a whole novel out of it; and then perhaps a trilogy. After that; a movie franchise. Two robots and a boy on a ship, searching for any other sign of human life should not be as hauntingly, achingly beautiful as Mok has made it. While the writing is simple and understated, the story is raw and painful yet almost lovingly gentle. It took me hours after that story, to pick the anthology up again; and I needed every minute of that process time.

Aside from that, you can expect stories of time-travelling party hosts with one very unusual trick up their sleeves, dolls that change the luck of the village they come from, and a new way to greet death within these pages. The ideas are fresh and intriguing; and without fail, incredibly well written. For anyone who loves fantasy or sci-fi or is trying out the genre; One Small Step will be a welcome addition to your library.

One Small Step: and Anthology of Discoveries – ed. Tehani Wessely

FableCroft (May 1, 2013)

ISBN: 9780987400000