Greetings my fellow readers!
Welcome back. I hope you’ve been enjoying some great stories from around the world. I’m here to add a few more titles to your TBR pile.
Independent Press: Twelfth Planet Press.
They are putting out some truly captivating stories and working to bring us some truly fresh ideas/concepts from an elite group of authors. Per their mission outline, the following objectives from their website are at the forefront of their publishing goals:
• to publish fresh, original, well-written work that seeks to interrogate, commentate, inspire or provoke thought;
• to provide opportunities for female writers by publishing and showcasing new work;
• to advocate for fiction written for, by and about women;
• to raise the awareness of women’s voices in science fiction, fantasy, horror and recently, crime; and
• to showcase and demonstrate the depth and breadth of Australian fiction to a broader audience.
Title I read and LOVED: The Female Factory by: Lisa L. Hannett and Angela Slatter
Note: All the stories in the collection were co-written by both authors.
Format: e-book
Book description (from the Twelfth Plant Press website): “From Australia’s near-future all the way back in time to its convict past, these stories spin and sever the ties between parents and children.”
I learned about this collection from the amazing Amal El-Mohtar on Twitter, she also wrote the introduction to the collection. Anything Amal recommends I take seriously so I bought this straight away and once again she nailed it. Each story was stunning and I found myself pausing after each one lost in thought about what I just read. Hannett and Slatter created some mind-bending possible futures that sent shivers through me.
Title I am looking forward to next: Bad Power by Deborah Biancotti
Book description (from the Twelfth Plant Press website): “From Crawford Award nominee Deborah Biancotti comes this sinister short story suite, a pocketbook police procedural, set in a world where the victories are only relative, and the defeats are absolute. Bad Power celebrates the worst kind of powers both supernatural and otherwise, in the interlinked tales of five people – and how far they’ll go.”
I am intrigued by story collections where the stories are linked, as though I am reading a shorter novel of sorts. Trying to find the links in plots and/or characters as I read each story adds an element of depth I don’t normally find in a standard story collection. This collection from Biancotti has a fascinating premise and I am excited to see how she weaves in her connections.
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Until next time, happy book hunting my fine bibliophile friends!