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Category Archives: Fantasy
H20: An Australian Fantasy series
by Valmire Shala Fantasy is usually understood as a situation that one enjoys thinking about but that is unlikely to happen OR a story or type of literature that describes situations that are very different from real life and more … Continue reading
The challenging of typical gender tropes in Lian Hearn’s “Across the Nightingale Floor”
Across the Nightingale Floor by Gillian Rubinstein is about the story of teenagers Takeo and Kaede, set in a fictional medieval Japan-based world. Takeo, born as Tomasu, one of The Hidden, a religion based strongly on the Kakure Kirishitan, the … Continue reading
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Tagged Across The Nightingale Floor, Australian Speculative Fiction, Gender tropes, Gillian Rubinstein, Speculative Australia
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Book Review: “The Dreaming” by Queenie Chan
By Theodora Charalambous A Hong Kong-born, Australian-raised writer and illustrator, the Australian bush, Aboriginal mythology and Japanese mangas. An unusual combination that surprisingly works great. The Dreaming is a 3-book, manga (Japanese comics) inspired, supernatural mystery series written and illustrated … Continue reading
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Tagged Australian Speculative Fiction, disappearances in the bush, Gothic & Horror, Graphic Novel, Manga, Queenie Chan, Speculative Australia
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Book Review: “Captive Prince” Trilogy
CONTAINS SPOILERS ‘Love Conquers All’ I am sure most people are familiar with that expression. While it may sound cheesy and a bit worn out, in my opinion it describes the plot of Australian writer C.S. Pacat’s trilogy Captive Prince … Continue reading
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Tagged Australian Speculative Fiction, Book Recommendation, Book Review, C.S. Pacat, Captive Prince Trilogy, Queerness, Speculative Australia
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The Genres of Speculative Fiction – An Overview
by Nadja Marek, Renee Czyganowski, Danny Tran, and Ann-Sophie Ludwig Speculative fiction is an umbrella term that contains many different genres. Generally speaking, it deals with topics such as nature (or the supernatural) and alternate realities, either in the past … Continue reading
“The Fall of the Jade Sword” (2017) and the History of Asian Australians
by Lisa-Marie Richter, Adesua Atamah, Ben Königsfeld, Kathleen Reiswich We have recently read the short story “The Fall of the Jade Sword” by Stephanie Lai and two of its central topics have caught our attention. The hero addressed in the … Continue reading
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Tagged Asian Australians, Australian Speculative Fiction, Speculative Australia, Stephanie Lai, The Fall of the Jade Sword
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How Suspense is Created in Grace Chan’s “Of Hunger and Fury” (2020)
by Benedikt von Laufenberg In this blog post, I want to discuss Grace Chan’s short story “Of Hunger and Fury“ (2020) by focussing on three different aspects. First, it should be illustrated how the village in which the mysterious incidents … Continue reading
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Tagged Australian Speculative Fiction, close reading, ghost story, Grace Chan, Malaysia, Of Hunger and Fury, short story, Speculative Australia
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Dichotomy in “The Fall of the Jade Sword” and the reflection of hybrid identity experiences
Introductory notes Hybrid identities often live in worlds full of dualities, worlds full of contrasts and opposites. Stephanie Lai’s short story The Fall of the Jade Sword (2017) tells the story of young Mok- Seung who spent her childhood in China but … Continue reading
Review: Across The Nightingale Floor
In the following, I will talk about Lian Hearn’s Across The Nightingale Floor, an Australian fantasy novel. You might wonder why Australian fantasy specifically? Why am I not saying it is a fantasy book? There is a reason for that. … Continue reading
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Tagged Across The Nightingale Floor, Lian Hearn, Review, Speculative Australia
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Exploring Sexuality and Queerness in Australian Fantasy: Nevernight’s Mia
The Nevernight Chronicle by Australian author Jay Kristoff consists of the three novels Nevernight (2016), Godsgrave (2017), and Darkdawn (2019). The fantasy trilogy (which is very much not YA due to very graphic depictions of sex and violence) follows the … Continue reading
Posted in Fantasy
Tagged Australia, Australian Fantasy, Jay Kristoff, Nevernight, Queerness, Sexuality, Speculative Australia
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