The City and the Autumnal City
The City and the Autumnal City by Sage Hunter I’ve heard, recently, in a few discussions of China Miéville, people assert that the conclusions of his novels are generally incompetent. The City and the City, particularly, has been pointed out to me as a novel lacking any sort of satisfying resolution. There’s a convention, in […]
Roundtable: 36 Streets
Roundtable: 36 Streets Great cyberpunk is rare. Great Australian cyberpunk is rarer still. So, when we were given the opportunity to talk to one of our favourite authors about his process, his worlds, and his view on the genre and industry as a whole, we jumped at the chance. A certified Doctor of Cyberpunk, T. […]
Roundtable: Piranesi
Roundtable: Piranesi Words by Harvey Weir Image by Giovanni Battista Piranesi Use of voice in Piranesi Piranesi is a 2020 novel by Susanna Clarke. Narrated by the title character through his journal entries, it describes Piranesi’s life in the House, a strange marble structure of twisting corridors and imposing statues. the House floods periodically, during […]
Ignited My Blood: A Personal Essay
Ignited My Blood: A Personal Essay Words by Andrew Nathan Roberts ‘You like fantasy, yeah?’ It was a question my seven-year-old self did not know how to answer. My friend was holding a slim book in front of a pop-up library in the outer western suburbs of Melbourne, circa mid-90s. The library was a […]
Roundtable: Ancillary Justice
Roundtable: Ancillary Justice Words by A. M. Bueman Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice is a story that works on many levels. Not a war story . . . Unlike much of the space opera genre, Ancillary Justice centres problems of language and translation, religion and faith, culture and propriety. The sociological and psychological take precedence over […]
Roundtable: Lanny
Roundtable: Lanny Words by Harvey Weir Max Porter’s Lanny was published in 2019. A poet long before he was a prose author, Porter has infused his second novel with the beauty of his verse, as well as the disregard of form often seen in contemporary poetry. This essay is intended as a writer’s aid, and […]
Roundtable: The Traitor Baru Cormorant
Roundtable: The Traitor Baru Cormorant Words by A. M. Bueman Seth Dickinson’s debut novel The Traitor Baru Cormorant is a favourite among Meridian Australis members. When given the opportunity to wax lyrical about the book, Arden, Dom and Kaz all came together to discuss the work on our Roundtable. Kaz captured some of our thoughts, […]
Roundtable: This is How You Lose the Time War
Roundtable: This is How You Lose the Time War Words by Harvey Weir Harvey examines their deep dive with Kaz and Jason into what makes the novella tick. This Is How You Lose the Time War is a collaborative novella published in 2019, by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar. It depicts the interstellar, time-travelling rivalry […]