The Maximus Black Files – The Only Game in the Galaxy by Paul Collins

The Maximus Black Files – The Only Game in the Galaxy by Paul Collins

 

Publisher: Ford Street

Publication Date: September 2013

ISBN: 9781925000061

Pages: 333

 Format: paperback

Price: AUD $19.95

Category: Science Fiction (space opera)

Age Guide: 12 +

 

Blurb:

In a galaxy of cutthroat companies, shadowy clans and a million agendas, spy agency RIM barely wields enough control to keep order.

Maximus Black is RIM’s star cadet. But he has a problem. One of RIM’s best agents, Anneke Longshadow, knows there’s a mole in the organisation.

And Maximus has a lot to hide...

 

Review:

 

An epic finish to a fantastic trilogy!!

 

Such a thrilling read! Paul has written an exceptional trilogy, and I never imaged so much could happen to both Anneke and Maximus in such a short time.

 

I highly recommend The Maximus Black Files to any Science Fiction Fan. All school libraries should have many copies for their students to read.

 

The Maximus Black Files is by far the most advanced Science Fiction read you’ll find. It’s set way into the future. Travelling through the universe is much more advanced than what you see on any episode of Stargate SG1.

 

It was very exciting to learn more about Maximus Black in this book. More of his history was revealed in The Only Game in the Galaxy than the previous two books.

 

5/5

 

About the Author

Paul Collins:

Together with Michael Pryor, Paul is the co-editor of the highly successful fantasay series. The Quentaris Chronicles: he has also contributed seven titles to the series as an author. Paul’s other work’s include The Jelindel Chronicles, The Earthborn Wars Trilogy and The World of Grrym trilogy written in collaboration with Danny Willis.

Paul has been the recipient if several awards, notably the inaugural Peter McNamara, the A Bertram Chandler, the Aurealis, and the William Stheling. He has been short-listed for many others inclcuding the Speech Pathology Australia and Ditmar awards.

Paul has worked as a pub bouncer, served time in the commandos, has a black belt in both tae kwon do and ju jitsu, was a kick boxer, and trained with the Los Angeles Hell Drivers.

 

Visit him at www.paulcollins.com.au or www.quentaris.com

 

 

Also by Paul Collins:

• Cyberskin
• Dragonlinks
• Dragonsight
• Wardradon
• The Wizard’s Torment
• Swords of Quentaris
• Slaves of Quentairs
• Princess of Shadows
• The Forgotten Prince
• Vampires of Quentaris
• The Spell of Undoing
• The Earthborn
• The Skyborn
• The Hiveborn
• Allira’s Gift (with Danny Willis)
• Lords of Quibbitt (with Danny Willis)
• Morgassas’ Folly (with Danny Willis)
• Trust Me! (editor)

 

The Maximus Black Files – Mole Hunt by Paul Collins

The Maximus Black Files – Mole Hunt by Paul Collins

 

Publisher:  Ford Street

Publication Date:  2011

ISBN:  9781921665264

Pages: 347

 Format: paperback

Price: AUD $19.95

Category:  Science Fiction

Age Guide:  Young Adults

 

Blurb:

In a galaxy o cutthroat companies, shadowy clans and a million agendas, spy agency RIM barely wields enough control to keep order.

Maximus Black is RIM’s star cadet. But he has a problem. One of RIM’s best agents, Anneke Longshadow, knows there’s a mole in the organisation.

And Maximus has a lot to hide...

Review:

What a great start to an amazing trilogy. Anneke and Maximus are two main characters full of mystery. They are both RIM agents working against one another. They are great characters. I like how bit by bit we learn more about these two great characters.

 

It’s the best science fiction I have read. I love how it’s so far into the future and the technology is advanced. It makes you wonder what type of technology there will be in the future.

 

About the Author

 

Paul Collins:

Paul Collins sold his first professional fantasay story in 1977 to the US magazine ‘Weirdbook’. The best of his short stories have been collected in The Government in Excile (1994). A later collection, Stalking Midnight, was pubplished by cosmos.com.

His first fantasy novel for young readers was The Wizard’s Torment.

Paul also edited the young adult anthology Dream Weavers, Australia’s first heroic fantasy anthology. Fantastic Worlds and Tales from the Wasteland followed.

Together with Michael Pryor, Paul is the co-editor of the highly successful fantasy series, The Quentaris Chronicles; he has also contributed seven titles to the series as an author. Paul’s other works include The Jelindel Chronicles, The Earthborn Wars trilogy and The World of Grrym trilogy written in collaboration with Danny Willis.

Paul has been the recipient of several awards, notably the inaugural Peter McNamara, the Aurealis, and the William Atheling. He has been short-listed for many others, including the Speech Pathology Australia and Ditmar awards.

Paul has worked as a pub bouncer, served time in the commandos, has a black belt in both tae kwon do and ju jitsu, was a kick boxer, and trained with the Los Angeles Hell Drivers.

 

Visit him at www.paulcollins.com.au or www.quentaris.com

 

Also by Paul Collins:

• Cyberskin
• Dragonlinks
• Dragonsight
• Wardradon
• The Wizard’s Torment
• Swords of Quentaris
• Slaves of Quentairs
• Princess of Shadows
• The Forgotten Prince
• Vampires of Quentaris
• The Spell of Undoing
• The Earthborn
• The Skyborn
• The Hiveborn
• Allira’s Gift (with Danny Willis)
• Lords of Quibbitt (with Danny Willis)
• Morgassas’ Folly (with Danny Willis)
• Trust Me! (editor)

 

Review of Welcome Home by Christina Booth

Welcome Home  - Christina Booth

 

 

Publisher: Ford Street          

Publication Date: 1 October 2013 HC, 1 February 2014 PB

ISBN: 9781925000092 PB 9781925000085 HC

Pages: 32 pages

 Format: Portrait Picture book

Price:  AUD $26.95 HC AUD $16.95 PB

Category:  Children’s Fiction

Age Guide: 7 +

 

Blurb:

Welcome Home is the story of a young boy and a whale as she swims into the river harbour seeking safety and a resolution to the violent past relationship between whales and man. This prosaic journey, accompanied  with soft sketchy watercolour images, reveals how the past can impact our future. Can the boy make amends for the past? Can the whale forgive and return to what was once her ancestor’s home?

Whaling is a horrific image to portray in any literature yet this story offers its history and consequences to children and adults in a gentle, safe way. This story does not avoid the facts but ends with hope and reconciliation, using history to show the consequences of our actions and choices.

 

Review:

This is a really good book to teach primary school children of the effects of whaling. The watercolour images portray the story in a way that children can clearly see and understand.

 

I really like the last two pages in the book as it is the history of whaling, describes the whales, how the story came about.

 

This book should be in all schools as it’s a great educator tool to teach children and their families the effects of whaling.

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Christina Booth:

Christina Booth is an award winning Australian children’s author/illustrator. Four of her picture books have gained CBCA’s Notable Children’s Book Awards. Her picture book, Kip, the story of a crowing rooster living in the city, was awarded a CBCA Honour Book in 2010. Tow of Christina’s illustrated books (In The Deep Red Desert, Angie Lionetto-Civa; The Carrum Sailing Club, Claire Saxby), were selected to be read on ABC’s Playschool program in 2012.

 

Also by Christina Booth:

 

·         Potato Music

·         Kip

·         I Wish There Were Dinosaurs

Flora's War by Pamela Rushby

Flora’s War by Pamela Rushby

 

Publisher: Ford Street

Publication Date:  August 2013

ISBN: 9781921665981

Pages: 306 (est)

 Format: B format paperback           

Price: AUD $18.95

Category: Fiction

Age Guide: 11+

 

Blurb:

It’s 1915 and sixteen-year-old Australian, Flora Wentworth, is visiting Cairo with her archaeologist father. She watches with growing alarm as first a trickle and then a flood of wounded soldiers are shipped into the city from Gallipoli.

 

Flora’s comfortable life is turned upside down when a hospital visit thrusts her into the realities of World War 1. She is soon transporting injured soldiers and helping out exhausted nurses – managing to fall in love along the way.

 

As Flora battles to save lives and find her own, a tragic misunderstanding changes everything...

 

Review:

I absolutely loved Flora’s War!!

 

Flora’s War for me is filled with so much detail and history.  Pamela has written a book full of great power. For me reading about how civilian’s helped out in World War 1 was inspiring and I never imagined how much young women actually did during the war.

 

It’s a book aimed at young girls and to teach about how civilians, especially women, helped during the First War.

I highly recommend every grade 10 student should read Flora’s War as it really shows the War in a new way. I believe I would have gained more reading this in grade 10 or even grade 6 when we learnt about World War 1 because there was so much depth in the story.

It shows how before the ANZAC’s first went to battle that there wasn’t much for the nurses to do but then once they did enter into the battle so many young men came back injured, diseased or died from their injuries or the diseases they caught.

 

Pamela you have really made me see the War in a new way and how women young and old did a lot more during the war than I ever first thought.

 

Thank you for such a beautifully written story. I hope one day to share it with my children as to me it’s more than just a story, it tells of something that happened almost 100 years ago.

 

Such a fitting tribute for all the young women such as Flora who did so much during World War 1 in Cairo.

5/5

 

About the Author

Pamela Rushby:

Pamela Rushby lives in Brisbane with her husband, son and six visiting scrub turkeys.

Pam has worked in advertising; as a pre-school teacher; and as a writer and producer of educational television, audio and multinmedia.

She has won several awards, including a Literature Board if the Australia Council grant to work on archaeological excavations in Egypt and Joprdan; a Churchill Fellowship to strudy educational television in Canada; the Ethek Turner Prize in the NSW Premier’s Literacy Awards; and a bag of gold coins at a film festival in Iran.

Her website is www.pamelarushby.com

 

Also by Pamela Rushby:

·         The Horsrs Disn’t Come Home HarperCollins 2012 (short-listed, Queensland Literacy Awards 2012)

·         When the Hipchicks Went to War Hachette 2009 (Notable Book CBCA 2010, winner Ethel Turner Award for young people’s literature, NSW Premier’s Literacy Awards 2010)

·         Millions of Mummies John Wiley & Sons 2006

·         Circles of Stone HarperCollins 2003

Gamers' Rebellion by George Ivanoff

Gamers’ Rebellion by Greg Ivanoff

 

Publisher: Ford Street
Publication Date: June 2013

Pages: 246

 Format: Paperback

Price: AUD $16.95

Age Guide: 11+

 

Blurb:

 

Tark and Zyra finally make it out into the real world... but things are not quite what they expected. When Zyra is captured by the Designers, Tark finds himself among a group of teenage rebels. It seems like everyone has an agenda and Tark and Zyra are to be pawns in other people’s power games. They soon discover the sinister uses to which the game is being put and the shocking way it is all operated – with dozens of kidnapped children wired directly into the mainframe, their brains keeping the whole thing going. Will Tark and Zyra be able to free these children? Will they be able to save the characters within the game from the people who created them? Will they even be able to remain in the real world? Or will the Designers’ plans for world domination win out?

 

Review:

Gamers’ Rebellion is the finale chapter in the  Gamers trilogy.

 

I absolutely enjoyed reading Gamers’ Rebellion by George Ivanoff. It had me hooked from the very beginning.

 

I may not have read Gamers; Quest and Gamers’ Challenge but after finishing Gamers’ Rebellion I defiantly intend on getting a copy of both books and reading. I found Gamers’ Rebellion full of excitement.

 

At times I did get confused about Tark and Zyra as I never fully understood the characters as without reading Gamers’ Quest and Gamers’ Challenge I found i had missed the most important thing of the story of how things began and where they actually came from. I eventually worked out that both Tark and Zyra are not from the real world but that of the world created by the Designers.

 

This book is aimed at young people 11+ and I truely believe all kids who are into the world of gaming would enjoy reading the Gamers’ Trilogy. It really brings the world of gaming into a whole new light.

 

I really loved the way George has written Gamers’ Rebellion. For me it’s a great was to get kids out of the gaming world and into the world of fiction through books.

 

Well done George Ivanoff for writing such a great book!!

 

5/5

 

About the author:

 

Greg Ivanoff

 

Greg Ivanoff is an author and stay-at-home dad residing in Melbourne. He has written over 30 books for children and teenagers, two of which are on the Victorian Premier’s Reading Challenge booklist. George has also written for numerous magazines and anthologies, including Trust Me! and Dr Who, Short Trips:Defining Patterns. Check out George’s website at http://www.georgeivanoff.com.au/

 

Also by George Ivanoff:

• Gamers’ Quest
• Gamers’ Challenge
• Life, Death and Detention
• Generation Slip
• Cory Jansen: Teen Spy
• House of Cards

Riley and the Jumpy Kangaroo written by Tania McCartney and illustrated by Kieron Pratt

Riley and the Jumpy Kangaroo  written by Tania McCartney  and illustrated by Kieron Pratt

 

Publication Date:  August 2013

ISBN: 9781925000023 HB, 9781925000030 PB

Pages: 32

 Format: Landscape Hardcover & Paperback

Price: AUD $22.95 HC, AUD $16.95 PB

Category: fiction/non-fiction crossover

Age Guide: 6-10

 

Blurb:

Whilst visiting Canberra, Riley encounters a very jumpy kangaroos that is frantically searching for something she’s lost. Bounding around the iconic sights of Canberra, can this roo finally finds what she’s been looking for?

 

Review:

This is such a wonderful children’s book. It’s something any child would love to hear and look at the amazing pictures. The pictures in the book are a combination of location photographs with illustrations over the top of them.

 

What makes this book interesting is the fact that that there is so much to look at in the pictures. The characters of Riley and his friends are wonderful and bright. The characters are a great contrast to the photographs they appear in. 

 

This book really comes at a great time with the Canberra Centenary celebrations.

 

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has children of their own or is a teacher as I think this book is such a great resource as it really shows what Australia’s Capital City looks like.

5/5

 

 

About the Author and Illustrator:

Tania McCartney

Tania is an Australian author, editor, publisher, blogger, magazine writer and mango devourer. She is the author of the Riley travelogue series of picture books and has also published adult non-fiction. One of her favourite things in the whole wide world is reading to kids.

www.taniamccarthney.com

www.rileyavaitor.com

 

Kieron Pratt

Kieron Pratt is a Canberra-based illustrator and cartoonist who has worked on three of the Riley the Little Aviator books and several other children’s picture books. He has spent many years as a storyboard artist for an animation company and has recently been commissioned to redesign the maps for the national zoo. He loved iced coffees and is very good at making people laugh.

 

The William S Club by Riley Banks

The William S Club Written by Riley Banks

 

Publication Date:  8^th September 2012

ISBN: 1479289183

Pages: 325

 Format: paperback

Publisher: Aussieicon Books

Category:  Adult

Age: 18+

 

Blurb:

A beautiful Australian journalist who changed her name and fled her homeland. A billionaire property magnate who dredges up her tortured past. An elite club with a secret they have killed to protect.

Sydney is the one place Charlotte Burke swore she'd never return but The William S Club have other plans.

Lust, sex, violence, blackmail and even murder, they will stop at nothing to keep their secret hidden, pushing Charlotte and the other players towards their dangerous end-game.

 

Review:

I have to say The William S Club  had so much in it I never expected.

When I started reading I was very excited to be reading a book by a local Tasmanian Author.

I reached the middle of the book and I started loosing interest. For me the sex, lust and violence really put me off reading, However I was very determined finish reading.
The main story for me was that of Charlotte Burke and Damon. It really made me want to read and to know what happened between them.

 

If you are a fan of sex, lust and violence this is a great book for you. It has some romance which I liked as it was in a way hidden within the main aspect of the story.

 

The William S Club  is full of lots of secrets and once you start reading you’ll not want to put it down as you just have to know the secrets.

I would love to rate this higher, as I loved how well it’s written and the main story is amazing.

Don’t let the sex and violence put you off like it did me as it’s a fantastic read once you take those parts away.

 

3/5

 

 

About the Author

Riley Banks began writing in high school, penning short stories for her friends and family. She has travelled the world with her husband and children, living in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

In 2010, Riley and her family moved back home to Australia. After a decade of living the pampered life of an expatriate wife, the normality of suburban living, housework and returning to full time work was a harsh crash landing back into reality.

In early 2012, Riley published The William S Club before returning to her earlier work, The Vampire Origins series, which will be published in early 2013.

Riley is now working on Dirty Little Secrets, Book 1 in the Expat Wives series and is also busy penning her memoir of life abroad.

 

Website:

http://www.rileybanks.net/