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I was desperate to find Dale Elvy's Spirit City, but this town didn't bother to order any copies, so I had to make do with...

1. "The Stone Mage and the Sea" by Sean Williams. I originally picked this up rather hastily thinking (stupidly) that it was Sean Russell (hah!). All in all, a jolly good read. I will be hunting up the second book in the near future. On a side note, Williams does the head hopping I have notted with mainly Aussie authors (Williams lives in Adelaide... hmm, perhaps I should move there), but his is more like slight POV slips than an intentional 'head hop'.

2. "Blood" by Tony Shillitoe. ...eh... Firstly, the world building is thorough, so much so that you soon learn the street map of the city, which tends to bog down the narrative a bit. Secondly, lots of characters right at the begining, all with hard to pronounce names, makes it hard to keep them in line. Thirdly, a very far reaching and broad story line that all too slowly draws together. Key characters are introduced slowly or only briefly and you've all but forgotten them by the time their importance is made known. Fourthly, it's about 200 pages too long. I'm stalled about a third of the way through and that's bad, because all the threads seem to be coming together, but I just can't really work up the enthusiasism to keep going.

3. Empire magazine August issue, the "SEX" issue. Read it from front cover to back. History of sex on celluloid is interesting. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up, fun for the whole family. ">

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"the universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference - Richard Dawkins
Asteroid B-612

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Williams does the head hopping I have notted with mainly Aussie authors

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I've noted that too! Sara Douglass does it a lot, and it confused me a bit at the beginning, but now I'm used to it. I didn't notice that in Fiona's work, though. Maybe because I was already used to Sara's writing. I learnt recently that this technique is called "third POV, unlimited." ">

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Have seen "The Stone Mage and the Sea" out and have considered getting it but have so much else to read at the moment that I haven't worried about it.

I have read "Blood" by Tony Shillitoe and found it really good. Must confess that it was rough going for a while as it was really confusing with similar place names and also similar character names. All in all I enjoyed the book but I tend to read quite fast and got through it in a week only reading in the evenings........

I am currently reading "The Ancient Future" by Traci Harding and haven't made up my mind about it yet......The martial art angle is a bit lame at the moment....hopefully it will pick up a bit soon.....

When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge. Albert Einstein