Stories

  1. Five indie horror novels better than most traditional releasesThere's something quietly thrilling about stumbling on a horror novel that took a non-traditional route into your hands. Maybe a friend at a Sydney book club…
  2. A guide to the best Asian-inspired high fantasy seriesAsian-inspired high fantasy draws on histories, mythologies and philosophies from Asia to build secondary worlds where magic reflects social power. A Chinese…
  3. Fantasy Novels That Deliver Game of Thrones-Level Political IntrigueFantasy readers who finished A Song of Ice and Fire often find themselves wandering through countless series searching for that same exquisite tension of vying…
  4. Cruel worlds, cruel questions: reading The Second ApocalypseR. Scott Bakker's sprawling epic has built a reputation among Australian readers of grimdark fantasy as something the polite genre tends to overlook. The…
  5. Machines that question: sci-fi novels about AI uprisings with heartThe skeletal metal frame chasing humans through ruined California has shaped three decades of assumptions about machine intelligence. From the original 1984…
  6. Thrillers That Turn Libraries Into Final BattlegroundsLibraries and archives promise order: labelled shelves, controlled access, climate-stable rooms and records that appear to outlast the people who created them.…
  7. A respectful Indigenous reading challenge for Australian readersA reading challenge for Indigenous Peoples’ Day can do more than fill a month with worthy titles. It can direct attention towards First Nations authors,…
  8. The best urban fantasy series with a strong mythological understructureUrban fantasy works best when the familiar world feels slightly off-centre. A train platform, suburban pub, university library or rainy city alley can become a…
  9. Where Poetry and Prose Meet in Modern FantasyModern fantasy novels increasingly treat language as part of the world’s magic. A character’s spell may arrive as a chant, a prophecy may break into fractured…
  10. Deep-sea horror novels that make the water feel dangerousThe ocean is frightening because its boundaries are so deceptive. From the shore, the surface can look calm, blue and almost welcoming, while thousands of…