The Trout Opera – Matthew Condon

It took ten years for Condon to write The Trout Opera.  The story focuses primarily on the lives of Wilfred Lamp, a 100 year old man who has lived his life on the Snowy River, and his great niece, Aurora Beck, a young woman struggling to create a new life for herself after escaping her junkie boyfriend.  

A multitude of secondary characters also have stories to tell in this novel and Condon takes the time to do service to these stories also.  The non-linear narrative jumps between characters and time periods without damaging the flow of the story.

The story is more than a whimsical history lesson however, Aurora’s junkie boyfriend is hunting her down and the drug culture is portrayed with disturbing realism.  All in all, The Trout Opera is a book that captures some of the simple highs and extreme lows of humanity and life.

Earthly Delights – Kerry Greenwood

Local author Kerry Greenwood is well known for her Phryne Fisher novels: murder mysteries set in the 1920s.  Earthly Delights is the first book in a modern day mystery series featuring a new protagonist: Corinna Chapman.  Corinna Chapman is a proactive woman who gives up her boring job as an accountant and her stuffy husband to pursue her lifelong dream of running a bakery.

Because it is the first book in a series, Earthly Delights takes time to describe the setting, an old set of flats in Collins Street Melbourne where each flat is named after a roman god, and her bakery located on the ground floor.  The tenants of the building are an eclectic mix, including a modern day witch, a dominatrix and techno geeks.

The mystery begins when the tenants start to receive death threats, and Corinna saves a heroin addict dying outside her back door.

A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini’s first novel, “The Kite Runner” was a big hit with book groups and now he follows up with “A Thousand Splendid Suns.”  Both books are set in Kabul, but where “The Kite Runner” focuses on relationships between men, “A Thousand Splendid Suns” focuses on the relationships between women, in particular two women: Mariam and Laila. 

The first chapter follows Mariam, the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy man who is ashamed of her existence.  After her mother commits suicide she is quickly married off to Rasheed, a controlling and abusive husband.

The second chapter follows Laila, whose happy life is suddenly turned upside down when her parents are killed by a stray rocket.  Pregnant with her dead boyfriend’s child, she decides her only hope for survival is to marry Raheed.

This brings the two women’s stories together for the last two parts of the book as their friendship slowly grows as the women unite against Raheed.

The Axis Trilogy - Sara Douglass

Sara Douglass is an award winning Australian author, and unfortunately passed away on the 27^th of September 2011. A sad day for Australian fantasy fiction and a personal loss, she was (is) perhaps the greatest inspiration to my own writing.

It seemed only fitting that in tribute I take a look at what is her most famous work of fiction, ‘The Axis Trilogy’. The trilogy is comprised of ‘Battleaxe’, ‘Enchanter’ and ‘Starman’ and follows to its conclusion the ‘Prophecy of the Destroyer’.

The story focuses on Axis, Battleaxe of the Axe Wielders and son of the fearful Seneschal who have taken over the land of Tencendor. As part of the prophecy, Axis must discover his true origins and unite the divided lands to defeat the great evil threatening to consume the world in cold and darkness.

It is a story of love, magic, family and betrayal, and does become quite dark (and graphic) in places but is a work of art that is followed by another trilogy called ‘The Wayfarer Redemption’. The six books that make up this complete series are quite possibly my absolute favourite books of all time.

If you are a fan of fantasy fiction, and great writing, then I highly recommend you take a look at the novels of Sara Douglass. She will be missed.

Emma J. James