If you're brave enough to fly

Twelfth Planet Press recently released the first two books of the Twelve Planets – 12 short collections by female speculative fiction writers, to be released over the span of two years.

I signed up for the first quarter (mostly for financial reasons, so I could spread out the cost – I know that I’ll be getting all twelve books) and have received the first two books – Sue Isle’s Nightsiders and Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Love and Romanpunk.

First things first – check out the covers!  These slim volumes are gorgeous.  Unsurprising, since every Twelfth Planet Press book I’ve seen is amazing looking (and I have to confess to owning almost all of their catalogue).  I’m really looking forward to seeing these twelve books side by side on my shelf.

Each book contains four stories, which in both of these are interlinked.

Nightsiders was of personal interest to me, being set in a postapocalyptic Perth, my home town (and the home of Twelfth Planet press).  The future Perth is dry – an entirely possible future for our city, which seems to suffer from worse drought every year.  Most of the population has evacuated to the eastern states, and those that remain are active mostly in the cooler night – hence the moniker Nightsiders.  I was immediately engrossed in this world, and want very much to see more of it.  I was also immediately inspired to think some more about another novel idea of mine, also set in a postapocalyptic Perth.

Love and Romanpunk is another beast entirely.  And if you’ve read it, you’ve no doubt rolled your eyes at my bad pun here.  Combining fantasy and Roberts’ own knowledge of Ancient Rome (she holds a PhD in the subject), the four stories in this collection range in setting from Ancient Rome itself, to a replica Roman city built in New South Wales, to a Romanpunk future, complete with zeppelin.  I make no secret that I am a massive fangirl of Roberts work, and as such, I have high expectations of it – she has an easy way with words that gives her the ability to make you laugh and think at the same time.  Her own love of Rome is clear in each piece, and her characters live and breathe on the page.  She makes it easy to believe that all manner of magical beasts exist, and have done since Roman times.  I was left, as with Isle’s collection, desperate for more stories or a novel in this world.

And yes, that’s my not-subtle hint to both Sue Isle and Tansy Rayner Roberts – a novel or at least more short stories in these worlds, please?

If you haven’t looked into purchasing the Twelve Planets, my recommendation is to do so.  Based on the first two installments, these are going to be an incredible collection.  And I’m going to predict, ones that will win many awards.

Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn.