Title: The Burning Bridge Author: John Flanagan Series: TheRanger’s Apprentice #2 Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!) My Bookshelves:Australian authors, Easy reading, Medieval fantasy Pace: Medium Format: Novel Publisher: Random House Australia Year: 2005 5th sentence, 74th page: He seized the bandit by the arm and dragged him upright, frogmarching him across the clearing to throw him, none too gently, against the rock face at the far side.
The Kingdom of Araluen is sure to be defeated in a surprise three-sided attack – unless Will can find a way to prevent it.
Every time I read this, it just gets better! And I still want to cry at the end when Will and Evanlyn are in trouble.
Building on The Ruins of Gorlan, Flanagan’s hero takes us on an amazing journey through a new country and into new dangers. Watching the young friendship between Horace and Will grow from the previous book is such a delight. As is the reminder that they are children – the journey is serious, but there are still light, joking moments to remind you of their innocence.
The introduction of a strong-willed, strong-minded girl in the shape of Evanlyn made this book (and indeed the whole series) even more relatable. Instead of requiring their constant protection, Evanlyn is able to find and use her own strength. And ultimately she plays a huge part in saving the day.
The ending of this story sets up the next few books in this series perfectly. I wouldn’t recommend finishing it until you have the third book in hand – you’ll want to know what happens next!
Title: The Ruins of Gorlan Author: John Flanagan Series: TheRanger’s Apprentice #1 Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!) My Bookshelves:Australian authors, Easy reading, Medieval fantasy Pace: Medium Format: Novel Publisher: Random House Australia Year: 2004 5th sentence, 74th page: Even after a few days, the strict regime of the Battleschool was beginning to show results with Horace.
Will has always wanted to become a knight, but he is about to find more excitement and adventure than he could have dreamed of as an apprentice to the mysterious Rangers.
I have now managed to read this book four times. And it just keeps on delivering. John Flanagan is definitely one of my favourite Aussie authors.
This book takes the underdog (Will) and uses his talents to make him into an unlikely hero. Most medieval style books I have read focus on the knights as hero-supreme, but the idea of the Rangers as the hidden, secret force helping the kingdom is just brilliant.
As an archer, I can completely understand – and encourage Flanagan’s description of the sport. Even though the accuracy with which the arrows are shot is something that most people could only dream of, the descriptions of the equipment and the skill involved is spot on. As is everything in this book. It takes strands of reality and weaves them into this amazing fantasy world. The result? A beautiful mosaic of story that you can imagine happening in real life.
Will’s ability to triumph in spite of his perceived weakness was inspiring and definitely a book that I would encourage young children to read. The fact that Flanagan doesn’t have weak, female characters in constant need of rescue is just another tick in this book’s box.
Title: Arrows of the Queen Author: Mercedes Lackey Series: Heralds of Valdemar #1, Valdemar #23 Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect) My Bookshelves:Easy reading, Fantasy, Strong women Pace: Medium Format: Novel Publisher: Daw fantasy Year: 1987 5th sentence, 74th page: Bright Havens, child, he’s your Companion now; if you really wanted to, you could sleep in his stall!
A KINGDOM IMPERILED!
Chosen by the Companion Rolan, a mystical horse-like being with powers beyond imagining, Talia, once a runaway, has now become a trainee Herald, destined to become one of the Queen’s own elite guard. For Talia has certain awakening talents of the mind that only a Companion like Rolan can truly sense.
But as Talia struggles to master her unique abilities, time is running out. For conspiracy is brewing in Valdemar, a deadly treason which could destroy Queen and kingdom. Opposed by unknown enemies capable of both diabolical magic and treacherous assassination, the Queen must turn to Talia and the Heralds for aid in protecting the realm and insuring the future of the Queen’s heir, a child already in danger of becoming bespelled by the Queen’s own foes!
Words can’t even express how awesome I found this book. I’m reading it for the second time in a week as I wait for the next one in the series to arrive. I think I’ve found my new favourite author! A good heroine, a great fantasy world and a fantastic story line. What more could you ask for?
It’s rare that I find a heroine that isn’t sassy, sarcastic and has a major attitude problem that I can love and admire. But, Talia manages to mix humility and insecurities in a quiet, withdrawn persona with a backbone of steel. Talia’s journey from ignorant, abused border girl to a strong and powerful Herald in her own right underpinned her adventures and experiences throughout the story.
This book was a great introduction to the Valdemar universe and the Companions that create such a peaceful realm. If you like fantasy, then this is a highly recommended series – an oldie, but a goodie.
‘I’ve been fighting it all night. I’m going to lose… Nature wins out. It always does.’
Elena Michaels didn’t know that her lover Clay was a werewolf until he bit her, changing her life for ever. Betrayed and furious, she cannot accept her transformation, and wants nothing to do with her Pack – a charismatic group of fellow werewolves who say they want to help.
But when a series of brutal murders threatens the Pack, Elena is forced to make an impossible choice. Abandon the only people who truly understand her new nature, or help them to save the lover who ruined her life, and who still wants her back at any cost.
I first heard of this through the TV series, Bitten and thought that I’d buy the book out of sheer curiosity. I’m honestly a little over all of the paranormal romances (Twilight ruined them for me). But I read this book in a day. It was well written, with a strong, feisty (if not a little damaged) heroine. Exactly the type of book I love. 🙂
I enjoyed discovering more about Elena’s story as the journey unfolded – at the beginning she is just a blonde with a past and a secret. Yet, as the story unfolds, you find out about the past and the conflicts between the characters.
Unlike many of the paranormal romances and stories I’ve recently read, this one was a little edgy, not only in the characterisation of the heroine, but also through challenges she faces.
I am truly in love with edgy and stubborn heroines and this in combination of being placed within an all-male world made me want to read this story again and again and again.
Title: Dragonflight Author: Anne McCaffrey Series: Dragons of Pern #1 Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!) My Bookshelves:Dragons,High fantasy, Science fiction Pace: Medium Format: Novel Publisher: Corgi Books Year: 1968 5th sentence, 74th page: F’lar somehow got to his feet, attempting to straighten up to meet Fax’s stumbling charge.
The men who rode the dragons were a breed apart. Chosen when the dragons were first hatched, they became soul-mates for life with the huge, magnificent beasts they controlled – the green, blue, brown and bronzes – beautiful – terrible – the only creatures who could defend the planet Pern from the blood-red star. But without the Queen, the dragons would become extinct. Only the gigantic, golden Queen could breed the new flights. And the Queen was fading… dying… leaving behind one last, huge, golden egg.
I was introduced to this series years ago. But I couldn’t remember much (I was only 11 at the time). So I decided to re-read this series. I’m so glad that I did. It was a completely amazing book. Halfway through it I went online and ordered the next 4 books in the Dragons of Pern series.
I’ve often heard of Anne McCaffrey as the mother of Science Fiction and once I read Dragonflight, I completely understood this. Not only are the characters relatable and believable, the world of Pern is so intricately woven that you can’t help but believe that it is a real place. I love the creation of a world beyond ours, inhabited by our descendants in a time when we are completely forgotten – in my mind this is actually plausible.
Dragonflight is a little hard to get through in some stages, the very intricacies which make Pern so real to the reader also establish a succession of plot lines and realities of the characters that create a complex storyline. It certainly isn’t a book to lightly read while the family is bustling about. But, it is definitely a book that should be read by every fan of SciFi, fantasy and dragons.
Title: Throne of Glass Author: Sarah J. Maas Series: Throne of Glass #1 Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again) My Bookshelves:Fantasy, Romance, Strong women Pace: Fast Format: Novel Publisher: Bloomsbury Year: 2012 5th sentence, 74th page: The assassin and the prince glanced at each other, their blue eyes reflecting the same intent.
MEET CELAENA SARDOTHIEN. BEAUTIFUL. DEADLY. DESTINED FOR GREATNESS.
In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake. She got caught.
Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament – fighting the most gifted theives and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin’s heart be melted?
I walked away from this book just saying “wow. Oh, wow.” That response on it’s own is probably enough to tell you how amazing this book is. One of my favorites to read again and again. This was the perfect introduction to a new author, and I was hooked from the first word.
Maas uses the traditional idea of Cinderella, but weaves through a sassy dose of attitude, power and resilience. You can’t help but feel connected to Celaena and her fight to not only keep her independence, but also her life. Combined with the delightful mix of arrogance and insecurities, the heroine is someone I could truly relate to. Alright, I’m not a kick-ass assassin and I would never be able to fend for myself in Celaena’s world – but her need to be true to herself whilst also serving someone she truly despises (and thus breaking from herself) makes me think of all of the moments in life when I’ve acted against my better nature.
That’s not to mention the two wonderfully (and multi-faceted) men who will make any that-way-inclined readers’ hearts melt. Maas reminds us that not only does love exist, it’s not simple, but the journey is always interesting and worth it.
I wouldn’t recommend this book to anybody who needs to be productive and can’t afford to spend the day curled up reading. Because, believe me, once you start this book, and indeed, this series, you won’t want to put it down!
SEVEN HEROIC DEMIGODS. ONE FINAL QUEST. THE GREATEST SACRIFICE YET.
‘The ruins are up there,’ Piper promised. ‘I saw them in Katoptris’s blad. And you head what Hazel said. “The biggest -“‘
“‘The biggest gathering of evil spirits I’ve ever sensed,”‘ Jason recalled. ‘Yeah, sounds awesome.’
After battling through the underground temple of Hades, the last thing Jason wanted was to deal with more evil spirits. But the fate of the quest was at stake. The crew of the Argo II had a big decision to make.
If they chose wrong, they would fail, and the entire world would be destroyed…
I found this book a little slow to begin with. Which was a little odd considering how much I normally love Rick Riordan’s books. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed in the first few chapters – and it took me a lot longer to read than the preceding four books!
Bear with me though. I was well-rewarded for sticking with the first few chapters – Riordan again captured my imagination and heart as I followed my favourite demigods on their final, epic journey. I think that part of the issue was that I knew the final battle for the fate of the world was going to be in this book. (After all, it is the final book in the series). So the journey there held a little too much suspense – I just wanted to see (read) some good, old fashioned fight scenes!
The journey to the end was well worth it. Joining the ‘seven’, Reyna, Nico and Coach Hedge as they told of their stories and heartbreaks took me on a rollercoaster of emotions. I laughed, held my breath, chewed my fingernails, and at one point, even shed a tear. The final chapters gave such a sense of completion and future happiness that I could close the book, knowing that the characters I came to love and cherish were going to have a ‘happy ever after’ – or at least as much of one as a demigod can get.
Overall, I would recommend the entire Heroes of Olympus series. You get to reconnect with Percy Jackson and Annabeth, but you also meet a whole slew of new characters. I also love how this story bought back Nico and told his story in more depth. I finally understand so many of his actions in the Percy Jackson series!
For an easy, happy read with a good dose of suspense and humour, this is definitely a book worth reading (or rereading).
All animals have to reproduce. It’s how the next generation is created and how an animal’s genetics are passed on. But how do two male cuttlefish fight for a mate? Most fish don’t have to compete, as they release clouds of sperm and eggs into the water and fertilisation occurs. Most large land mammals have epic battles that end in the crashing of two large bodies together, and some whales have marathon races that last for hours, so that the female can determine the fittest and most suitable mate.
Giant Australian cuttlefish don’t have the ease of releasing clouds of eggs and sperm into the water and nor do they have the capacity to gauge their opponents’ capabilities like a mammal or bird, or so we thought. A recent study from Macquarie University has found that male cuttlefish do, in fact, ‘size up’ possible rivals before engaging in combat and react accordingly. This ability to size up rivals means that only 20% of all male interactions actually end in physical combat.
By applying game theory, behaviouralists in Sydney were able to measure and witness the ways in which the male cuttlefish’s actions changed dramatically according to the length of its rival. Whilst this has been recorded when small, unpaired males are faced with much, much larger, paired males, it wasn’t known how far this behavioural adaptation carried through their activities. In other words, if a submissive, unpaired male was faced with another small, unpaired male that was obviously shorter than it (measured by the mantle length), then the first male would put on an aggressive display. This consists of flashing colours along their sides, the waving and stretching of tentacles and swimming towards the interloper. But, if that same male was approached by a male that was longer than it, it immediately stops the light display and removes itself from the situation.
But why should we care? It’s long been known that many species of mammal and bird when engaging in male-male conflict will employ ‘resource-holding potential’ theory. In other words, if the other male is bigger, nastier and scarier, the smaller one will admit defeat and try its luck elsewhere. If two males are of similar size and strength, then they will commit to combat and the winner is left with his choice of females while the loser, yet again must admit defeat and leave.
The fact that ‘resource-holding potential’ is evident in Australian cuttlefish tells us a number of things about these fascinating creatures. For starters, it is just another piece of behavioural evidence that shows how intelligent these colourful and intriguing creatures are. This ability to judge another and compare a rival to oneself is also a very good indication of analytical capabilities. And lastly, the ability to judge a rival and assess your chances of winning in combat shows that this behavioural capability may have evolved because of selection pressures across many different groups of animals.
So there you go, even male cuttlefish measure one another up before starting a fight.
Everything is affected by climate change. From the mountains to the bottom of the ocean, our every action can have an impact on the world around us. The 25zero campaign helps to highlight the impact through the loss of our snow-capped mountains along the equator. But it’s not just the mountains that are affected by climate change and global warming, the oceans are too.
Scientists have found that sea levels have risen an average of 3.5 millimetres every year since the early 1990s. That doesn’t sound like much, but in the past 25 years, that means that sea levels have risen 8.75 centimetres. If this trend continues, in 85 years, sea levels could rise 2 metres, effectively wiping out most of Australia’s cities and towns, alongside 44% of the world’s settlements.
This spectacular phenomenon happens because of two reasons; thermal expansion and melting ice. Thermal expansion occurs because as Earth’s atmosphere heats up (about 0.7 degrees in the last century, ten times faster than any other period in history), so too does the water. And as anybody who has taken basic chemistry can attest, as things heat, they expand. Alongside this, the increased heat means that more of the ice caps and glaciers are melting, leading to a vicious circle of heating, expansion and rising sea levels.
Yet, surprisingly, it’s not all doom and gloom. Yes, there is a chance that there will be less and less land to live on, but Earth has always been the ‘Blue Planet’ and some groups of people have decided to embrace this. Carving out lives on the seven seas, the Bajau of South East Asia have embraced the open oceans and almost never set foot on land. They are born aboard boats, get married, have children and eventually die out at sea. Proving that we can survive the rising sea levels. In fact, some Bajau are so adapted for a life at sea that they appear almost amphibian!
These ‘Guardians of the Sea’ have been trailing the high seas since at least the 16th century, trading and thriving at sea for many generations. In fact, they spend some Bajau spend so little time on land that they get ‘land sick’! For them, the islands throughout the South East Asian oceans are merely a layover to trade for rice, grain and petrol before returning to their aquatic way of life. But never fear! If you don’t want to spend all of your days rocking from side to side on a boat, some Bajau living just off the coast in houses on stilts. These homes still take advantage of the many bounties that the ocean has to offer, but keeps the owners dry and out of danger in all but the most horrific weather.
Alternatively, we could always make our own island like the Uru people of Peru. Originally building these ‘floating islands’ to escape persecution, the Uru people have now made more than forty-two buoyant masses that they live, play and even raise chickens on! Lake Titicaca is 58,000 kilometres squared, so there is plenty of room for these drifting abodes, and the Uru have even managed to make money from their unique living situation through tourism. But how do they do it?
Lake Titicaca has many reed beds throughout its vast expanse, and the Uru have taken advantage of this. Taking these reeds, they literally weave their own island to stay afloat. By trapping air bubbles within this botanic mass, buoyancy is assured and up to six families can live on one makeshift raft. But, reeds do rot away, especially when they are in constant contact with water, so they must constantly be replaced and replenished to keep this sustainable home ‘sea-worthy’.
And there are many more peoples of the world who have embraced a more aquatic way of life. Using human ingenuity, adaptability and resourcefulness, humans have proved yet again that we can thrive in almost any circumstance. Still not keen on living on the seven seas? Well, tune into Channel 25zero to discover more about climate change and help us and the amazing 25zero team to raise awareness for COP21 in November this year! Join the fight to stop the rising sea levels! If only so you don’t have to spend your life aboard a boat.
Sir William Henry Bragg (the elder one) was born in England, but immigrated to Australia and in 1886 became a ‘Sir Thomas Elder Professor of Pure and Applied Mathematics’. Obviously a great honour and a hint to the immense intellect of this man. His son, William Lawrence Bragg was Adelaide born and bred. He attended the University of Adelaide under his father and eventually joined him in his research. This was the first step on their journey to notoriety.
Why are they famous?
Well, for starters, the Braggs are Nobel laureate winners. They won the prize in Physics in 1915. Not only were they the first father and son duo to do so, but William Lawrence Bragg was the youngest person at the time to be awarded with such an honor. He was 25 at the time. Their work with X-rays used crystallography to figure out the density, size and shape of atoms. It was revolutionary work that still has an effect on us today.
But, they also did a tonne of other research across applied mathematics and physics. Not to mention their lasting imprint upon the scientific community as lecturers and teachers. There’s a very good reason that they were inspiring enough to have a children’s book written about their lives.
Why do we care?
Beyond the fact that winning a Nobel Prize is an amazing achievement, there are a number of reasons why we should care about The Braggs. For starters, they are from Adelaide. It’s nice to know that you could be walking down the very streets that the Bragg men did while they contemplated the use of crystallography in further understanding and embracing X-rays. But, more than that, their research has changed every single one of our lives. Without their research, the X-rays of today would not be as clear and simple to understand. We would also have a much smaller appreciation for the atoms that make up, well, everything in the entire universe.
So, even there’s a pretty good reason why Sir William Henry and William Lawrence constantly get mentioned throughout South Australia. They may have won the Nobel Prize 100 years ago, but their work and their presence has a lasting and incredibly important impact on all of us. No matter where in the world we live.
