Tag Archives: Sean Williams

The Stone Mage and the Sea by Sean Williams

November 30, 2020Book ReviewAustralian Authors, Elements, Fantasy, Sean Williams, The Changeskyebjenner

THE STONE MAGE AND THE SEA: First Book of the Change eBook: Williams, Sean: Amazon.com.au: Kindle Store

Title: The Stone Mage and the Sea
Author: Sean Williams
Series: The Change #1
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Australian authors, Elements, Fantasy
Dates read: 29th – 31st October 2020
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Fantastica
Year: 2002
5th sentence, 74th page: “But my dad -“

In a world…
where the huge, red-sanded deserts are ruled by Stone Mages and the vast coastlines by Sky Wardens, any child with magic ability is taken away to the Haunted City to be trained in the Change.

Fundelry is a small town much like any other in the Strand. The people have little tolerance for anyone who stands out, and Sal and his father are strangers, running from someone… or something. Sal is rescued from the local bully by Shilly and her teacher Lodo, a mysterious tattooed man who seems to know more about Sal than Sal himself. And, strangely, Sal’s father seems to want to stay put for a while.

But soon the Sky Wardens will come to Fundelry – before then Sal must uncover the connection between Lodo and the mother he never met, in order to escape a fate that seems to have been chosen for him before he was even born…

This has everything that a traditional fantasy novel should have. The fantasy novels that I grew up with and first introduced me to the genre had this same kind of amazing mystical feel to it. From the very first page, I was swept into Williams’ world and really, seriously didn’t want to leave. I could imagine this small town, the confused Sal and the immensity of the sea from the very beginning. Even now, when I close my eyes, I can picture it all in my mind’s eye.

The characters in this story are really strong and well thought out. Sometimes it can take me a little while to get attached to characters and find the rhythm of the story. Or, as the case may be, the world building that has constructed the story and characters. That’s not the case with The Stone Mage and the Sea. From that very first scene with Sal and his father driving into a town, you are there. Right in the moment. Pulled in, whether you like it or not.

Lodo is everything that a mysterious teacher should be. I’m hoping that he doesn’t just disappear off the face of the earth after this book. He is tattooed, enigmatic and completely impossible to predict. Partnered with his apprentice, Shilly, they are great duo that help to build Sal up and help him start on a new path in life. Which, considering how this novel ended, I think is incredibly and wonderfully important. Sal grows so much in this first novel, I can’t wait to see how he’ll grow in the next two novels.

The Stone Mage and the Sea is everything I haven’t realised I’ve been missing in fantasy novels. I have been reading a lot of urban fantasy and paranormal fantasy and all such. So picking up a novel that bought me back to the fantasy novels that first got me enthralled in the genre… well, I’m glad that I have the rest of the trilogy sitting on my shelves, ready to go.

<- More Sean Williams

The Sky Warden and the Sun ->

Image source: Amazon

Legends of Australian Fantasy edited by Jack Dann and Jonathan Strahan

September 11, 2017Book ReviewAustralian Authors, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, D.M. Cornish, Fantasy, Garth Nix, Ian Irvine, Isobelle Carmody, Jack Dann, Jennifer Fallon, John Birmingham, Jonathan Strahan, Juliet Marillier, Kim Wilkins, Legends of Australian Fantasy, Sean Williams, Short Story Collections, Trudi Canavanskyebjenner

Title: Legends of Australian Fantasy
Editors: Jack Dann & Jonathan Strahan
Authors: Garth Nix, Trudi Canavan, Juliet Marillier, Isobelle Carmody, Kim Wilkins, Sean Williams, D.M. Cornish, Ian Irvine, John Birmingham, Jennifer Fallon & Cecilia Dart-Thornton
In: Legends of Australian Fantasy (Jack Dann & Jonathan Strahan)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Australian authors, Fantasy, Short story collections
Pace: Fast
Format: Anthology
Publisher: Harper Collins Australia
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: ‘And… and from the Charter, milady.’

From two of the best editors working today … These are the legends of Australian fantasy – eleven of Australia’s best-loved and most widely read writers … Gathered together by equally legendary editors Jack Dann and Jonathan Strahan to produce an entirely original compilation … Celebrate the legends of Australian fantasy. Extraordinary voices … extraordinary worlds. Come to Erith, to a faerie tale with a sting, or to Obernewtyn, long before the Seeker was born. Revisit a dark pocket of history for the Magician’s Guild or get caught up in the confusion of an endlessly repeating day in the Citadel. Cross the wall, where Charter magic is all that lies between you and death. A trip with a graverobber can be gruesome, and it’s hard to share the fear of a woman who must kill her husband if her child is to rule … A mysterious tale plays out in Sevenwaters. Catch up with Ros and Adi as they prepare for the greatest change of all. Other twists in these fabulous tales bring us to demonic destiny and an alternate WWII.

I love pursuing Australian authors – after all, I would love to be one one day, and they are my people. So, discovering that there is a book that features not one, not two, but nine of these phenomenal people made me break out in a huge grin. And I wasn’t disappointed. Actually, the main disappointment came when I finished the last novella and had to find a new anthology to go and read.

The pace of each of these nine novellas was entirely unique and, in most cases, quite unexpected. The only tie that they had to one another was that they are all fantasy stories, and they tied into a series or world created by the author. Which, ultimately means that I have another seven series to go out and buy (I already owned two). Sometimes, this kind of variety doesn’t really work. The stories don’t flow well and it is really just feels haphazard in how they’re collected. But, the short author introduction at the beginning of each story and the rationale behind the story worked brilliantly and made it a cohesive whole.

If you want a taste of the brilliance that some of Australia’s finest fantasy authors have to offer, I’d definitely recommend that you buy this book. Or borrow it, whatever tickles your fantasy. It was a fantastic welcome to a few new worlds and I’ve got a couple of new books to add to my shelves now.

<- The Enchanted Review

To Hold the Bridge Review ->

Image source: Harper Collins Australia

The Spark by Sean Williams

September 9, 2017Book ReviewAustralian Authors, Easy Reading, Fantasy, Legends of Australian Fantasy, Sean Williams, The Changeskyebjenner

Title: The Spark (A Romance in Four Acts)
Author: Sean Williams
Series: The Change Companion
In: Legends of Australian Fantasy (Jack Dann & Jonathan Strahan)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Australian authors, Easy reading, Fantasy
Pace: Fast
Format: Novella
Publisher: Harper Collins Australia
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: The house-boy rushed into the room with a glass of water, which she accepted with gratitude and sipped as the fit subsided.

Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide

‘The Spark’ sits midway along the timeline of the ten linked fantasy novels in the Change series – the Books of the Change, the Books of the Cataclysm, and most recently the Broken Land. Inspired by the landscapes of Williams’ childhood rather than European or indigenous Australian mythologies, Sean had no conception when he set out on this journey that the places he revisited would become such an enduring obsession. The people who occupied them, also.

His young protagonists Ros and Adi were left somewhat hanging at the end of the Broken Land trilogy, as had Sal and Shilly years before them, because the conclusion to their story lay beyond the purview of a series for young readers. Williams always intended to return, to see their knot tied, but the deeper he dove into their story the less, perversely, it became about them, or even about the landscape that originally inspired their world.

Yet in a very real way, ‘The Spark’ is the capping stone on the entire series. All the characters Williams loved are present, in one form or another, and all the motifs too. Loss, the passage to adulthood, the nursing and healing of old wounds – for me, that’s always what these stories have been about.

And love, too, with which all can be endured.

I can’t get this story out of my head. And not in that irritating, it won’t leave and details are niggling away at me way. But that holy crap. That was amazing. I need to get more of these books! I want to know more about Adi and Ross. This story is epic. So now I just have to wait until I have some spare money to buy more of Sean Williams’ books…

I don’t often feel crazy about four act storylines, and the romance aspect of stories often feels tedious when I’m reading the tale. After all, boy meets girl, they fall in love, there is a problem, everything is resolved is the most standard storyline. And even the best stories do tend to read like this. But, it’s all about the journey. And for Adi and Ross, it is about the hunt for one another and true love. Reigniting the spark that has burnt between them for years.

Words that could describe the happy, warm fuzzy feeling that this novella left me with are pretty much impossible to come by. There is that feeling of happy contentment that you get when you finish a really good story. And The Spark not only left me with that, but also made the other stories I tried to read afterwards feel completely inadequate. I’m sure the feeling will eventually fade away though.

<- Crown of Rowan

The Corsers’ Hinge ->

Image source: Harper Collins Australia

Earth and Skye

The ramblings of a bibliophile.