Year's Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction & Fantasy - Volume I


Book Description

Thirteen of the brightest stars in New Zealand SFF For the first time ever, the best short SFF from Aotearoa New Zealand is collected together in a single volume. This inaugural edition of the Year's Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction & Fantasy brings together the very best short speculative fiction published by Kiwi authors in 2018. Explore worlds of hope and wonder, and worlds where hope and wonder are luxuries we wasted long ago; histories given new life, and futures you might prefer to avoid. Featuring: "We Feed the Bears of Fire and Ice", by Octavia Cade (originally published in Strange Horizons) "Logistics", by A.J. Fitzwater (originally published in Clarkesworld) "The Garden", by Isabelle McNeur (originally published in Wizards in Space) "Trees", by Toni Wi (originally published in Breach) "A Most Elegant Solution", by M. Darusha Wehm (originally published in Terraform) "Mirror Mirror", by Mark English (originally published in Abyss & Apex) "A Brighter Future", by Grant Stone (originally published in Cthulhu: Land of the Long White Cloud (IFWG)) "The People Between the Silences", by Dave Moore (originally published in Landfall) "Common Denominator", by Melanie Harding-Shaw (originally published in Wild Musette Journal) "The Billows of Sarto", by Sean Monaghan (originally published in Asimov's) "The Glassblower's Peace", by James Rowland (originally published in Aurealis) "Te Ika", by J.C. Hart (originally published in Cthulhu: Land of the Long White Cloud (IFWG)) "Girls Who Do Not Drown", by Andi Buchanan (originally published in Apex)




Monsters in the Garden


Book Description

Too stuffy inside? All those familiar social realist furnishings, all those comfortable literary tropes. Perhaps a stroll out under the trees, where things are breezier, stranger, more liable to break the rules. You may meet monsters out there, true. But that's the point. Casting its net widely, this anthology of Aotearoa-New Zealand science fiction and fantasy ranges from the satirical novels of the 19th-century utopians &– one of which includes the first description of atmospheric aerobreaking in world literature &– to the bleeding edge of now. Spaceships and worried sheep. Dragons and AI. The shopping mall that swallowed the Earth. The deviant, the fishy and the rum, all bioengineered for your reading pleasure.Featuring stories by some of the country's best known writers as well as work from exciting new talent, Monsters in the Garden invites you for a walk on the wild side. We promise you'll get back safely. Unchanged? Well, that's another question.




The Absolute Book


Book Description

DISCOVER THE ENCHANTING EPIC THAT WILL TRANSPORT YOU TO OTHER WORLDS . . . 'AN INSTANT CLASSIC' GUARDIAN 'BEWITCHING' THE TIMES 'MIND-BLOWING' LAINI TAYLOR 'ASTOUNDING' FRANCIS SPUFFORD 'GORGEOUSLY WRITTEN' DEBORAH HARKNESS _______ Taryn Cornick barely remembers the family library. Since her sister was murdered, she's forgotten so much. Now it's all coming back. The fire. The thief. The scroll box. People are asking questions about the library. Questions that might relate to her sister's murder. And something called The Absolute Book. A book in which secrets are written - and which everyone believes only she can find. They insist Taryn be the hunter. But she knows the truth. She is the hunted . . . _______ The Absolute Book is a tale of sisters, ancient blood, a forgotten library, murder, revenge and a book that might just have the answer to everything. 'An instant classic . . . A work to rank alongside other modern masterpieces of fantasy such as Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series or Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Everything fantasy should be: original, magical, well read, compelling' GUARDIAN 'Astonishing. Gripping. Hugely ambitious. An extraordinary conclusion. Admire the sheer scope and grandeur' DAILY MAIL 'A marvellous argument for stories. There are Norse gods, references to Merlin, a tour through purgatory and a strange parallel world where magic is real and humans are bit players in the clash of supernatural realms. Bewitching' THE TIMES 'Contains multitudes, spanning the geographies of Canada, Britain and New Zealand; the cosmologies of fairies, demons and angels; and the genres of thriller, domestic realism and epic fantasy . . . I'm in awe of it' NEW YORK TIMES Review of Books 'Intricately plotted and gorgeously written, THE ABSOLUTE BOOK has something for everyone . . . Here is a cinematic tale that is by turns dark and dreamlike, yet ultimately hopeful' DEBORAH HARKNESS, author of A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES 'Fantastical' THE TIMES 'Savour and absorb the world Knox conjures' SUNDAY TIMES 'Gorgeous. The payoffs and reveals are mind-blowing' LAINI TAYLOR, author of DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE 'An angelic book, an apocalyptic book, an astounding book' FRANCIS SPUFFORD




Bad Panda


Book Description

Are you sick of being utterly adorable?Tired of being cuddled and hugged?Fed up of having your head confused for your bottom because you just so happen to be SOOOOPER-DOOOOOPER fluffy?Lin: If you answered yes to any of those questions, then you're in the right book.Everyone thinks that Lin is the cutest panda in the world. So much so that they ship her off to the local zoo, away from her beloved brother, to be ogled at by the masses. But Lin HATES being cute, and now she will do everything in her power to prove that she's the baddest, meanest, most un-cute animal in the zoo.Laugh-yourself-out-of-bed hilarious, the first in a new series from the creators of DAVE PIGEON.




The Pōrangi Boy


Book Description

Twelve-year-old Niko lives in Pohe Bay, a small, rural town with a sacred hot spring – and a taniwha named Taukere. The government wants to build a prison over the home of the taniwha, and Niko’s grandfather is busy protesting. People call him pōrangi, crazy, but when he dies, it’s up to Niko to convince his community that the taniwha is real and stop the prison from being built. With help from his friend Wai, Niko must unite his whānau, honour his grandfather and stand up to his childhood bully.




Gangland


Book Description

New Zealand's underworld of organised crime and deadly gangs 'The best true-crime book of the year by a long stretch.' - Steve Braunias, Newsroom 'A series of rip-snorting yarns about gangs, drugs, fancy cars, wads of cash, violence, and guns - Aotearoa New Zealand style.' - Simon Bridges New Zealand is now one of the most lucrative illicit drug markets in the world. Organised crime is about making money. It's a business. But over the past 20 years, the dealers have graduated from motorcycle gangs to Asian crime syndicates and now the most dangerous drug lords in the world - the Mexican cartels. In Gangland, award-winning investigative reporter Jared Savage shines a light into New Zealand's rising underworld of organised crime and violent gangs. The brutal execution of a husband-and-wife; the undercover cop who infiltrated a casino VIP lounge; the midnight fishing trip which led to the country's biggest cocaine bust; the gangster who shot his best friend in a motorcycle shop: these stories go behind the headlines and open the door to an invisible world - a world where millions of dollars are made, life is cheap, and allegiances change like the flick of a switch.




Against the Grain


Book Description

A coeliac mountain biking witch finds a dash of romance while facing a dark trap with her snarky demon familiar.




The Stone Wētā


Book Description

We talk about the tyranny of distance a lot in this country. That distance will not save us. THE STONE WĒTĀ is a climate thriller by one of New Zealand's most exciting new science fiction writers.




A Year at Hotel Gondola


Book Description

'Lyrical, heartrending and compelling' JOJO MOYES on Recipe for Life Kat is an adventurer, a food writer who travels the world visiting far-flung places and eating unusual things. Now she is about to embark on her biggest adventure yet - a relationship. She has fallen in love with an Italian man and is moving to live with him in Venice where she will help him run his small guesthouse, Hotel Gondola. Kat has lined up a book deal and will write about the first year of her new adventure, the food she eats, the recipes she collects, the people she meets, the man she doesn't really know all that well but is going to make a life with. But as Kat ought to know by now, the thing about adventures is that they never go exactly the way you expect them to... ****** 'Warm, engaging and truly delicious' Rosanna Ley, author of The Little Theatre by the Sea 'A delicious and sensual adventure' Fiona Gibson, author of The Woman Who Met Her Match 'Wonderfully evocative' Pamela Hartshorne, author of The Cursed Wife ****** Readers are loving Nicky Pellegrino! 'I could smell the fresh pasta, feel the sunshine, smell the sea breeze and feel my worries wash away.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Through Italy, through food, through heartbreak, through love, through family. Add in a pinch of karmic justice and you have the perfect read with a joyful ending!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Once again Nicky Pellegrino had me captivated with this amazing story. It made me laugh, made me cry. I read it in one afternoon' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Such a great escapism read, full of emotions and family drama with love' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐




The New Zealand Project


Book Description

By any measure, New Zealand must confront monumental issues in the years ahead. From the future of work to climate change, wealth inequality to new populism – these challenges are complex and even unprecedented. Yet why does New Zealand’s political discussion seem so diminished, and our political imagination unequal to the enormity of these issues? And why is this gulf particularly apparent to young New Zealanders? These questions sit at the centre of Max Harris’s ‘New Zealand project’. This book represents, from the perspective of a brilliant young New Zealander, a vision for confronting the challenges ahead. Unashamedly idealistic, The New Zealand Project arrives at a time of global upheaval that demands new conversations about our shared future.