Book review on the fly

[lydia_petze]

Wow! 30-odd pages in to "A Whisper of Wings" and I can already tell lightning did not merely strike once with Paul Kidd - this is just as good, if not better than "The Rats of Acomar". He has a talent for shaping fantasy worlds (believe me, I've read enough bad ones I can spot a good one damn quick) He seems to like writing in the vein of long-long-after-humans-ruined-the-earth type stories, without getting preachy but instead using it as a nifty springboard for his narratives and, even better, serves as a basis for his civilisations to build their mythology on. It's so nice to read fantasy that doesn't rip off Tolkien (one reason why I'm only just now sliding back into the genre after a 10-year hiatus). He also writes anthropomorphic characters - the people in this one are a beautiful mix of fox and butterfly, and the book is gorgeously illustrated by Terrie Smith to boot. The main character is pretty, plump (yay) and mute, and her sister, (who I haven't seen a pic of yet but sounds gorgeous in description, with glossy black fur and black and electric blue wings) has some excellent femslashy vibes...very slashy and it looks as if Paul can write it without making it sound like a Genus wank fantasy. He's written wank fantasy in the past, but he's demonstrated he can do better, anyway...

Oh, and set in an Australian landscape - our trees, our wildlife, and refelctions of Aboriginal culture. Typical that he had to go overseas to get it published. Feh.