It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to?

A Great and Terrible Beauty is a Gothic/Victorian novel set in the 19^th century. It follows the tale of a sixteen-year-old Gemma Doyle whose mother has just died under suspicious circumstances, circumstances which Gemma sees in a vision. She is then sent to a boarding school in London where she rooms with Ann, a plain girl who is only there due to a scholarship. Gemma and Ann, along with two other girls, Felicity and Pippa, travel to the realms and unravel their magic.

The book has quite a promising start, but as soon as Gemma goes to Spence, the action comes to a halt, which is quite a shame. For a while, all you read about is how the most powerful girls of Spence mock poor Ann and how they lure Gemma into a prank. You’re left wondering, for quite some time, why Gemma sees visions and when you find out why, it’s almost as side-thought. A great majority of the book is the girls’ exploring and the action only picks up towards the end. But when it does, the book ends, leaving you wanting to find out more in a sequel.

The biggest issue I found in A Great And Terrible Beauty were the characters. Gemma is mostly nice and willful, but I felt like she was the only character who had something inside her head. Ann is an ugly, chubby girl and all she wants is to be pretty. Pippa is the opposite – beautiful – but as shallow as they come. Pippa’s whole world revolves around finding true love and that’s it. And then there’s Felicity, the Admiral’s daughter, who thinks she’s the queen of the world but deep down all she wants is her father’s approval.

The friendship between Gemma and the other three girls was one-sided. All through the book, Ann, Felicity and Pippa were clearly using Gemma for her magic and they stupidly turn on her the first chance they get. It angered me no end that these girls, who say over and over again that they are the dearest of friends, would betray each other every chance they get. This friendship is supposed to be one of the main aspects of the book and it is a let-down because the girls are all so jaded.

As for romance… there is some in the book and it’s well done, but it’s not something central – so, if you’re going in expecting a riveting love story, then you should pick a different book.

There are very good things about A Great And Terrible Beauty, though. The book is terrifically well-written. The prose is fluid and the descriptions are quite nice. It’s also very accurate historically, from clothes to customs to the way people talk. For instance, women are only supposed to learn what they need to please a husband, a thought that was quite common in the 19^th century, and some of the girls (not all) fight against this stereotype. It’s not a feminist book, not by a long shot, but it’s not chauvinistic either. It has a balance about it, and that balance fits.

The author’s take on the magical world is different, but it’s almost not exploited enough. Hopefully, Libba Bray will make use of the great magical world she’s created in the second book. To finish it up, the plot twist towards the end makes you want to read more. I found the book fun and the end was good enough for me to want to read the sequels.

This is an entertaining novel and if you’re into historic young-adult novels with a twist for the magical, then this book is for you. Even if you’re not, it’s intriguing enough for you to give it a shot.

Paperback: 416 pages

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s;

Language English

ISBN-10: 0689875355

ISBN-13: 978-0689875359

Greetings friends! Phil has returned to bring you a tasty morsel from the Apple App Store: Orbeats!

If you own an iPhone or iPod Touch (to be honest, who doesn’t these days) then you’ll want to check this game out. Its fun, easy to play and suitable for all ages. So everyone can have a go!

Made by StirFire Studios, this Aussie indie developer put this awesome game together with many useful features. Orbeats fits quite comfortably in the music game genre. If you’ve played TapTap, you’ll have no problem adjusting to this one. Never played it? No problem! The controls are very straightforward and there’s an in-game tutorial ready to help you if you want. But here is where it gets interesting:

Note the pinwheel-style menu.

One of the features that truly separates this game from the rest is the unique menu selection screen. While holding your finger on the pinwheel gently slide it up or down to choose from the options on the menu. If you’re starting out, you only have one level to choose from. However, you get to choose if you want to play it on easy, normal, or hard.

You can also do a practice run to learn the patterns.

Once you pick a level and difficulty, this is where it starts to get fun. A predetermined track starts to play, with different obstacles moving towards certain spots in a circle. You have to time your taps perfectly for the highest score and of course, you have to follow the rhythm!

When you finish a level in a specific difficulty, you unlock the next in the same setting. So if you want to play the next level on hard, you gotta do all the ones before it on hard too.

You unlock trophies the better you play!

Much like other games out now, this one comes with its own set of trophies for you to unlock. The more and harder you play it, the more trophies you unlock. Just that little bit extra you need to keep you motivated!

This game also has a “kids” setting for children that find the game too challenging. You can turn it on in the options menu. Then when setting the difficulty of the level you want to play, just select kids. After you do the patterns and music will change for a more kids feel.

The Kids mode option.

If you get tired of the level tracks you can buy new ones as your score gets higher. It’ll keep you on your toes (or in this case, thumbs) with new patterns!

So there ya have it folks! A really cool indie game that’ll keep you entertained for hours on end. You can pick it up on Apple’s App Store for $2.99US.

Ta-ta for now!

This time around we’re gonna peel back the layers of the Order of Australia medalist Doctor Fiona Wood.

Fiona was born on the 2nd of February 1958 in Yorkshire England.

Twenty years later she was already blazing trails being one of only twelve women admitted to the learned halls of St. Thomas’ Hospital Medical School. She graduated in 1981 with an MD., BS. 6 Years later she immigrated to Perth with her family and began training to become a plastic surgeon.

In 1995 the culmination of years of collaborative genius with medical scientist Marie Stoner were brought to a head, when a new treatment method for burns victims was launched. Cellspray® is a spray on solution of skin cells, rather than the previous method of using sheets of skin.  Wood and Stoner founded Clinical Cell Culture (C3) in 1999.  Further developments have shortened the length of time needed to produce the spray on skin from 21 days to only 5. With such advanced exploration of tissue engineering, Wood has been recognized as a pioneer in her field.

This pioneering research really came to light after the horrific bombings in Bali in 2002. A large proportion of the survivors were sent to Royal Perth Hospital. Doctor Wood and her team worked tirelessly to save the lives of 28 survivors who suffered badly from burns ranging from 2% to 98% of their bodies, along with delayed shock and deadly infections.

An Order of Australia medal was awarded to Doctor Wood in 2003, and she was named Australian of the year in 2005. For her contribution to medicine in the field of burns research a Western Australia Citizen of the Year award found its way into Doctor Wood’s possession; but this would all be placed aside in March 2007 after a crash landing of Garuda Indonesia Flight 200, when Fiona assisted in the emergency response to burns victims.

Readers Digest named Doctor Wood as Australia’s Most Trusted Person from 2005 to 2010.

Doctor Fiona Wood looks like she is going to be collaborating and continuing to blaze trails with the treatment of burns for many years to come. Branching perhaps into neurophysiology (the science of the nervous system) and how bone marrow aids in healing.

Hope has been handed to many burns victims who would have little chance of surviving prior to the mid 1990’s. This, in my opinion, makes Doctor Fiona Wood one of Australia’s most treasured people.

Sources

http://www.science.org.au/scientists/interviews/w/wood.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiona_Wood

Well the Perth trip has been so much fun – four days of the SwanCon convention and then a great coffee/drinks evening with readers and friends. Below are a selection of photos so far!

SwanCon

Coffee Evening – great night full of chat about books and films and TV, and more books.

Acknowledging the fact that she was different from everyone else wasn’t hard for Wendy Everly. She’d always known she didn’t quite belong, although not to the extent of not even being human. Fitting in with her strange new life as a troll princess certainly hasn’t been easy but running away back to the “normal” world may just be the worst mistake she’s ever made.

Kidnapped and imprisoned by her birth family’s enemies, Wendy soon learns that the line between good and evil isn’t always clearly defined and some of the truths she has taken for granted may just be lies after all. And of course there are the feelings for Finn that just won’t go away- even with the arrival of a new dangerous hottie she can’t help being drawn to. Can Wendy make it back home to Forening safely and be the Queen in waiting her people desperately need?

Amanda Hocking has created a world that will have you wanting to pack your bags and immerse yourself in it fully. In Torn, the second book in the Trylle trilogy we start to see the emergence of a stronger, more determined Wendy with fantastic results.

Secrets are revealed that will not only leave Wendy reeling but the reader as well. The constant arrival and growth of fascinating characters bringing new twists and turns certainly amps up the volume. Some of your preconceived notions about some recurring characters will be flipped on their head and others will be re-affirmed. The most delightful part of this instalment for me was that we finally get to see behind Elora’s queenly mask to the woman and mother within. There are plenty of laughs, drama and oh my moments that the pages will fly by so fast you’ll wonder where they went.

Wendy is such a complex and delightful lead to get to know. Her journey feels like your own. Hocking has given us a heroine fully flawed who constantly breaks not only all the princess rules, but obliterates the typical princess mould and breathes new life into the fairy tale realm. And of course the fact that we have not one, but two candidates, for Prince Charming’s job adds to this.

There truly is a very good reason this trilogy broke the self-publishing sales records. If you haven’t discovered Wendy’s world you seriously need to put Switched and Torn on your to read list asap. You’ll never think of trolls the same way again.

NB: Make sure you keep an eye out for the all new short story included in the back.

Torn-Amanda Hocking

Pan McMillian

291 Pages

ISBN:978-1-4472-0570-8

Releases March 1 2012