Nigma by Ana Salote

(The Waifs of Duldred - book 3)
Review by The Mole

Oy is still trying to save Linnet's life by finding her medicine but in order to do this he must pass the impassable storm wall and evade capture by the Felluns.  It doesn't look god for Oy and his friends and things will only get worse for them.

This is the third book in the Waifs Of Duldred trilogy, a trilogy that seems to have kept me waiting forever. Book 1 was "Oy Yew" and I remember being truly amazed at how wonderful this story was. But it left the reader on a cliff hanger and it seemed like Book 2 "Nondula" would never come. And Nondula, once again, left us on a cliff hanger.

The Felluns are the threat that Oy and friends have to evade and they want Oy badly. Their race is dying and, as a healer, they believe he can save their race - but on their terms as a prisoner. As the friends run the Felluns deploy their greatest trackers and bring in beasts to sniff out their scent. In the meantime the friends, in their innocent naivety, think they keep evading the Felluns only to come face to face again.

Nigma is a real complement to the series and was worth the wait. While waiting for book 3 the names, characters, and events so far portrayed in story have slipped to the back of your mind but here Salote brings the reader back up to date with an ease that almost leads you to believe that you could read this book as a stand alone. Please don't - you'll miss learning so much about the waifs and how their hardships have shaped them to become the fabulous characters that they are. Now is the time to start this tale as you can page seamlessly from the start of book 1 and continue until you finally close the cover on "Oy Goes Home" - the final chapter of book 3.

A wonderful end to a magnificent trilogy!

Publisher - Mother's Milk Books
Genre - Children's/Adult crossover,  dystopian

The Forgotten and the Fantastical 4 - edited by Teika Bellamy

illustrated by Emma Howitt

review by Maryom

"Modern fables and ancient tales" is how this book, comprising fourteen weird and wonderful stories, describes itself, and, as with the previous volumes of The Forgotten and The Fantastical, this fourth collection takes fairy tales away from the nursery, and puts them back in their original place on the adult bookshelf. I don't know what it is about fairy tales - maybe that their themes seem universal, as fitting today as ever, maybe that in an increasingly urban, digital world we're seeking a connection with nature, or a simpler time when the world divided into good and evil - but something about them always appeals, and this latest anthology is no exception.




I've found there's often a strong feminist/earth mother streak in the work published by Mother's Milk, exploring the strength of female characters, their bonds with nature, and although this isn't a particularly 'themed' collection many revolve around a central female character, rather than the more traditional hero of folk tales. Several, in fact explore a similar concept - that of women breaking free from the demands and expectations of men, rejecting the 'safe' world created for them, often no more than a gilded cage, to find fulfillment and explore the world themselves.
In Belle/Bete by Renee Anderson, a badly burned woman is encouraged by her lover to shun the world, in order to avoid the taunts she might suffer there, but effectively locking her away from life.
Katy Jones' retelling of 'Snow White and Rose Red', A Beast of the Forest, follows the girls and the 'bear' beyond the traditional happy ending with the heroine choosing to embrace the natural world rather than the fake sophistication of the Court. In Lisa Fransson's The Moss Child a smith tries to keep his daughter 'protected' from the natural world of forest and birds which form her birthright, while Lynden Wade's Sins of the Fathers again features a smith, a man who seeks to avoid the mistakes made by his father and grandfather, and create himself a wife of iron. Rosemary Collins reinterprets Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen into a fable about the perils of global warming, as Cold-Brained Kay (female in this version) goes on a quest to find cold and ice, and bring back winter. Elizabeth Hopkinson's Juanita draws on the life of a seventeenth century Mexican nun/scholar/poet who challenged the authority of bishops and philosophers (all male).

Some of the stories are set in traditional 'once upon a time' never-never land; Rachel Rivett's Wild Man, Holly James' Faraway Woman. Some set in recognisable historical times - A Story in Two Parts by Leslie Muzingo which centres on the lives of those 'creators' of fairy tales - Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm. Others bring magic and fairytale characters into contemporary settings - Ruth Asch's The Microwave is a modern equivalent of the magic never-empty purse, The Godmother's Fairy Tale Ending by Donna M Day takes place in a care home for the elderly, and Matthew Keeley's Winging In in a therapist's consulting room.

Susie Hennessey's Lowden House appears to be set in some bleak dystopian future (though in reality it's a place much closer to home), while in the world envisaged by Victoria Haslam in Strange Traits genetic modifications can turn you into almost any creature you'd like to be.

An eclectic, enjoyable collection for anyone who feels fairy stories are not only for the young and innocent.



Maryom's review - 5 stars 
Publisher - Mother's Milk Books
Genre - adult folk/fairy tales

Nondula by Ana Salote

(The waifs of Duldred - book 2)
Review by The Mole

We left the waifs trying to escape from Duldred and getting hit by a storm. The storm carries them to Nondula where the people welcome them and try to help settle them into the lives they deserve. But the Felluns, their neighbours, are a violent dominant race who wish to enslave everyone else.

It becomes apparent (as we saw in Oy Yew) that Oy has certain abilities with regards to healing and this brings him into conflict with the Felluns and he becomes enslaved in animal pits. The other waifs try to find him and set off to rescue him. They also try to shake the Nondulans from their subservient acceptance of Fellun treatment in order to help them in their task

Candy Gourlay said of the first book "Oy Yew is a book that deserves to be discovered. Lyrical and magical". Lyrical and magical? It sounds trite but there is certainly something in the style and characterisation  that makes this really true. This story complements the first without compromising the style, the message or the innocence of the waifs.

In OyYew the story focussed around the title character but here we learn more about each of them and their "powers" or talents. But these powers stretch to being able to organise and catalogue, to being able to think on your feet in a tight situation, or the ability to use colour in design - skills that children can identify with and already possess in some measure - a message to underline that the reader is just as special as most of the characters.

Salote ties these characters together in a truly compelling way that keeps the reader involved, rooting for the waifs and, more importantly, reading.

I highly recommend this as a read for younger readers or to share with younger readers (and you may well, like me, enjoy it) but please make sure you start with "Oy Yew" or you will miss so much about the characters.

Publisher - Mother's Milk Books
Genre - Children's/Adult crossover,  dystopian

The Forgotten and the Fantastical 3 - edited by Teika Bellamy

review by Maryom

Having seen editor Teika Bellamy on social media first asking for submissions, then talking about her difficulties in choosing which would make the cut, I've been eagerly waiting to read this, the third collection of re-imagined fairy tales from Mother's Milk Books. Most of us start our reading with fairy stories and for me that love of magic and mystery has stayed, but reading with an adult's view the children's versions have all the "otherness" and magic washed out of them. Here, in these seventeen stories, that returns.

As you'd imagine there are many of the familiar 'faces' included - animals are turned into men, and vice versa, mermaids sing their siren songs, children go missing lured away by by an enchantment, a woman is made of flowers, a child made of salt.
Some are set in the familiar never-never-land of fairy stories with dark, forbidden forests where people mustn't stray from their village or a lady from her tower. Others in more contemporary surroundings - an orphaned child with strange eyes is found on a bomb site, the Little Match Girl is transported to present day London, and that fairy tale regular, the old crone, sits on a park bench and admires the youth and fitness of a triathlete. They even transport well to the future - the dangers of a forest are replaced by an airless planet and fairy folk by 'aliens', and our obsession with social media becomes a cautionary tale for the children of our descendants.
The stories vary in length from a couple of pages to a dozen or so, some are funny, some magical, but all are enjoyable, and look beyond the obvious day to day world. I'm not going to go into details about every story but here are three of my favourites -

Dan Micklethwaite's Midnight Riders in which the story of Cinderella's coachman is played out in London's Underground
Sarah Armstrong's The Truth About Tea in which a mother decides to check out the young woman her son intends to marry (in this modern day, you can't really try the pea-under-the-mattress test)
Clair Wright's Spawned, a 'sequel' to the tale of the Frog Prince which underlines that love is really all you need.

Authors; Poppy O'Neil, Dan Micklethwaite, Lynden Ware, Angi Holden, Ronne Randall, Sophie Sellars, Elizabeth Hopkinson, Claire Stephenson, NJ Ramsden, Moira Garland, Ness Owen, Clair Wright, Carys Crossen, Marie Gethins, Rachel Rivett, Sarah Armstrong, Sarah Hindmarsh

Maryom's review - 5 stars 
Publisher - Mother's Milk Books
Genre - adult folk/fairy tales

Baby X by Rebecca Ann Smith

review by Maryom

Alex Mansfield was the cool-headed research scientist heading up an experimental human reproductive programme attempting to grow a baby in an artificial womb ... but somewhere along the line she's become emotionally involved - and is now on the run with that baby, hiding out from colleagues, police and the baby's parents. Is she just trying to claim the baby as her own, justifying her actions by claiming he was in danger? or do her fears have any basis in fact?

Surrogate parenting of any sort is an emotive subject, but in Baby X Rebecca Ann Smith has managed to combine thought-provoking insights into the ethics behind the science with the compelling read of a thriller.
By telling the story from the differing perspectives of three women the author, and reader with her, can explore the issue from a multitude of angles - Alex, the scientist who although initially only interested in helping infertile couples becomes emotionally entangled in her work, her junior, Dolly, who manages to stand back and see her work objectively, and Karen, the woman who desperately wants to be a mother but can't. She also shows the uneven coverage such a project could attract from the media - sympathising with the parents in their desire to have a family (providing they play nice with the press) while demonising the scientist who can fulfil their dreams as a Frankenstein figure - and, through the fears of Dolly's mother, the threats that research establishments face from protesters.

This isn't just a fictionalised debate about ethics though - it soon becomes apparent that someone has been accessing data from the project, possibly putting it, and Baby X's life, in jeopardy. The thriller aspect changes from 'will Alex be caught up with and the baby saved?' to ' will she be caught up with and the baby endangered?'. You won't want to put the book down until you know ...

I'm hesitating over how I'd label Baby X - 'medical drama' smacks of House hunting down a cure for a mystery illness, or George Clooney in ER gazing soulfully up at the camera; sci-fi, although artificial gestation is a common enough concept there, seems too high-tech and Star Trek-y. The science involved seems only a step or two into the future, and at heart this a story about people and their motivations, for good or bad, with the reader's sympathy and suspicions moving from one character to another. With such a lot of aspects to debate, it's a story I'd definitely recommend for book groups.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars 
Publisher - Mother's Milk Books
Genre - adult fiction, thriller

Maysun and the Wingfish by Alison Lock

review by Maryom

Life on Maysun's world is precarious at best. Although her people, the Watterishi, try to live in harmony with other creatures, a shortage of their staple food, leaves of the Gringrow plant, is causing them to over-pick and deplete supplies for both themselves and the Wingfish who also eat them. Then to make matters worse, a rare celestial alignment of their moon at the full and the seemingly wandering planet Ares creates a condition known as the Soomoon, which causes devastation to the  planet. The earth shakes, mountains crack open, lakes overflow, and Maysun's people are left struggling to survive.
Separated from Maysun's valley by a dark, dangerous forest of Ruba trees, lies another world - that of the Peakerfolk who live high among the mountains. They too are slowly starving to death, and at risk from the earth-shaking that the Soomoon brings. Maysun must venture into this (to her) strange world on a quest to bring harmony back to her world. Fortunately, not everyone living above the tree-line is the savage, brutal sort of person tradition had taught Maysun to expect.

In Maysun and the Wingfish, Alison Lock has conjured up an extraordinary world - one in which fish can fly, trees can trap people, and eco-systems change almost overnight by the passing of the planet Ares. The people living there are, not surprisingly, struggling to survive, and it's only by a change in their thinking and moving forward through cooperation that they'll survive.
This isn't though just a book preaching about the dangers of ecological disasters. There are certain magical or fairy-tale elements to it - the dancing flying fish who respond to Maysun's song or the Ruba trees which snare victims in their sticky goo - and most importantly a good story-line following the adventures of Maysun and Barco, a Peakerfolk boy who in his stumbling way helps to bring about reconciliation between at least some of the members of each population.
I'm not sure what age group I'd recommend it for - some of the words would suggest an older readership of maybe 10+, but I think younger children would enjoy it being read to them, and even adults may appreciate this fantasy adventure.


Publisher - Mother's Milk Books
Genre - children's fantasy adventure

The Forgotten and The Fantastical 2 - edited by Teika Bellamy

review  by Maryom

In The Forgotten and The Fantastical 2, editor Teika Bellamy has once again put together a wonderful collection of re-worked folk and fairy tales, half-familiar from childhood but given a modern twist


The first story, a not-quite-familiar tale of a little man who can spin things into gold, begins, as all good fairy tales should, with those immortal words Once upon a time... and leads the reader on a journey with fairy folk, spirit animals, selkies, magical manipulative mirrors and, or course, wicked step-mothers, through faraway lands, the frozen North, steaming jungle, modern cities, and the deepest, darkest forest of all, the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

These aren't stories to read at bedtime to small children but ones which seek out the darker themes hidden within the cosy, comfortable framework of the folk tale, often giving it a contemporary, feminist slant. There are tales of abduction - seal-women taken from the sea and forced to live as human, or a twist on Hansel and Gretel which asks just HOW could anyone live happily-ever-after after the trauma of being abandoned and imprisoned. There are stories in which animals help heal a grieving heart, and others which explore the deep bond between mother and child, or the manipulation of women - either by men (whether father figure or the stranger offering to turn 'straw' into gold) or by their own obsession with appearance and image.

There are seventeen stories in all ( a larger collection than the original volume); some are short, only a few pages, others longer; some close to the original (The Worm), others totally new work but within the fairy tale framework. I'm not going to go into great detail about all of them - suffice it to say, I enjoyed all.
BUT, of course, I had favourites.
For the retelling of an old myth - Solstice by Deborah Osborne, about the death of the old year, and the birth of the new.
For re-working classic tales - Rumpelstiltskin by Rebecca Ann Smith, and Reve/Revival, Elizabeth Hopkinson's 'green' version of Sleeping Beauty.
For creating a new fairy story out of fact (if I had to choose just one, it would be this) - Icarus by NJ Ramsden which takes the true war-time story of an attempted escape from Colditz castle and re-imagines it as, well, a fairy tale.  Each segment of the story starts with the sentence 'Once there was a man who wanted to fly' (a classic folk tale device of repetition) and tells the tale of  a man who wanted to be free but is forced first to become a paratrooper, then confined in a seemingly impregnable and inescapable fortress by the Germans but never gives up on his dreams. Maybe it's how myths and legends are made ....






Authors - Rebecca Ann Smith, Lindsey Watkins, Ana Salote, Julie Pemberton, Anuradha Gupta, Laura Kayne, Rachel Rivett, NJ Ramsden, Ronne Randall, Sarah Hindmarsh, Finola Scott, Hannah Malhotra, Jane Wright, Deborah Osborne, Elizabeth Hopkinson, Marija Smits

Maryom's review - 5 stars 
Publisher - Mother's Milk Books
Genre - adult folk/fairy tales

The Blogger and The Independent Press by The Mole

On Friday 26th February we attended an event at Nottingham Writers' Studio entitled "The Only Way Is Indie". After coming away I started to digest everything we heard and felt that I, as a blogger, had a small voice to be heard in all of this.

The event was attended by various writers (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, memoirs etc) and small independent presses of various genres, ages, and sizes - the idea being for independent presses to put their case for submission of work to them.

One of the benefits of it has to be that the small independent is prepared to take a risk if they think that the book is really worthwhile as against the big five publishers who want "safe bets".

As reviewers we have no aspirations to writing and we do it because reading is one of the things we enjoy doing and it's from that, neutral, perspective that I am trying to express myself.

I want to address writers here as much as anything because we see a lot of books from authors of all types:- self and vanity publishing, small independent presses as well as the big five.

So you have a story, you've written it up and you've had friends and family read it and give you an honest opinion... or have you? Does your partner really believe in you and when they say "Well, it needs more work" are they really frightened that if they let you believe it's fantastic, should it fail they don't want to have that failure held against them? And the inverse of that - they tell you it's great but every publisher sends a rejection? And that goes for friends and other family members. Can you really get an HONEST opinion from them?

We receive many review requests from authors and the first thing we check is who has published it. Is it self published? Now that in itself is not a reason to reject a book - we have read quite a few self published books that were very good. Brilliant? Rarely, but maybe with work they could have been better. And proof editing... this is a subject that I find can stop me reading a book and self published books can be terrible for it. I read one for which I prepared a list of about 30 common errors - not a definitive list - and sent it the author who was very nice about it but went quiet for a while. They then came back to me and told me that he had found a product on the web that he submitted his manuscript to and it found all of mine plus more - yet he thought it was proof read. Essentially it had been a good book unlike others that were never finished and polite emails were sent explaining that "we couldn't get on with it". We are now wary about self published but we still consider them when time allows.

When you submit your manuscript to a small indie and it's taken up they are putting their money and their reputation on the line and so will work hard with you to make it as good as they can. They will have read it with an independent eye and will believe in its potential at the very start but be prepared to listen and be involved in the necessary edits and suggested changes that they raise - don't be prissy for the sake of it.

When a request comes in to us as reviewers and is published by an independent press the first thing we do is check whether we have read anything from that press before - and did we like it? And this is another point that was made at the event:- read some things from the indie that you plan on submitting to and see if (a) you like what they print and (b) if what you've written is in the same genre. If you are convinced that they are right for you then READ their submissions policy and follow it. These small presses generally have day jobs and really don't want their time wasting - and yes they generally are just one or two people.

We know quite a few indies who we like to think of as friends and I'm sure that their published authors do too. It's a great relationship for everyone BUT at the end of the day that indie, that PERSON, is putting their money into your book so please respect that. But friends or not we will always endeavour to publish an HONEST review - recently I suggested an author take the main character out for a drink and get to know them better.

Now our relationship to indies... we support indies wherever possible but we don't blanket accept books from them. We don't just accept books from anyone. We do get books delivered that we didn't agree to and if neither of us want to read it then it won't make the TBR pile but rarely will we turn round and ask for a book if it's not offered first. We both read a wide range of genres from very young children's through to literary fiction and reading the catalogue of a few presses would limit that. BUT if an indie press would like us to review one or two of theirs (even if we've reviewed some in the past) we are happy to consider it and if we say no then that doesn't mean we won't say yes to others. And we may well accept more in the future.

Getting published with an indie is certainly a start for your work, you may get rich (which the indie will appreciate as they are generally breaking even on books!), you may not, but you will learn a great deal about the industry, make some great friends and it may just lead to a contract with one of the big five somewhere down the line. But go on... make an indie rich.. for me?

The Independent Presses represented were:-
Ross Bradshaw from Five Leaves Publications Jane & Claire from Bird's Nest Books CIC Jacqueline & Martin from Stonewood Press Tracey and Phil from Wild Pressed Books Sara-Jayne Slack from Inspired Quill (Event Organiser) Dr Teika Bellamy from Mother's Milk Books (Event Organiser) Kate from Three Drops Press Emma Wright from The Emma Press Georgina from Mud Press Ashley Stokes from Unthank Books Anne McDonnell from Pewter Rose Press Stephen Holland from Page 45

Oy Yew by Ana Salote

Review by The Mole

Oy Yew is a young waif who cannot remember where he came from or what his name is. He wanders the streets living off the smell of a bakery while not being noticed. One day, however, he is noticed, by children who catch him and sell him to Jeopardine, a factory owner. Oy now finds out what it's like to be noticed, to be spoken to and to have people who are concerned for his welfare, albeit only other waifs. It's not long before he is sent, along with a couple of other waifs, to work in the factory owners house.

When waifs reach a certain height they are released from service and sent "home". But in this household because food is scarce and accidents are rife it takes a long time for the waifs to reach the required height - if they live that long.

Jeopardine soon notices that Oy is different to other waifs and takes a special interest in him. Then accidents start to threaten Oy but somehow Oy seems to live a charmed life. 

Oy Yew is a story described as crossover aimed at 9 to 90 and it certainly works (although I'm not 90 yet!). A story of slavery, abuse, treachery, kindness and friendship also steeped in adventure, suspense and danger. It encapsulates much that is bad in the world and contrasts that with so much that is good.

The main characters are the waifs who are all aged in the 7-12 age bracket (although age is not something they discuss - it's height that matters) and they are a mixed set of girls and boys, some likeable some positively not so. For the younger capable reader this has everything they could want in a book, for the older reader it works equally well.

As book 1 of a trilogy called The Waifs of Duldred (Duldred is Jeopardine's estate) we can reasonably safely assume that all will not go as the waifs have planned at Duldred.

Longlisted for the Times/Chicken House prize for children's fiction - I thoroughly enjoyed this well crafted story.

When I come to write these reviews I always wonder have I said enough? Is there more I should add? With this in mind let me finish with these words.... read this book!

Publisher - Mother's Milk Books
Genre - Children's/Adult crossover,  dystopian

The Forgotten and the Fantastical - edited by Teika Bellamy

review by Maryom

In The Forgotten and The Fantastical Teika Bellamy has brought together eleven writers to explore old myths, fables and fairy tales and re-cast them in a new light. There are some you will recognise; Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella are given a modern twist in Footfalls of the Hunter and Screaming Sue, Lady Seaweed re-tells the legend of The Mermaid of Zennor from the mermaid's point of view, and The Cave offers an alternative interpretation of the entombment of Merlin. Others strike out into new areas - The Sparrows and The Beefworms is a fable about the pressure 'experts' put on us to conform to their way,  Geppetto's Child an exploration of what it is to be 'human'. Some like The Boy and the Bird, The Mother Tree and the Paper House, feel like old folk tales, although I've not encountered these before. And one, The Wanderer's Dream based loosely on a Japanese story, The Dream of Akinosuke, reminded me of Star Trek's Capt Picard's dream-adventure in the episode The Inner Light (geeky I know, but there's nothing new about the morphology of the folk tale and where it can end up)
Now, I know this kind of tale doesn't appeal to everyone but I was enthralled by fairy tales as a child and, from Neil Gaiman to Seren's New Stories from the Mabinogion series and Allen and Unwin's Tales from the Tower, I love these re-tellings with a more grown-up adult twist, and really enjoyed this collection. As ever they contain that mix of morality tale and the fantastical that has kept them popular throughout the years.
It's a fairly slim volume with the stories themselves adding up to about 100 pages with notes on the authors and background to their adaptations included at the end of the book, in case you're interested.
Published by a small independent press, it doesn't have the glossy high-impact cover of something from a big publisher, but, as they say, don't judge a book by its cover - the stories inside are as intriguing and memorable as any I've read elsewhere.

Authors - Rebecca Burland, Becky Cherriman, Tomas Cynric, Barbara Higham, CM Little, NJ Ramsden, Lisa Shipman, Marija Smits, Lindsey Watkins

 Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Mother's Milk Books
Genre - adult folk/fairy tales