The True Queen, by Zen Cho

A wild storm washes up two sisters, Muna and Sakti, on the shores of Banda Jaik. A curse has caused them to lose their memories, so the witch Mak Genggang sends them to England’s Sorceress Royal to learn how to break it. On the journey they are separated; Sakti is trapped in the Fairy Queen’s palace, while Muna must navigate England’s snobbery and prejudice to try to reunite with her sister. Along the way she finds friends and allies, as well as enemies, who all play a part in Muna’s discovery of her true self and her place in the world. A sequel to Sorcerer to the Crown, Prunella and her husband are peripheral characters here, her best friend Henrietta taking centre stage along with Muna. The Sorceress Royal’s struggles to establish magical rights for women in Regency England is a mere backdrop to Muna’s story. Zen Cho has largely left behind the stilted and awkward language of the first book, aided by more of the action taking place in Fairyland and Malaysia. It moves faster too, making for an entertaining read. The climax and conclusion are rather convenient, but it’s hard to argue with a happy ending.

Their Brilliant Careers, by Ryan O’Neill

Subtitled The Fantastic Lives of Sixteen Extraordinary Australian Writers, this book purports to be a series of mini-biographies of 20th century Australian authors, editors and publishers. It is actually a satirical takedown of an incestuous publishing industry. Written straight, the line is often blurred between truth and fiction, with many real authors referenced among the 16 fictional profiles. It’s hard not to wonder how close to the truth some of the stories are, as some ring a bell and are very believable. Some are also horrific and many are very funny. Many of the writers profiled are one or more of self-serving, misogynist, racist, murderous, plagiarists. Those who aren’t are the victims of those who are. In the acknowledgements O’Neil proves himself worthy of his subjects. Considering this, it is surprising that Ryan O’Neill is not a pseudonym.

The Marvels (2023), directed by Nia Da Costa

A Captain Marvel superfan, 16-year-old Kamala Khan has some powers of her own that become supercharged when her grandmother’s armlet suddenly lights up. At the same time she finds herself in a body-switching situation with Carol Danvers herself and Captain Monica Rambeau. All three share light-based powers and must find a way to work together to combat the Kree, who plan to wreak revenge on Captain Marvel ‘the annihilator’ and restore their home planet by destroying the places she loves. This film has apparently not done well, which is perhaps not surprising given the lack of marketing but is a pity because it is a lot of fun. Clear plot lines, appealing characters and a running time of less than two hours are a very good start for a superhero film. But it is also hysterically funny in parts, with elements that could easily have veered into cheesiness or farce instead provoking gales of laughter. Bree Larsen is always good and her Carol Danvers is more vulnerable in this film. Iman Villani is a delight as Ms Marvel and Zawe Ashton makes a good fist of the big bad – Kree, Dar-Ben. There are references to the other films without getting bogged down in obscurity for those who haven’t seen them all, or the various TV shows. Samuel L Jackson is a nice anchor for the action, but the real star of the show is a cat, playing an alien.

Angel Mage, by Garth Nix

The Archangel Palleniel of Ystara has turned against his people, inflicting a plague that either turns their blood to ash or transforms them into savage, cannibalistic beastlings. Ystara is now a wasteland, its refugees the underclass in neighbouring Sarance because touching them with angelic magic reignites the plague. More than a century later Liliath, the maid of Ellanda, wakes from a very long sleep to lead the refugee Refusers back to Ystara. But first she must find four young people who carry the spark of Palleniel and are essential to her quest. Nix has created an alternative version of 17th century France, where the most powerful are mages who can summon the strongest angels to do their bidding, but pay a terrible price for it; the more and stronger they summon, the faster they age. Liliath is the only exception, as she can summon and even absorb angels without ageing. Unusually for Nix, this book is a slog. It takes a very long time to set the scene, with unnecessarily tedious details of city layouts, buildings and costumes, before the four young heroes are finally introduced. Their stories and characters are as interesting and compelling as those in his previous books, so it’s a pity the story doesn’t start with them, instead of lingering over the details of the unpleasant Liliath. It takes almost 500 pages to get to the rather rushed conclusion in which she meets her fate, but judicious editing would have cut it by a fifth and made it a much more enjoyable journey.

Bad Actors, by Mick Herron

A political advisor has gone missing and the head of MI5, Diana Taverner, finds herself unexpectedly at the pointy end. It’s ironic that her career is in jeopardy for something she is innocent of, rather than one of the many terrible things she has done. Lady Di is in so much trouble she has to call on frenemy Jackson Lamb and his slow horses for help. It’s uncomfortable for the reader to find themselves on the side of the despicable Diana, but it’s a case of the least worst actor in a story that sheds a chilling light on the state of democracy in post-Brexit, post Covid Britain. River Cartwright is completely missing from this tale, following his encounter with a nerve agent in the last book, and it is not clear until the end whether or not he survived. After a shaky start new slow horse Ashley Kahn looks a promising addition to the team, so she’ll probably get killed off in the next Slough House book. Sadly for addicts, that may be a while off as this one is the latest published to date.

Dumb Money (2023), directed by Craig Gillespie

This is the true story of a challenge to the bully-boy tactics of the big players on Wall Street by small individual investors – known disrespectfully as ‘dumb money’. Small time investment analyst and nerd hobbyist Keith Gill feels the video game chain store Game Stop is undervalued. When a Wall Street hedge fund starts to sell the business short, which will likely destroy it, Keith calls them out and goes viral. He sparks a little-guy rebellion that saves the company from the wolves and shines a light on the broken system that enables the uber-wealthy to get away with monetary murder. The film starts slowly as it wades through a welter of financial details, which can be gobbledegook to those uninitiated in the share market. It attempts to counteract the dull detail with gratuitous sex scenes. Thankfully it gets past both sets of awkwardness to tell a story of how finance Goliaths can be beaten up by Davids, if not totally defeated. Paul Dano carries the film as Keith, ably supported by America Ferrera, Shailene Woodley, Seth Rogan and Pete Davidson. The filmmaker wisely avoids claiming total victory - not all the small investors made their fortunes and the fattest cats avoided any punishment more than embarrassment. But the film celebrates a small win against a corrupt and broken system that is behind many of the world’s ills.

Islands, by Peggy Frew

Victoria’s Phillip Island is the setting for much of this novel about a disintegrating marriage and the lonely outcrops it makes of each family member. Helen and John married straight out of Uni in the 70s and had two daughters, smart, independent Junie and wild, dreamy Anna. The story zaps back and forward in time, showing the family’s origins, background, development and downfall in a series of fragments. These snapshots of events, encounters and moments in time are told from a dizzying multiplicity of points of view, some family members, some friends, acquaintances and schoolmates. Each fragments builds the picture of who these four people are, what happened to them and the fallout of the failure of a family. Mostly it’s about elder daughter June, but it all revolves around the disappearance of Anna, at the age of 15. Did she run away? Was she kidnapped? Is she alive or dead? And who is to blame? The questions are never answered, for the reader or for the people in her life. This leaves the larger question of just how do you deal with that?