Aurealis launched a set of beautifully-packaged new editions of very early Australian sf novels at Aussiecon 4 last month. They've done us all a great service, making hard-to-get items of literary history available again, with cool covers and expert introductions.
Russell has a bit of history in sf history. Among other things, he was the instigator and co-author of the lauded Greenwood Press scholarly tome, Strange Constellations: A History of Australian Science Fiction, and has written articles on Aussie (and world) sf for any number of books and literary encyclopaedias. Anyway, he spotted Stuart Mayne selling sets of the new series in the Dealers' Room at A4, bought a set, and almost immediately read and blogged about them.
Russell gets quite a few visitors to his blog, but I'm sure that there are MANY people interested in the history of Australian sf who wouldn't drop past it regularly enough to have spotted these lively and erudite reviews - so here are a series of links:
http://metamagician3000.blogspot.com/2010/09/classic-australian-sf.html
http://metamagician3000.blogspot.com/2010/09/reading-crowned-skull-by-fergus-hume.html
http://metamagician3000.blogspot.com/2010/09/reading-shrieking-pit-by-arthur-j-rees.html
http://metamagician3000.blogspot.com/2010/09/reading-vandals-of-void-by-james-morgan.html
http://metamagician3000.blogspot.com/2010/09/reading-bid-for-fortune-or-dr-nikolas.html
http://metamagician3000.blogspot.com/2010/09/reading-week-in-future-by-catherine.html
http://metamagician3000.blogspot.com/2010/09/currently-reading-out-of-silence-by.html
http://metamagician3000.blogspot.com/2010/09/little-bit-more-about-earani.html
Do yourself a favour! Have a read, and buy a set!
