Are you getting edgy because you’re not at AussieCon? Don’t worry, we’ve got some reading to calm you down 
. If you ARE at AussieCon, don’t miss the following panel with Voyager star Fiona McIntosh.
Getting edgy: The disreputable protagonist in modern fantasy
While fantasy used to centre around noble and good-hearted heroes, a growing sub-genre of recent years has
celebrated a less savoury breed of protagonist. Knights and wizards-in-training are giving way to thieves, assassins, mercenaries and cutthroats. What is the appeal of this form of anti-hero, and what are its origins? How does changing the protagonist alter the kind of story you are able to tell?
Ellen Kushner, Trudi Canavan, Fiona McIntosh
Monday 1300 Room 204
Not at the panel? Here’s a sneak peek from Kim Falconer’s Road to the Soul, the following up to Path of the Stray. Kim would have been on today’s panel but unfortunately had to return home as she has a bad flu.
Jarrod discovered the source of the haunting call the moment he entered the woods. It wasn’t wind whistling through a hollow canyon or skimming across the mountain lake. It wasn’t the swaying trees or a murder of crows shooting like black arrows into the sky. It was a beautiful young witch with honey red hair. The call came from her.
He watched her walk through the heart of the woods unafraid. Never had Jarrod seen such a contrast — her hair red against the trees. Opposites on the spectrum, it made the tone of the woods seem even more vivid. Hunter green! He’d heard about it in Corsanon. Bards wove it into their songs, those who had travelled here and seen it first-hand, and what they said was true — the hunter green of Vesper would catch you, seduce you, and it did. And so did the young witch.
Filed under: Kim Falconer Tagged: | AussieCon4, Kim Falconer, Path of the Stray, Quantum Enchantment, quantum encryption, Road to the Soul, Strange Attractors, The Spell of Rosette
