image of person or book cover 8292017216269913596.jpg
This image has been sourced from online.
y separately published work icon Skymaze single work   children's fiction   science fiction   children's  
Is part of Space Demons Trilogy Gillian Rubinstein , 1986 series - author (number 2 in series)
Issue Details: First known date: 1989... 1989 Skymaze
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Latest Issues

VIEW ALL ISSUES (C83484)

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

A new game reunites the four original players of "Space Demons" and it lures them into a compellingly beautiful but dangerous world in which their own real-life problems are chillingly reflected

Notes

  • Was named as a Children's Book Council Notable Book.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Norwood, Norwood, Payneham & St Peters area, Adelaide - North / North East, Adelaide, South Australia,: Omnibus/Puffin , 1989 .
      image of person or book cover 8292017216269913596.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 193p.
      ISBN: 0140341404
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,      :       Orchard Books ,       1991 .
      image of person or book cover 8942029672295171324.png
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 183p.
      ISBN: 0531059294, 0531085295 (lib.)
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,      :       Pocket Books ,       1993 .
      Extent: 227 p.p.
      ISBN: 067176988X (pbk.)
    • Norwood, Norwood, Payneham & St Peters area, Adelaide - North / North East, Adelaide, South Australia,: Omnibus Books , 1996 .
      Extent: 194p.
      Edition info: new ed.
      ISBN: 1862912882
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Orion ,       1997 .
      Extent: 194 p.p.
      ISBN: 1858814391 (pbk.)
    • Balmain, Glebe - Leichhardt - Balmain area, Sydney Inner West, Sydney, New South Wales,: Ligature , 2018 .
      image of person or book cover 8061015058185899437.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 200p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 19 November 2018.
      ISBN: 9781925883015 (ebk)
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Untapped , 2021 .
      image of person or book cover 7508768656213160803.png
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 1v.p.
      ISBN: 9781922730077
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Brio Books ; Untapped , 2022 .
      image of person or book cover 5988094154115551516.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 186p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 27 September 2022.
      ISBN: 9781761281242
Alternative title: Rum Labyrinten
Language: Danish
    • c
      Denmark,
      c
      Scandinavia, Western Europe, Europe,      :       Thorup ,       1990 .
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Other Formats

  • Also braille.
Find library holdings on Trove

Works about this Work

Children of the Apocalypse Roslyn Weaver , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Apocalypse in Australian Fiction and Film : A Critical Study 2011; (p. 108-134)

This chapter explores apocalypse in children's literature with reference to literary attitudes to children, nature and dystopia. Examinations of works by Lee Harding, Victor Kelleher, and John Marsden then focus on how these writers adapt apocalyptic themes for a juvenile audience. Their novels display tyranny, large-scale catastrophe, invasion, and children in danger, and their apocalyptic settings reveal anxieties about isolation, invasion, Indigenous land rights and colonization. (108)
Cutting it in New Times : The Future of Children's Literature Kerry Mallan , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , December vol. 16 no. 2 2006; (p. 5-16) In regards to the future of children's literature, 'both its fiction and its scholarship' (5), Kerry Mallan considers three questions: 'How are new times impacting upon scholars in children's literature?; what new directions are offered by children's cultural texts?; what new tasks can we set ourselves [critics of children's literature] before they are set for us? (5). Mallan's main concern is that new skills are needed to navigate a course through 'the turbulent seas of research priorities' and 'appear relevant to new students and university administration' (6). In her discussion of how Internet fiction has 'contributed to the demise of traditional narrative authority and opened up new formulations of the role of readership in narrative' (10) Mallen refers to a number of International and Australians texts, including Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing (2000) and Gillian Rubinsteins' Space Demons (1986) and Sky Maze (1989). For Mallan, it is imperative that scholars in the field of children's literary criticism 'find new ways of making its presence felt both within the academy and outside of it' without adopting a 'defensive position'(14) however, she concludes by drawing attention to the 'lure of new texts, new technologies, new readings, new readers' suggesting it is equally important to consider just what exactly makes us always desire the 'new' over the 'old' (14).
Exciting Writing : Gillian Rubinstein Jill Swanwick , 1998 single work column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 12 May 1998; (p. 5)
Serious Fantasy: Science Fiction and High Fantasy John Foster , Maureen Nimon , E. J. Finnis , 1995 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Children's Literature : An Exploration of Genre and Theme 1995; (p. 155-176)
Gillian Rubinstein and Her Women Barbara Minchinton , 1994 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , August-December vol. 5 no. 2-3 1994; (p. 113-124) Minchinton examines the stereotyped portrayals of women (particularly mothers) and girls in Rubinstein's novels and questions if perhaps her representations stem from Rubinstein's own childhood experiences of abandonment, grief and loss. In particular, Minchinton addresses Rubinstein's idealised 'earth Mother' as a counterpoint to the harshly portrayed 'working' and 'absent' mothers and asks a pertinent question: ' where does the story end and the personal pain begin?' (113). Minchinton observes a slight progression in Rubinstein's body of work towards a more rounded representation of womanhood and female sexuality, however overall, she argues that Rubinstein's characters '...may as well be heroes [as] they are not specifically female at all' (122).
Untitled Carmel Ballinger , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , March vol. 5 no. 1 1990; (p. 32)
— Review of Skymaze Gillian Rubinstein , 1989 single work children's fiction
Thought-Provoking Stories for Teens Eleanor Stodart , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 27 May 1989; (p. B4)
— Review of Never Tomorrow Nan Hunt , 1989 single work novel ; Skymaze Gillian Rubinstein , 1989 single work children's fiction
Space Sequel Skyrockets Joan Zahnleiter , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Magazine , 13-14 May 1989; (p. 10)
— Review of Skymaze Gillian Rubinstein , 1989 single work children's fiction ; Honoured Guest Robin Klein , 1979 single work novel ; Long White Cloud James Porter , 1989 single work novel ; The Great Gatenby John Marsden , 1989 single work novel
The Circular Paths of Adolescent Quests Ann L. Grieve , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June no. 111 1989; (p. 36-37)
— Review of Long White Cloud James Porter , 1989 single work novel ; Skymaze Gillian Rubinstein , 1989 single work children's fiction ; The Journey John Marsden , 1988 single work novel
Untitled A. J. H. Jones , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: Scan , June vol. 9 no. 3 1990; (p. 12)
— Review of Skymaze Gillian Rubinstein , 1989 single work children's fiction
A Hero is a Man...??? Gillian Rubinstein , 1993 single work column
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , May vol. 8 no. 2 1993; (p. 5-9)
Living with Ourselves : Recent Australian Science Fiction for Children and Young People Maureen Nimon , 1990 single work criticism
— Appears in: Children's Literature Association Quarterly , vol. 15 no. 4 1990; (p. 185-189) Nimon observes that Australian science fiction for children tends to present futuristic narratives that are 'earthbound' rather than 'launching into the void between the stars or touching down on remote and wonderous planets' (185). She claims that writers of juvenile science fiction 'find Australia itself to be a challenging terrain...a continent whose people are neither comfortable nor assured in their possession of it' (185). Following a discussion of novels by Lee Harding (Displaced Persons, Waiting for the End of the World), Victor Kelleher (Taronga, The Makers), and Gillian Rubinstein (Beyond the Labyrinth, Skymaze and Space Demons), Nimon claims that as well as the tendency of Australian science fiction for children to remain earthbound, there is a pervasive theme of individualization, 'where the dangers encountered and the foes met are the powers of our own desires and weaknesses; we battle to control our unruly selves' and as such, 'the future lies in our own hands' (188).
Cutting it in New Times : The Future of Children's Literature Kerry Mallan , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , December vol. 16 no. 2 2006; (p. 5-16) In regards to the future of children's literature, 'both its fiction and its scholarship' (5), Kerry Mallan considers three questions: 'How are new times impacting upon scholars in children's literature?; what new directions are offered by children's cultural texts?; what new tasks can we set ourselves [critics of children's literature] before they are set for us? (5). Mallan's main concern is that new skills are needed to navigate a course through 'the turbulent seas of research priorities' and 'appear relevant to new students and university administration' (6). In her discussion of how Internet fiction has 'contributed to the demise of traditional narrative authority and opened up new formulations of the role of readership in narrative' (10) Mallen refers to a number of International and Australians texts, including Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing (2000) and Gillian Rubinsteins' Space Demons (1986) and Sky Maze (1989). For Mallan, it is imperative that scholars in the field of children's literary criticism 'find new ways of making its presence felt both within the academy and outside of it' without adopting a 'defensive position'(14) however, she concludes by drawing attention to the 'lure of new texts, new technologies, new readings, new readers' suggesting it is equally important to consider just what exactly makes us always desire the 'new' over the 'old' (14).
Children of the Apocalypse Roslyn Weaver , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Apocalypse in Australian Fiction and Film : A Critical Study 2011; (p. 108-134)

This chapter explores apocalypse in children's literature with reference to literary attitudes to children, nature and dystopia. Examinations of works by Lee Harding, Victor Kelleher, and John Marsden then focus on how these writers adapt apocalyptic themes for a juvenile audience. Their novels display tyranny, large-scale catastrophe, invasion, and children in danger, and their apocalyptic settings reveal anxieties about isolation, invasion, Indigenous land rights and colonization. (108)
Gillian Rubinstein Agnes Nieuwenhuizen (interviewer), 1991 single work biography interview
— Appears in: No Kidding : Top Writers for Young People Talk About their Work 1991; (p. 225-255)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (18)

Awards

VIEW ALL AWARDS (4)
Last amended 16 May 2024 16:35:02
Subjects:
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X