Reviews of My Work

Empire of the Waves: Voy­age of the Moon Child 

“[This] debut nov­el is an enchant­i­ng feat of the imag­i­na­tion. Filled with vivid crea­tures, vibrant set­tings and char­ac­ters who always keep you guess­ing, the author seems to have thought of every­thing … This whirl­wind adven­ture is sure to sweep the ground from beneath your feet.” Kay­la Gaskell, Read­Plus

“Extreme­ly well writ­ten (this mat­ters!). Con­grat­u­la­tions.” Dr Eliz­a­beth Hale, Senior Lec­tur­er in Eng­lish, Uni­ver­si­ty of New England 

“This is a rol­lick­ing fan­ta­sy adven­ture that has won­der­ful char­ac­ters and an intri­cate­ly woven plot … High­ly enter­tain­ing, will be enjoyed by low­er sec­ondary stu­dents with a taste for fan­ta­sy. Empire of the Waves has me eager­ly await­ing the next install­ment of Anni and Duck’s adven­tures.” Michelle, Lam­ont Books

“This debut has all the ele­ments of a great fan­ta­sy adven­ture — swash­buck­ling pirates, a friend­ly giant, wibbens (or dwarves), mon­sters of the deep, an under­wa­ter city and more … the sto­ry is beau­ti­ful­ly writ­ten, action-packed and engag­ing … The con­clu­sion leaves the read­er want­i­ng more from this excit­ing new fan­ta­sy series.” Angela Cro­combe, Junior Books + Publishing

“Empire of the Waves instant­ly draws you in with its vivid descrip­tions…” Lisa Haynes, Cre­ative Kids Tales

“[T]his has been one of my favourite books out of the many I’ve read in my life. I’ve loved almost every word of this book, all the dia­logue and emo­tion and scenery … Anni and Duck are amaz­ing, amaz­ing char­ac­ters. I love Anni’s deter­mi­na­tion and Duck­’s play­ful­ness through­out the book, it made me so emo­tion­al­ly invest­ed in them to watch how they grow and change togeth­er. They’re flawed but love­able, and they’re the best duo!! At the sight of a sequel in the future I can’t wait to see where their rela­tion­ship goes. And the rela­tion­ships between Anni and the oth­er char­ac­ters, how all their back­sto­ries reveal so much about the present day, it’s so well writ­ten and there’s so much more behind all the sur­face … I love the sto­ry and the action, and the plot twists are jaw-drop­ping … And the plot is so deep and engag­ing, and as the stakes grow I could­n’t help but read on … This is one of the only books that has made me laugh out loud, full on laugh­ing … an amaz­ing and well-writ­ten book, a hid­den gem which I’m glad to have come across. It’s so won­der­ful­ly made and the world inside the book is so fas­ci­nat­ing and unique. I’m so excit­ed to see where it goes. Thank you so much for this!!” Rose, Goodreads 

“This debut nov­el, ten years in the mak­ing, is a rich pud­ding of chaot­ic inci­dents, var­ied char­ac­ters and exot­ic crea­tures. Anni and Duck are always in the thick of the action which gal­lops along at a fast pace occa­sion­al­ly leav­ened by moments of reflec­tion … A fun read for those aged 10+ who enjoy lots of adven­ture.” Mia Macrossan, CBCA Read­ing Time

“A well-writ­ten and excit­ing adven­ture sto­ry that draws on clas­sic fan­ta­sy and sto­ry­telling to cre­ate an in-depth world and char­ac­ters that you won’t want to leave behind. It’s sim­i­lar to series like His Dark Mate­ri­als, Nar­nia, Har­ry Pot­ter and Broth­erband. What I espe­cial­ly liked about this were the strong female char­ac­ters, which are hard to find in these sorts of kids’ books. I work in a book­store and see first­hand how chil­dren’s books are very gen­dered — ie, ‘girly’ school­girl char­ac­ters for girls and clever action heroes for boys, so it’s very refresh­ing when some­thing like this comes along. Anni is a girl, but she’s tough and adven­tur­ous, so she would appeal as a lead to boys and girls, much like Lyra in North­ern Lights. Duck, a boy she meets on her jour­ney, is a nice foil to her and their friend­ship is com­pelling … a fun and thrilling nov­el for the 9 to 15-year-old mar­ket. Any­one with an adven­tur­ous spir­it will appre­ci­ate it.” Ste­phie Col­less, For­mer Man­ag­er of Har­ry Har­tog Bon­di Junction

“Empire of the Waves is so awe inspir­ing, enchant­i­ng, delight­ful and thrilling. Thank you for writ­ing such bril­liant escapism and rol­lick­ing fun!” Dr Han­nah Ianniello

“Christo­pher Richard­son did a great job of pulling you in and describ­ing every sit­u­a­tion in detail.” Emi­ly, Year Eight, Young Adult Read­er Reviews — Australia

“Empire of the Waves is a well-writ­ten, fan­tas­tic adven­ture and fan­ta­sy book that not just tran­scends the stereo­types of fan­ta­sy books, but aug­ments the clas­sic with the unique to cre­ate an amaz­ing sto­ry with its own orig­i­nal plot and char­ac­ters. The plot moves quick­ly; it’s fast-paced and dynam­ic, and is still able to have that in-depth detail and descrip­tion. We get to visu­alise the world that Christo­pher Richard­son has cre­at­ed, see what the char­ac­ters see, feel what they feel, be a part of the sto­ry. It delves into mys­ter­ies and real­is­tic ideas as well; it tru­ly makes you think about the con­cepts of love, trust, loy­al­ty and much more. This book was large­ly enter­tain­ing, and I couldn’t put it down after I start­ed; I could real­ly con­nect with Anni Tidechild, expe­ri­ence the frus­trat­ing walls she faced, and even­tu­al­ly over­come them, learn­ing about the world and her­self as well. I strong­ly rec­om­mend this to all who are inter­est­ed in new, fresh, inge­nious fantasy/adventure books that have that unthink­able twist in them that leaves you crav­ing more. A def­i­nite must-read!” Jen­ny, Year Eight

“Anni Tidechild (orphaned and liv­ing in a library) isn’t like most char­ac­ters I encounter in chil­dren’s books. She has fire in her bel­ly (and fiery hair), and isn’t shy of fight­ing … Rich lan­guage through­out the book reminds me of far old­er books I read grow­ing up … I can see links and influ­ences to clas­sic chil­dren’s books (with 2015 being the 150th anniver­sary of Alice in Won­der­land, I think com­par­isons between the two will arise or even C.S. Lewis’ Nar­nia books), but like the teacher’s notes state it’s Philip Pull­man’s Lyra Belac­qua I’m remind­ed of. Could you imag­ine writ­ing a chil­dren’s book and then being com­pared to Philip Pull­man?! Amaz­ing … I sus­pect this was not a book writ­ten pure­ly for chil­dren orig­i­nal­ly, and this rea­son alone makes it rich and intrigu­ing. With the Christ­mas and gift-giv­ing sea­son now behind us, I gift­ed this book to a cou­ple of peo­ple, and they ranged between 10–40 years old. I’d rec­om­mend this book to con­fi­dent Year 4 read­ers onwards (espe­cial­ly girls), but would encour­age adults to have a flick too. And if you are a teacher of Years 5 & 6, the themes of this sto­ry fit nice­ly with the new his­to­ry syl­labus (in Aus­tralia). Here’s hop­ing Chris Richard­son writes fast and com­pletes series quick­er then Iso­belle Car­mody. I don’t think I could wait that long for the rest of the series.” Rebec­ca Toltz, Teacher-Librar­i­an, Kings­grove Pub­lic School, Sydney

“Anni Tidechild on a quest to save her friends and her city — but what from? And can she tell the dif­fer­ence between her friends and her ene­mies? A jour­ney of epic pro­por­tions and a fan­tas­tic read for lovers of fan­ta­sy,” Iri­na, Book­seller Shelf Talk­er, Dymocks Syd­ney

Pur­chase Empire of the Waves

Book­topia

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