by NRB | 24 Oct 2024 | Fiction, SFF |
Tim Winton’s new novel dives into a post-climate-change world where violence seems the only solution. The opening of Tim Winton’s new novel Juice cannot help but put readers in mind of Cormac McCarthy’s seminal work The Road. A man, possibly an ex-soldier, and a young...
by NRB | 8 Feb 2024 | Fiction |
The new novel from Uruguayan writer Fernanda Trias is set in a dystopian city and has unsettling echoes of recent events. When the fog rolled in, the port turned into a swamp. Shadows fell across the plaza, filtering between the trees and leaving the long marks of...
by NRB | 6 Jun 2023 | Fiction, SFF |
Nick Harkaway’s dystopian new novel features a classic noir detective. While it is always true to say genre is fluid, occasionally something magical can happen when crime fiction meets science fiction. This may be because the best crime fiction uses its tropes...
by NRB | 10 Mar 2022 | Fiction, SFF |
The author of Before the Fall has created a grim vision of the near future in this fast-paced new novel. Noah Hawley is angry and a little bit scared of the future, especially on behalf of his children. Those familiar with his previous book Before the Fall could not...
by NRB | 23 Dec 2021 | Fiction, SFF |
An unsettlingly plausible near-future UK provides the backdrop for Sara Foster’s dystopian thriller, The Hush. In Sara Foster’s seventh novel, the world is emerging from years of pandemic lockdowns; the threat of food scarcity, economic turmoil and climate...
by NRB | 28 Sep 2021 | Fiction, SFF |
Catherynne M Valente’s new novel focusses on hope and resilience while asking what future generations will make of our wasteful ways. Just when you think the post-apocalyptic narrative might have become a bit stale, along comes Catherynne M Valente to blow it...
by NRB | 12 Aug 2021 | Fiction, SFF |
Clare Moleta’s novel canvases big questions as a mother searches for her child in a hostile landscape. The opening scene of Clare Moleta’s debut novel describes two farmers standing in the rain. Their daughter runs towards them – she’s scared; she’s five years...
by NRB | 16 Feb 2021 | Fiction, SFF |
In his twelfth novel Jonathan Lethem delivers a post-apocalypse story that is also a commentary on the genre. It seems everyone wants to write post-apocalyptic fiction at the moment. But Jonathan Lethem cannot be accused of just jumping on the bandwagon in his twelfth...
by NRB | 20 Aug 2020 | Fiction, SFF |
Truel1f3 delivers a satisfying conclusion to Jay Kristoff’s dystopian Lifel1k3 series, a tale of love, sacrifice and betrayal. ‘You built a world on metal backs. Held together by metal hands. And one day soon, those hands will close. And they’ll become fists.’...
by NRB | 13 Aug 2020 | Fiction, SFF |
Micaiah Johnson delivers a fresh take on multiple worlds and explores issues of power, nature and fate in her novel The Space Between Worlds. The idea of multiple worlds or multiple realities is a common one in science fiction. In her debut, The Space Between...
by NRB | 23 Jul 2020 | Fiction |
Laura Jean McKay’s novel asks us to see the world through animals’ eyes. It was just past Goulburn on the Hume Highway, heading back to Sydney last Christmas. The Southern Highlands were aflame, and a southerly had pushed up smoke clouds as thick as a...
by NRB | 20 Feb 2020 | Fiction, SFF |
The world has literally stopped turning in Andrew Hunter Murray’s dystopian thriller. Andrew Hunter Murray’s debut novel The Last Day is one of an interesting new strain of post-apocalyptic dystopian thrillers. Unlike standard cli-fi apocalypses that project...
EMILY TSOKOS PURTILL Matia. Reviewed by Ann Skea22 October 2024Emily Tsokos Purtill’s debut novel ranges across continents to tell the stories [ … ]
STEVEN HAMILTON and RICHARD HOLDEN Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck17 October 2024Australia’s Covid response may have had problems, but Steven Hamilton and [ … ]
ELIZABETH STROUT Tell Me Everything. Reviewed by Michael Jongen15 October 2024Pulitzer-winner Elizabeth Strout explores themes of isolation and connection in [ … ]