To The Last Page

As an action thriller, Rob Boffard's Tracer is fast moving and purposeful. As a science-fiction book, it's a lot less convincing. It's well researched and the situation is credible, but it doesn't really take advantage of the situation to explore any new ideas. The SF premise is promising. The planet now destroyed, the population of Earth now live on Outer Earth, a constructed ring of six sector above the planet. Due to the limited means for producing food and retaining water, existence is precarious. It's also precarious when you're Tracer like Riley Hale. One of the Devil Dancers, Riley is a courier who knows her way around the ship better than anyone, but its always a risky job transporting unknown goods. Life is about to get more precarious, with the growing presence of a cult called Sons of the Earth, who believe Earth can recover and replenish if they destroy all mankind. There is no shortage of action or momentum as Riley races from one dangerous situati

The science-fiction premise of Way Down Dark , part 1 of J.P. Smythe's Australia Trilogy, is far from original. A space-ship, called Australia, is a generation into its long journey into interstellar space, its human population looking for a new planet to colonise, with vague references to an Earth over-population crisis exacerbated by climate change. Over that time myths have developed and the social structure of the ship has evolved into dangerous gangs and mysterious cults of Lows, Pale Women and Bells, each of them struggling for power or simply trying to stay alive. The main content of Way Down Dark isn't particularly exciting in its development either over this first part. Basically, the social order is on the verge of collapse, the Lows making violent incursions into the upper levels, killing, abducting and destroying, threatening not only the balance of the social structure but the ecosystem on Australia, and even the integrity of the ship itself. The main part of the

As you can probably tell from the title, Lisa McInerney's The Glorious Heresies irreverently sets about demolishing a lot of the institutions and ideals that underpin a somewhat romanticised view that persists about Ireland. All the usual targets are there and are laid into with a great big hurley stick - the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church, the treatment of women and the failings of crooked politicians, but the author doesn't spare the Irish themselves or any idealised notions about the family. Actually, as irreverent and brutal as it appears - and it does get very dark into alcoholism, abuse, drug dealing and prostitution - The Glorious Heresies is a little more subtle and colourful than it seems. It doesn't set out to rip into everyone as much as force you to evaluate people in a more realistic light and really consider the harm that has been done by those institutions that would rather wash their sins under the carpet and pretend they don't exist. Lisa McInerney