Way Down Dark - J.P. Smythe

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 novel revolves around Chan, a young woman who looks after the arboretum on the 50th floor, struggling almost single handedly to hold back the tide, keep alive and rescue others.

What will keep you involved as you go from one battle/escape wound/recovery to the next, are the hints that there is something we don't know, and that all is not what it seems. Of course, there is a twist that comes in towards the final third of the novel (there are some clues) that hits home at the end, but again it's not anything new as far as SF novels about generational space travel go. (Spoiler - highlight to view: Australia is actually a prison ship that has been sitting in orbit above Earth all this time, not travelling into space, and Earth is... well, we'll get to that in the second part of the trilogy).  Whether the story, like the population of Australia, is going places or going nowhere however, remains to be seen...