In a broken and charred Western Australia, Assumpta Viali is an assassin for the repressive religious council of Nathan. Secretly, Assumpta is a Daughter of Moab: one of the genetically modified children born of women alone, and an abomination in the eyes of Nathaniel-and Assumpta is not the obedient servant the council believes. This book is an odd mix of post-apocalyptic science-fiction and spiritualised esoterica. At its heart is a twining together of genetic theory, arcane alchemical processes and a sort of earth magic, which may prove fascinating to many readers. There should also be an appeal, for readers of the dystopian SF genre, in seeing these scenes played out in such an unmistakably Australian context. But ultimately, for me, the book fails as a story. There is very little dramatic pacing, which combines with the present-tense narrative to give an odd sense that every passage is only setting the scene for something else. The characters never attain depth and reality, or even come clearly into focus: they remain figures in the distance, striding against the burnt purple sky.

Jarrah Moore works for the Global Books in Print database at Thorpe-Bowker

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

Tags: kim westwood