The View from Ararat

The View from Ararat by Brian Caswell (University of Queensland Press)
PB RRP $22.95
ISBN 978 0 7122 3067 7
Reviewed by Beverley Boorer

Anyone who read the first in the series of these three YA sci-fi novels from this award winning author will not need any introduction to Deucalion, the planet that is 34 light years away from Earth and populated with gentle creatures that are totally telepathic with each other.

The View from Ararat continues the story, but is set some hundreds of years later when the planet is firmly settled. The C-ships from Earth keep on coming, but one day a mysterious warning of a disease called the Black Crystal Death (CRIOS) arrives. Only a few people take it seriously and insist that the newest refugees remain isolated until they are sure that the disease has not arrived with them. Of course, the worst case scenario comes true and the disease wipes out about a third of the human population before it can be identified. The planet descends into chaos with little real leadership and few people left who have the ability to find out the cause of the disease and look for a cure.

The story shows just how easy it is for civilization to collapse, no matter how well established it is. The book is not written with normal chapters but reads more like a series of log entries by different characters that include the place and date of writing. These are headed for instance, Erin’s Story and told from her viewpoint. However, other entries may simply be headed “Erin” and these tell us something about the character and the story, but not from her viewpoint. Each entry advances the story and gives the reader information about that character and others. This gives the author the ability to jump from one part of the story to another without it seeming piecemeal.

The story is well-researched and gives a lot of detail, with cryogenics being the mode of travel. Frozen sleep enables the same set of characters to arrive at a distant planet without having aged. The mystery of CRIOS is slowly unfolded and keeps the reader on tenterhooks, or at least curious as to what it is and what the effects will be. The ease with which it escapes from the refugee camp and infects so many other people makes for gruesome reading, but it is so realistic that it makes the reader shudder. It could so easily happen like that in real life. Interwoven throughout are the lives, thoughts and feelings of the many people involved and the start of telepathy for the human race.

The third in the series will be eagerly reached for.

Beverley Boorer is a published children’s author. Details of her sci-fi books for children, the Jeddon Series are available from her website.   

The Dreams of the Chosen

The Dreams of the Chosen by Brian Caswell (University of Queensland Press)
PB RRP $22.95
ISBN: 978 0 7022 3605 1
Reviewed by Beverley Boorer

Brian Caswell has done it again with this third and last book in the Deucalion series for young adults. This far-flung planet has had time to recover from the Black Crystal Death (CRIOS) that decimated the human population in the second book of the series and life is now sanitized and a bit stagnant to many of the population. Telepathy has become accepted and greatly enhances their way of life.

New – but untried - technology means spaceships should now be able to reach Earth in one year, but the CShips from Earth stopped coming hundreds of years ago and no one knows why. Did the mother planet suffer so terribly from CRIOS? Has there been an Apocalypse or some kind of meltdown? It is time to use that new technology to find out. A team is chosen and sent, still using cryogenics for the year’s travel.

But things go terribly wrong for the team that finally lands on Earth. Their lander is wrecked and they only have minimal contact with the Mother Ship. They know that something is terribly wrong on Earth, but they don’t know what, how it happened or who they can trust out of the various people groups that are left.

This story shows that new technology is not so very useful when the rest of the planet has been plunged back into the new Dark Age. However the skill of telepathy is very useful, even though anyone who has it is regarded with the utmost suspicion. Without it, the team would be lost.

Most technology has disappeared from Earth due to the meltdown that occurred centuries ago and no one knows anything about what is left. Knowledge – and anyone who has it - is viewed with distrust and suspicion. Most books from the past have been burned but there were some who worked to keep the knowledge safe and hidden for future generations, even though they did not understand it themselves. The team from Deucalion gradually finds out what has happened, but now they must devise a plan to save themselves and their friends from the few Families who control the world in this new and dangerous era. They must also ensure that enough knowledge remains to guide the enlightened few into a new Renaissance period when the time is right.

There are many heroes and heroines in the story, some of whom give their lives for what they believe. The Dreams of the Chosen makes a satisfying ending to this brilliant series.

Beverley Boorer is a published children’s author. Details of her sci-fi books for children, the Jeddon Series, are available from her website. 

Deucalion

Deucalion by Brian Caswell (University of Queensland Press)
PB RRP $22.95
ISBN 978 0 7022 2865 0
Reviewed by Jo Antareau


One for the science fiction fans! Set beneath the twin moons of the planet Deucalion, this is a story about colonization, exploitation, and revolution. The frontier-like existence on the planet means that large Earth-based companies have done very well exploiting the mineral wealth on the planet. But this has had terrible consequences for the indigenous Elokoi, a peaceful race of telepathic beings.

Brilliant young scientist Jane arrives on Deucalion to start work on a genetic project. But she has no memory of her former life on Earth and, by digging for clues about her previous work, she discovers highly secret and questionable research practices.

Darryl and 8 year-old Elena are the only survivors of a transporter crash that appears to have been engineered to kill the only viable political rival the planet’s first president has. And the president appears to have a cosy relationship with the large companies.

As the narrative unfolds, the details of a vast cover up emerges involving Elokoi and the mysterious Children of Icarus. This story weaves elements of medical ethics, of indigenous rights, and of the uneasy relationship between a colony and the ‘mother’ planet.

This is the first of a trilogy set on Deucalion. First published in 1995, it was rereleased to coincide with the release of the third in the series, Dreams of the Chosen. The story is told in multiple viewpoints and this makes it difficult for the reader to relate to any one individual, for ultimately it is a tale of the anatomy of a revolution.

For older readers.