Terra Nullius

Meaningful message told in a meaningful way. Could have had more plot though.

Conceptually I really enjoyed this book. Anti-colonial sci-fi is very much my jam, and I can't think of another speculative book offhand told with an aboriginal Australian lens. That said, I think I might have enjoyed it more without the twist which I keyed into from the very beginning. The reveal was a long time coming which made some of the gymnastics done to avoid the reveal a little forced. The cover compares Coleman to LeGuin which I think is particularly apt in that a lot of LeGuin's novels were really narrative thought experiments, more concerned with concept than character, and I think that's true for Coleman as well. It's a very cool idea but the idea supercedes much of my bonding with any characters or their stories. Still, a very interesting book and a genuine, occasionally viscerally painful look at the colonial powers that founded Australia, the US, and too many other countries. Not enough of this book is fiction.

Hmm. It's not really possible to review this book without spoilers, but I will say it is a book of two parts: one an excellent story of life under the horrors of colonialism, and another (the majority) a plot-hole-riven and frustratingly by-the-numbers story. On my generous days, I bump this up to a 3.5 (a 4 for the first third, and a 3 for the rest).