Sam and Tara are best friends. Sam has an artistic bent and loves working with his hands, while Tara is passionate and driven by social justice. Across the 21st century and into the 22nd, these things are the only constants. These 10 short stories explore a range of possible futures, investigating social and technological possibilities ranging from the astonishing to the terrifying. Each future examines the implications of a potential development, from artificial intelligence to genetic engineering, global warming, cloning, financial collapse, life extension and more. Through the eyes of Tara and Sam, we experience 10 different scenarios for the next 100 years. Michael Pryor returns to the field of science-fiction to give us this collection of stories in the best tradition of futuristic speculation. Pryor combines his usual deft touch at characterisation with some well-informed futurism to produce an engaging range of stories. He explores ethical dilemmas that arise in worlds that we would consider utopias as well as much darker futures. The book is supported by an excellent selection of teacher resources aligned with the Australian Curriculum. This is a thought-provoking read for middle secondary students.
Heath Graham is an educator currently working at the State Library of Victoria. This review first appeared in the Feb/March issue of Bookseller+Publisher Magazine.
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As it’s been a while, regrettably, since Wilkins Farago published a book eligible for any of the state premiers’ awards, I don’t feel I have a vested interest in the future or otherwise of the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards, which were 
Tony Cavanaugh is a film and television writer who has just published his first crime novel, Promise (Hachette), a serial killer thriller set on the Sunshine Coast. He spoke to reviewer Ian Hallett. (See the book review 
This book has a very strong sense of place. What attracted you to the Sunshine Coast setting?
The Light between Oceans is the debut novel from Australian author M L Stedmen (now living in the UK), which sparked a fierce bidding war and has already sold into multiple territories. Tom Sherbourne has survived Word War I, but now faces a terrifying situation of a completely different nature. He and his wife live on an otherwise uninhabited island off the coast of Western Australia, where Tom keeps the lighthouse. Here, he experiences peace from the bloody memories of the Great War that sometimes haunt him, but his wife Isabel miscarries three children, far from medical aid. When a boat carrying a dead man and a baby washes ashore, Isabel is smitten with the little girl, and Tom cannot deny her the baby. But what will it cost them both? This story is fascinating and so beautifully told—I couldn’t put it down. It perfectly evoked Australia, particularly in the descriptions of a lonely island and a small country town. The rhythm of the lighthouse and the family’s days on the island seem at once completely normal and unusually beautiful. The shifts in perspective and the growing cast of characters require the reader pays attention, but it is impossible not to. This is a romantic and a tragic book which grapples with themes such as vengeance and forgiveness, and will have crossover appeal for literary and general fiction readers.
With the film adaptation of the first book in the 
Bronwyn Parry proves once again that crime is not just the provenance of cityscapes in her genuinely chilling third romantic suspense novel. Dead Heat tells the story of a wounded ranger looking for space and peace in the bush, and a place to start over. Instead, she finds a burgeoning drug cartel, with all the inherent violence this implies. Leading the investigation of the cartel is a former undercover cop, damaged and with a few demons of his own. Fans of Parry’s previous novels will notice a darker tone to Dead Heat, a willingness on Parry’s part to push deeper into the crime aspect and the most sinister side of humanity. New readers should enjoy the extra layer of suspense that the growing emotional connection between the main characters provides. Dead Heat is a well-crafted novel that makes excellent use of its wild setting—and a plot so successfully suspenseful that I stopped reading it before bed!
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries is the television adaptation of Kerry Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher books (A&U), currently screening each Friday night on ABC. Andrew Wrathall spoke to head writer Deb Cox.
Was Kerry Greenwood involved in the screenwriting process?
Christine Harris and Ann James have collaborated on an ‘Audrey of the Outback’ series for primary-school aged children, and It’s a Miroocool! features the same plucky protagonist, only this time the picture book is for younger readers. It’s a lovely creation, from James’ water-coloured drawings to Harris’ simple yet effective narration. Right from the outset, you know that Audrey lives not in suburbia, nor in a concrete jungle, but somewhere in the Australian outback because her feet ‘kicked up red dust as she ran’. In fact, so far away is she from everyone else that poor Audrey is worried that the tooth fairy wouldn’t be able to find her. The book uses iconic Australian terms—a ‘billy’ is used as storage for Audrey’s tooth—and Indigenous fauna such as emus and dingoes also feature. The rural homestead is gorgeously illustrated through the vista of red earth, spinifex, silo and windmill against a sunset. The ‘miroocool!’ refers to the surprise gift the tooth fairy leaves behind for Audrey. Luckily it managed to find Audrey despite the dust storms erasing her footprints and the wind blowing away the note pinned to her cubby. This is a sweet book for preschoolers about a resourceful girl who does her best to help herself.
Lauren Oliver is the author of Pandemonium, the follow-up to Delirium, published by Hodder & Stoughton. She is touring Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in March.
What was the last book you read and loved?
