Between Worlds (B D Lovell, UWAP)
While often overlooked, science fiction poetry, or speculative verse as it’s sometimes called, has a distinguished pedigree, with contributions from such luminaries as Ursula K LeGuin and Brian Aldiss, as well as modern authors such as Iain M Banks, Alastair Reynolds and Jane Yolen. Last year, a verse novel, Deep Wheel Orcadia by Harry Josephine Giles, won the Arthur C Clarke award for best novel. It’s a time for science fiction poetry to shine, and this new book by internationally acclaimed poet B D Lovell is absolutely part of that phenomenon. Between Worlds follows the first mission to begin the process of colonising Mars. It’s a story that’s told in fragments, each poem a thought and moment in time that together makes a cohesive whole. Our guide to these events is Delphine, a young woman with one foot in the ancient world of her Indigenous mother and the other in that of her white father, and a heart that yearns for the stars. While the reader spends time with others on the Mars mission and hears their voices, only Delphine conveys her perspective in first person. Ultimately, Between Worlds is her story and journey. It’s the sort of space exploration tale that has been told many times before, but never with such intimacy. Recommended for readers aged 13 and beyond, this is science fiction pared away to reveal its bones.
Read Stefen Brazulaitis’s interview with B D Lovell about Between Worlds here.
Books+Publishing reviewer: Stefen Brazulaitis is the owner of Stefen’s Books in Perth. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.
