Big Time (Jordan Prosser, UQP)

I’m not sure what’s going on at UQP, but they seem to have developed a passion for speculative fiction, and I’m here for it. Their latest offering, Big Time, is set in a future or maybe parallel Australia, split at the 129th meridian into two nations. The Western Republic of Australia is part of the global technological consumer community, while the Free Republic of East Australia (FREA) is most certainly not. The FREA is an isolated, Orwellian state, but with an Australian flavour that venerates the idealised 1950s Australian identity that ultra-conservatives champion. It’s also where a pop band called The Acceptables formed and released a successful album. This is the story of their controversial anti-government second album and the band’s disastrous last tour, their strange connection to a bunch of idealistic revolutionaries, and an illicit psychotropic drug—street name ‘F’—that allows users glimpses of the future. It’s told through a mix of first- and third-person perspectives and, thanks to F, it also does some interesting things with chronology. It’s a rock and roll story that is also about oppression and revolution and a high-concept exploration of how being able to see into the future would change our entire perception of reality. In his debut novel, Jordan Prosser weaves everything together like a song, a sad final encore for the days that were and the things that could have been. This is one for fans of Naomi Alderman, Emily St John Mandel and Cory Doctorow.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Stefen Brazulaitis has been a bookseller with a special interest in science fiction and fantasy for 30 years and is the owner of Stefen's Books in Perth WA. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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