First edition
| |
| Author | Claire G. Coleman |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Speculative fiction |
| Published | 2017 (Hachette Australia) |
| Publication place | Australia |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 294 |
| ISBN | 9780733638312 |
| OCLC | 1104326528 |
Terra Nullius is a 2017 speculative fiction novel by Claire G. Coleman. It draws from Australia's colonial history, describing a society split into "Natives" and "Settlers."
Judges of the Stella Prize called Terra Nullius "an arresting and original novel",[1] while a reviewer for the Sydney Review of Books described it as "a cleverly multiplicitous text" and "an ambitious mirror for settler Australia".[2]
Terra Nullius has also been reviewed by Australian Book Review,[3] Publishers Weekly,[4] Locus,[5] Antipodes,[6] The Adelaide Review,[7] ArtsHub,[8] Kirkus Reviews,[9] and Library Journal.[10]
Terra Nullius is a cleverly multiplicitous text. The reader is an observer who must sit between two apocalyptic colonial moments (one ongoing, one possible) – analogising the latter to better appreciate the former. ... It is an ambitious mirror for settler Australia – by no means prophetic, but revelatory.
Artfully combining elements of literary, historical, and speculative fiction, this allegorical novel is surprising and unforgettable.
Coleman is not at all interested in being subtle about drawing these parallels, nor does she need to be: she gets her point across with powerful, disturbing, and often extremely violent portrayals of the subjugation of a native population that can't help but echo history.
While the outset of the book begins in a world with which we may be more familiar, the story swiftly transforms into a science-fiction sort of future in which the tensions between colonizers and colonized are explored from a distinctive perspective.
Terra Nullius is a powerful, sobering piece of writing that makes us face an Australia we try to forget, but should always remember.
A delightfully duplicitous noodle-bender that flips the script on the Indigenous Australian survival narrative.
If there's one weakness, it's the deluge of characters to accommodate. Otherwise, this promising first novel, ..., demonstrates Coleman's promise as a creative storyteller.
