If I’m right about this story thing, then this could be truly incredible.Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 15:45:46 Boxid IA1968016 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier

I cannot wait to read the rest of the trilogy. Lives lost, and lives saved, and secrets revealed. The stories that the Pale Women hold dear are insubstantial – they tell of arks and floods, but how will they keep their believers alive? And then there are the stories that Chan uses.

Tales of her mother’s misadventures are supposed to teach her fear and limits. Some from Agatha, to keep her breathing and moving and surviving at all costs. Some from her mother, to drive her to be selfish and brave and keep out of the way of the Lows. There may be an ultimate truth out there, but what matters here and now are the stories we carry with us, and how they drive us to act.Ĭhan carries plenty of stories with her. The ones we pass down from generation to generation, which teach lessons and give hope, and the ones that we keep tight hold of within our own hearts, that keep us breathing and freeze us into shame. This is a book about the stories we tell each other, and the stories we tell ourselves. It was only a good two-thirds of the way through that I realised just how many stories are told throughout the narrative – and I think that’s the point. On the surface, the basic premise is similar to Kass Morgan’s The 100 – people have abandoned Earth and taken refuge in space, but they hope someday to return to solid ground. Way Down Dark is savage and unapologetic, like the people within it. Because maybe in the darkness they can find the way home. But if anyone is to survive, Chan will have to head down into the darkness to uncover the secrets of Australia, and forget all the promises she made to her mother. Chan’s mother told her to stay selfish and not to die. The violent, savage Lows want to rule the ship. And the only hope they have is that one day, one day, they’ll find somewhere better.īut for now, Chan doesn’t have time for the stories, unless they’ll keep her alive. The Bells, the Lows, the Pale Women and the free peoples… They’re all hurtling together through space. But the only place she’s ever known is the ship Australia. Seventeen year old Chan was raised on stories of the ruined Earth they left behind, and of their future home among the stars.

Way Down Dark by J.P. Smythe