A large cat sprang out, maybe a mountain lion. Something from the darkness growled angrily, then snarled.

It soured still more when another door opened. Adrianne had a nasty, sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Its tall head of antlers spread wide and pointed in all directions. I’ll be honest, I have no idea what the elk symbolises – the passage below is not its first appearance – but the imagery here is lovely.Ī side door opened and a sizable elk trotted onto the field of artificial green. Not that this is a deal-break – Elysium is an exciting debut novel. Like Cheryl Morgan, though, I was less than convinced by the novel’s “interrogation” of gender. What’s remarkable is how Brissett ties all these disparate ideas and threads together into a satisfying resolution.

Crammed with SFnal ideas that go well beyond your traditional apocalypse narrative, the novel has an innovative structure that means the setting is always changing and so is the gender and identity of the protagonists. While it’s another apocalypse novel it’s also the most imaginative book on the PKD ballot.

So I’ve borrowed from the back cover blurb.Īs the novel’s characters struggle to survive apocalypse, they are sustained and challenged by the demands of love in a shattered world both haunted and dangerous. Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Benin, Bermuda, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Gabon Republic, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Greenland, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Macau, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South Africa, Suriname, Swaziland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Vietnam, Virgin Islands (U.S.This is not an easy book to describe without giving away spoilers.

Elysium by jennifer marie brissett