Book review of The Daughters of Moab by Kim Westwood (Harper Voyager)

This is a deceptively good piece of writing.

The Daughters of Moab is set in the near future, in an Australia that has suffered the impacts of terrible climate change and the rapid implementation of genetic manipulation and breeding.

There is a kind of ‘Mad Max’ feel to this novel but it is written so cleverly that while you feel like you’re reading literature, it moves along with the pace of an action movie.

In a desolate corner of what used to be Western Australia, the Followers of Nathaniel – a ‘religion’ created as a reaction to the genetic manipulation that did away with the need for a man – are trying to save themselves from the depredations of a dying world.

They have captured the ‘Daughters of Moab’, children created by genetic manipulation, daughters only of Eve; no Adams needed.

But there is an anomaly, Assumpta Viali lives outside the compound, she does the dirty work, the bidding of the organisation’s leader and she’s watching over the daughters.

The status quo is about to be under siege, the daughters are stirring, the followers are tired of following and Assumpta is going to prove to be the most interesting person of them all.

Westwood has created a totally believable world, there is enough functioning technology to enable the action scenes to have some bite; there are weird sidebar characters and the references to our own recent history, the Stolen Generations for example, has strong resonances.

This is a great example of the quality of Australian speculative fiction as shown by the Dreaming Again compilation.

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