Liar's Test

  

Still continuing my read through the CBCA Notables list, and I've come to Liar's Test by established First Nations author Ambelin Kwaymullina. This is a briskly-paced speculative fiction novel, plunging the reader immediately into a detailed, fully formed world, where Bell Silverleaf, a member of the oppressed Treesingers, competes with six other girls to become Queen for the next twenty five years. There is a Hunger Games flavour to this structure, but there are more layers here. Bell's world has been colonised by a group of so-called 'gods,' who have attracted followers called the Risen to their various temples. But the world is really -- I think -- a sentient kind of spaceship? Or perhaps the whole world is sentient?

I must be getting old because while I enjoyed lots of elements of Liar's Test, I struggled to follow the revelations and the backstory at times. The story, packed with action, perhaps could have done with a few pauses to let the reader catch their breath and sort out the details. That said, the parallels with First Nations culture and the use of the church's and religion to oppress colonised people were very striking and really well handled. Female friendship and matriarchal power is celebrated, but there are strong and sympathetic male characters, too. Now I see that Liar's Test is book one of a proposed series, so perhaps I'll get some of the breathing space I'm looking for later down the track, because there is almost too much material here for just one book!