AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
![]() ![]() No short block of text is going to adequately impress on you the scope of this novel. While with Peri the reader is treated to an unravelling of a personal mystery and the wonders and possibilities of flight. What looks like a straightforward case takes Zeke and the reader further into the mysterious and seedy world of flier culture and politics. Peri absconds with the child she is caring for and Zeke is hired to track her down. Second, Zeke an ex-cop turned private eye agonising over the choice to let his ex-wife turn their son into a flier. The story is told from two perspectives: First, Peri a poor girl made good, a wet nurse and surrogate mother for a pair of rich flyers her payment is her wings. In dripping gold letters three metres high ran the words: if GOD wanted you to FLY, he’d have made you RICH. Society limps on, the gap between rich and poor ever widening, encapsulated most eloquently in a piece of graffiti viewed by one of our protagonists: The dark underside to these genetic wonders are superbugs, ultra virulent strains of mosquito born diseases and super weeds that clog any land not repeatedly cleared. Picking your child’s features is commonplace the cutting edge of genetic manipulation is the creation of humans with wings. ![]() ![]() When We have Wings is set in a near future Australia where sea levels have risen and our tampering with genetics has altered not only our own biology but that of many of the life forms surrounding us. When We have Wings enchanted me as I was reading it and had me deep in thought when I wasn’t. It’s rare as a reviewer that I get surprised by a work, when you read a lot of quality fiction your expectations are high. When We have Wings is Claire Corbett’s debut novel, though from page one the reader is in no doubt that Corbett is a practised and skilled writer. And I really miss Zeke, Peri, Hugo and all the others. And even though we get some answers in this novel there are many questions left to consider. This is why I hope the author will continue to write about it. What defines a human being? Is it alright to manipulate your body? What happens to us when we change something in our genes? How do we wish to lead our lives? How much are you allowed to use another human being? What are we doing to our world? The novel also raise many ethical, philosophical and thoughtprovoking questions. She describes some of it, of course, but often she gives you a hint or just states a fact and let the reader form a picture of it and what has happened to it. I liked the plot but what really got me hooked was the world the author has created. Zeke, a private detective, gets involved more than he ever could have imagined and you really want to read on and on to learn what is happening. The novel starts with a death and is in many ways a crime-story. Both fliers and non-fliers live in the city sheltered from the others on the outside and the fliers seem to want to change the city to a place fit for them only. In the society, the city, there is an increasing tension between fliers and non-fliers because the fliers see themselves as a superiour kind. The story is set in a future were man has learnt to manipulate nature and shape himself into fliers among a lot of other developments. I put this novel in my SF-Fantasy shelf even though it´s much much more than that and I definitely don´t want to scare anyone from reading it. I do hope she writes a sequel! Claire Corbett has created a world I hope to read more about. ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |