Sci-fi and fantasy novels are a hot genre right now. Booksellers report sales of sci-fi, fantasy and ‘romantasy’ books rising rapidly since the pandemic. The theory goes that due to world conditions being so depressing, readers want to escape to different worlds.
Traditionally, classic sci-fi novels explore the social and ethical dilemmas of the time, imagine distant worlds and magical powers and often imagine the future as bleak or dystopian.
As Venus Burns by ABC Radio Queensland journalist Matt Eaton, ticks all those boxes though this story is fairly grounded in contemporary Brisbane: hardly the dystopia it was when Joh was Premier.
While The Handmaid’s Tale dealt with patriarchy, War of the Worlds with hostile aliens and Day of the Triffids with hostile plants, self-destructive climate change-denying humans are the hostile enemy of humanity in As Venus Burns.
Set in twenty first century Brisbane, the book’s main character is Brisbane sex worker Mia Cassidy, who can’t believe her eyes when a man vanishes in front of her.
The cops think she has blood on her hands because the missing man is one of their own and he’d arrested Mia days before he disappeared.
The reason he and the other chosen few disappear is the suspense bit of this story. How they disappear and where they go is the sci-fi bit. As heroine Mia is swept up in the investigation into the missing, we get an almost Trent Dalton look at contemporary Brisbane’s underworld, which in Eaton’s hands, is somewhat glamourised. Mia is a ‘mistress of pleasure’ in prostitution ‘for a good time, not a long time’ and her co-workers seem empowered and without the addictions that usually accompany sex work. But hey, this is fantasy and perhaps it’s a male fantasy that sex workers enjoy their jobs.
The other hero is Sebastian, an idealistic billionaire and tech genius who wants to use his powers for good and plays a role in the disappearances. The sibling rivalry with his equally powerful twin sister is delicious.
The story takes a while to get going but gets interesting when the suspense is partly relieved and the reader finds out who’s at war in this inter-planetary ride that starts out joyful and turns dark.
As a Brisbane and West End native of 20 plus years, I enjoyed the rich cultural references of As Venus Burns, such as the Little Greek Taverna in West End where I enjoyed many a barbequed baby octopus. It’s still relatively rare to read a novel set in contemporary Brisbane.
The book reflects the subject matter a long-time journo like Eaton would encounter: sex work and decriminalisation, stem cell technology, the 2011 floods and climate change: all woven into a story about the end of the world.
Author Matt Eaton
As Eaton wrote in InReview ‘I began my journalistic career at The Courier-Mail in the mid-1980s during the dying days of institutional corruption. I’m sure moral decay and social entropy clings to my soul, even now. I feel it in my dreams.’
So what do you do with a soul stained by the moral decay of being young in Queensland in the 80s and 90s? Use your imagination to imagine a brighter future which anyone realistically appraising the current geo-political and climate change situation knows is a probably a fantasy.
The plot is fairly preposterous but fun. The writing is fairly politically incorrect with references to the ‘ways of man’ and a ‘glimpse of minge’ but the female heroine is smart, strong and independent. Via Mia’s time travelling trips, Joni Mitchell is a supporting character as is 1970s California which is a groovy juxtaposition to twenty first century Brisbane.
The story is pacey, rude and audacious.
Eaton has self-published six sci-fi novels and two novellas and he’s not stopping there.
As Venus Burns is the prequel to Eaton’s post-apocalyptic novel Blank. I must confess I’m interested enough to know what happens to these time-travelling, champagne-swilling Brisbanites staring down the apocalypse.
As Venus Burns retails on Amazon for $25.00 (paperback).
