The Song That Sings Us

The Automators have come, just like Ma always knew they would, and they don’t plan on taking any prisoners.

Ma can return their fire and hold them off for a while – hopefully long enough for Harlon, Ash and Xeno to escape – by snowboarding down Skull Gully: a 6,000-foot sheer slope, studded with rocks, that is just as likely to kill them as the hail of bullets currently peppering the house.

When the siblings are separated, they must each find a way to follow Ma’s final, mysterious instruction. Their lives, and perhaps the future of humanity, depend on it.

The world in this complex, dystopian, eco-thriller is a more extreme version of the climate crisis currently facing humankind. The slogan of the dominant Automators is to ‘escape the tyranny of nature’ and anything non-industrial is being actively destroyed.

The delineation between humans and animals is blurred and there are some interesting ideas around bionetworks and the interconnectivity of species. But this is not just a book for ecowarriors. Anyone who enjoys a really good adventure thriller will love it – and readers may never feel quite the same way about elephants ever again.