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Year of the Orphan
‘There were a heat. Air hotter’n blud. She felt it bakin her skin as she moved. There weren't nothin certain but one thing – the Reckoner were coming.’
Outback Australia. Hundreds of years from now. After the end. A girl races across the desert pursued by the reckoner, scavenged spoils held close. In a blasted landscape of abandoned mines and the crumbling bones of civilisation, she survives by picking over the dead past. She trades her scraps at the only known settlement, a ramshackle fortress of greed, corruption and disease. An outpost whose only purpose is survival – refuge from the creatures that hunt beyond.
Sold then raised hard in the System, the Orphan has a mission, carries secrets about the destruction that brought the world to its knees. And she's about to discover that the past still holds power over the present.
Given an impossible choice, will the Orphan save the only home she knows or see it returned to dust? Both paths lead to blood, but whose will be spilled?
In a post-apocalyptic future, survivors scavenge in the harsh Australian outback. Living rough in the remnants of our ruined world, an orphan with her own brutal past must decide if what’s left of humanity is worth saving.
‘Dystopian tale-telling at its absolute best. A worthy successor to The Chrysalids and Riddley Walker.’ David Hunt (Girt, True Girt)
'The ravaged land and the intense, visceral voice of the Orphan make this an extraordinary and compelling read.' Isobelle Carmody
‘A brilliantly chilling post-apocalyptic world, evoked in a voice of spare, compelling beauty . . . every moment of the story is gripping and immediate. An all-around great novel.’ Sandra Newman (The Country of Ice Cream Star)
Outback Australia. Hundreds of years from now. After the end. A girl races across the desert pursued by the reckoner, scavenged spoils held close. In a blasted landscape of abandoned mines and the crumbling bones of civilisation, she survives by picking over the dead past. She trades her scraps at the only known settlement, a ramshackle fortress of greed, corruption and disease. An outpost whose only purpose is survival – refuge from the creatures that hunt beyond.
Sold then raised hard in the System, the Orphan has a mission, carries secrets about the destruction that brought the world to its knees. And she's about to discover that the past still holds power over the present.
Given an impossible choice, will the Orphan save the only home she knows or see it returned to dust? Both paths lead to blood, but whose will be spilled?
In a post-apocalyptic future, survivors scavenge in the harsh Australian outback. Living rough in the remnants of our ruined world, an orphan with her own brutal past must decide if what’s left of humanity is worth saving.
‘Dystopian tale-telling at its absolute best. A worthy successor to The Chrysalids and Riddley Walker.’ David Hunt (Girt, True Girt)
'The ravaged land and the intense, visceral voice of the Orphan make this an extraordinary and compelling read.' Isobelle Carmody
‘A brilliantly chilling post-apocalyptic world, evoked in a voice of spare, compelling beauty . . . every moment of the story is gripping and immediate. An all-around great novel.’ Sandra Newman (The Country of Ice Cream Star)
288 pages, Paperback
First published May 29, 2017
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451 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
April 14, 2023
Findlay infused his novel, the Orphan, with a rich vernacular that sets its world strictly apart from our own. The vernacular takes a little getting used to, especially when the paragraphs are lengthy, and that may throw some readers off, but it’s worth wading through. This post-apocalyptic tale is told in alternating chapters between the past and present, bringing the reader up to speed on the past events as much as the present.
Still a bone-thin waif, but now invaluable as a scavenger, the Orphan is no longer merely a slave for Karra, but now heads out on the haunted plain, seeking baubles and bullets for the Block. She rides a tiny sailing boat across the sand, where no one is safe and few survive. Out there, one might find ghosts and the Reckoner and twisted beasts of all natures.
The narrative, told in the Orphan’s own voice, sets this tale apart from other post-apocalyptic reads.
Still a bone-thin waif, but now invaluable as a scavenger, the Orphan is no longer merely a slave for Karra, but now heads out on the haunted plain, seeking baubles and bullets for the Block. She rides a tiny sailing boat across the sand, where no one is safe and few survive. Out there, one might find ghosts and the Reckoner and twisted beasts of all natures.
The narrative, told in the Orphan’s own voice, sets this tale apart from other post-apocalyptic reads.
July 3, 2020
I thought this book was ok. Took me a bit to get through and i really didn't enjoy it as much as i thought i would by the blurb.
November 6, 2021
So this was a bit of a slog, took me forever to finish. I guess I found the language the author used distracting. That said, I did finish it. I found myself wanting to know what the Orphan was looking for, I wanted to know what happened to her and to Block.
Read
April 1, 2018Okay I can’t do it anymore - the writing is just not for me. I’m DNF this book @ 89 pages - I’ve seen some great reviews but I personally cannot read this - it’s taking me so long to even get to 89 pages.
July 9, 2017
This wasnt for me. The prose, grammar and style just didn't flow for me.
October 11, 2019
The jacket blurb sounded interesting. I expected a derivative version of Mad Max, but the female MC and a ship that sails the sands were enough of an original touch to encourage me to pick this up.
BIG mistake.
If the blurb had been written in the "dialect" the writer uses throughout, I would have been warned off. But, here's a sample of the writing:
"A score of days walkin back an that mara, that scaretale pickin up her tracks sumthin like the day after that."
I blinked. I paged frantically through the following pages, hoping that this effort-full, strained attempt at dialect would eventually give way to something more relatable. No. No. Sadly...no.
"...eatin up scavs that crossed him out Painter way..."
No. Just...no.
Any spark of allure was lost amid the affectation of sporadic punctuation and butchered language, trying so hard to be "different." And in the end, that's what the writing was: affectation devoid of communication.
BIG mistake.
If the blurb had been written in the "dialect" the writer uses throughout, I would have been warned off. But, here's a sample of the writing:
"A score of days walkin back an that mara, that scaretale pickin up her tracks sumthin like the day after that."
I blinked. I paged frantically through the following pages, hoping that this effort-full, strained attempt at dialect would eventually give way to something more relatable. No. No. Sadly...no.
"...eatin up scavs that crossed him out Painter way..."
No. Just...no.
Any spark of allure was lost amid the affectation of sporadic punctuation and butchered language, trying so hard to be "different." And in the end, that's what the writing was: affectation devoid of communication.
August 6, 2017
I heard Daniel Findlay speak at the Speculative Fiction Festival held by the NSW Writer's Centre last month (July 2017) and on the basis of his panel, and the reactions of other writers to his work, I bought this book there and then. It's a great read, gripping and suitably dystopian but with characters and heart enough to save it from existential doom.
Riddley Walker is one of my favourite books, and I was a bit concerned by people likening this book to Russell Hoban's influential, brilliant work. That would be a tough comparison for any writer to be saddled with. But having read Year of the Orphan, I can see the literary connection between the two, and it's not too long a bow to draw. Findlay has done a great job of world building, and his characters and their concerns are very well described, the pacing and plot are strong and it's an absorbing read.
Highly recommended.
Riddley Walker is one of my favourite books, and I was a bit concerned by people likening this book to Russell Hoban's influential, brilliant work. That would be a tough comparison for any writer to be saddled with. But having read Year of the Orphan, I can see the literary connection between the two, and it's not too long a bow to draw. Findlay has done a great job of world building, and his characters and their concerns are very well described, the pacing and plot are strong and it's an absorbing read.
Highly recommended.
June 11, 2019
A mysterious girl surviving in a barren wasteland. Life as we know it has ceased to exist, language has been broken down to a raw form and I can almost taste the red dirt and despair in this brilliantly written novel. A wonderful debut by an Australian author, set in the Australian outback. Allow yourself to be captivated by this new world and language and I promise you won't be disappointed.
June 21, 2017
God. Damn.
That was a hell of a book.
That was a hell of a book.
June 22, 2017
Dystopian tale-telling at its absolute best. A worthy successor to The Chrysalids and Riddley Walker.
August 29, 2023
This book honestly deserves much higher ratings- almost all of the poor reviews are based on the writing style, which is unfortunate as the story is great. I would recommend that if you can't get past the writing style, to try the audiobook. The narrator is Australian, and her voice will transport you to the desert wasteland described in the book.
d-n-f
August 15, 2017I tried, I really did try. The stylistic prose, though I get its purpose, is just not working for me right now. Will need to try again as the premise is incredible and the writer clearly has great skill.
April 1, 2020
An unusual post-apocalyptic novel: set in Australia, to begin with. Which I loved. Like several other PA novels it features a pidgin-style English. Also, no quotation marks for dialogue. Both of these things distracted me in the beginning, but as the book progressed, it wasn’t an issue any longer. I took my time and let myself read it unhurriedly.
Orphan, whose name is never revealed to us, is tasked with finding and neutralizing a mysterious beast from the past. What this beast is gradually becomes clear, and I appreciated the different (for our era) nature of the catastrophe that has long since decimated her world, the Australian desert, and continues to threaten the continued existence of the System (a little outpost of misery, thirst, hunger, & dust).
There’s a lot of world-building and terminology in the first part of the book that left my head spinning; it’s not explained or even inferred. But, again, gradually we start to understand what the spirals, the glows, the ghosts, and the stacks truly are. This is a quiet book that requires some patience and commitment; however, if you give it some time you may come to enjoy this unique post-apocalyptic tale as much as I did.
Orphan, whose name is never revealed to us, is tasked with finding and neutralizing a mysterious beast from the past. What this beast is gradually becomes clear, and I appreciated the different (for our era) nature of the catastrophe that has long since decimated her world, the Australian desert, and continues to threaten the continued existence of the System (a little outpost of misery, thirst, hunger, & dust).
There’s a lot of world-building and terminology in the first part of the book that left my head spinning; it’s not explained or even inferred. But, again, gradually we start to understand what the spirals, the glows, the ghosts, and the stacks truly are. This is a quiet book that requires some patience and commitment; however, if you give it some time you may come to enjoy this unique post-apocalyptic tale as much as I did.
December 26, 2017
Truly unique and challenging!
I'm gonna be honest, it took me a while to get my head around the prose at first (once I started to get in the groove of it, I had to start from the beginning and reread to make sure I knew what had gone on).
But once I did this, it was well worth pushing on. From the beautiful descriptions of the landscape to the unexpected twists and turns, and strong character voices, this book had me captivated. I love the fact that it's a dystopian novel set in Australia - and the imagined future Aussie dialect really does add to building this world. I strongly felt the connection to the land and the challenging environment, and the style of storytelling allowed you to fill in the gaps with your imagination - which was surprising and enjoyable as a reader!
Overall a great read, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the author does next!
I'm gonna be honest, it took me a while to get my head around the prose at first (once I started to get in the groove of it, I had to start from the beginning and reread to make sure I knew what had gone on).
But once I did this, it was well worth pushing on. From the beautiful descriptions of the landscape to the unexpected twists and turns, and strong character voices, this book had me captivated. I love the fact that it's a dystopian novel set in Australia - and the imagined future Aussie dialect really does add to building this world. I strongly felt the connection to the land and the challenging environment, and the style of storytelling allowed you to fill in the gaps with your imagination - which was surprising and enjoyable as a reader!
Overall a great read, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the author does next!
December 31, 2017
What happened in Maralinga should be better known. Dan Findlay has written an extraordinary dystopic response to what could have been the result of the nuclear testing. The voice and the world which he creates with the distinctive devolved language reflecting the destroyed society in which the Orphan lives, is breathtaking. At times I found the plot hard to pull out through the web of language but my favourite chapter was 68 when she discovers the Maralinga test site museum. Like a sophisticated hybrid between Mad Max 'Fury Road' and 'The Road', it has been left open for a sequel which I have on good knowledge he is writing. Travel with the Orphan, you won't be disappointed.
August 3, 2018
I started off hating this one, the badly spelled English did my head in, and the first few chapters were torture. I wanted blud, the author’s blud for writing such an annoying book. I persisted because of the indigenous Australian character to the book and in the end found I adjusted to the bastardised English. I rate the story, though was left wanting more - what was the Orphan’s reunion with her brother like? Did she ever realise she loved Block? Did the poison continue to leak from Maralinga? What burnt down the town by the ocean? I guess there’s room for book two. Maybe Orphan could improve her English for it? 😉
May 24, 2018
Yes. It’s a difficult read due to the prose and writing style but I assure you it’s worth it. As you pick up stride it becomes easier to read. Easily one of the best post-apocalyptic books I have read so far.
August 12, 2019
It is rare that I DNF a book, but I was forced to with this one. It saddens me, because I feel that the story is probably amazing, but I simply can't get past the dialect and grammar to focus on the story.
May 22, 2022
Belongs in the pantheon of dystopian literature
While the stylized language of the novel is challenging at the start, stick with this bittersweet tale of loss, survival and betrayal in a harsh post-apocalyptic landscape, where a motley crew of orphans, scavengers, slavers and schemers have built a ramshackle town from the detritus of a terrible and mysterious event that ended the world generations ago. A young orphan girl find herself in the nexus of events as the town’s leaders jockey for power and scavenged goods, even as mysterious beings known as Ghosts lurk just outside the town walls and an even greater threat creeps in. This debut novel teases beauty out of a landscape where almost nothing has survived, and casts nuanced and surprising motivations in its characters. Not your run of the mill end-of-the-world fiction. Recommend.
While the stylized language of the novel is challenging at the start, stick with this bittersweet tale of loss, survival and betrayal in a harsh post-apocalyptic landscape, where a motley crew of orphans, scavengers, slavers and schemers have built a ramshackle town from the detritus of a terrible and mysterious event that ended the world generations ago. A young orphan girl find herself in the nexus of events as the town’s leaders jockey for power and scavenged goods, even as mysterious beings known as Ghosts lurk just outside the town walls and an even greater threat creeps in. This debut novel teases beauty out of a landscape where almost nothing has survived, and casts nuanced and surprising motivations in its characters. Not your run of the mill end-of-the-world fiction. Recommend.
April 27, 2024
A very interesting book but pretty hard on the reader
I found this novel extremely slow going but rewarding in the end. I experienced these problems: 1. as a U.S. reader, I found it tough going when I tried making sense of the unfolding hints about where the characters were and what they discovered. I doubt an Australian reader would have had this much trouble. 2. The novel loops around in time, and this can get pretty confusing because of, mostly, 3. The author chose in a radical way to imagine how language could have evolved in the far future (think “Ridley Walker” or “A Clockwork Orange” or “Fiskadoro”). We overhear the thoughts of all the characters, and they all speak in a language not quite ours. So there’s a big translation effort the reader has to commit to making. Nevertheless— I finally did finish it, and I was glad I stuck with it.
I found this novel extremely slow going but rewarding in the end. I experienced these problems: 1. as a U.S. reader, I found it tough going when I tried making sense of the unfolding hints about where the characters were and what they discovered. I doubt an Australian reader would have had this much trouble. 2. The novel loops around in time, and this can get pretty confusing because of, mostly, 3. The author chose in a radical way to imagine how language could have evolved in the far future (think “Ridley Walker” or “A Clockwork Orange” or “Fiskadoro”). We overhear the thoughts of all the characters, and they all speak in a language not quite ours. So there’s a big translation effort the reader has to commit to making. Nevertheless— I finally did finish it, and I was glad I stuck with it.
November 22, 2017
I heard this mentioned on First Tuesday Book Club and got the library to order a copy (thanks, as always, to the brilliant Auckland Public Library). I have no hesitation in declaring that this is a classic of Australian literature. Absolutely astonishing. Mysterious, beautiful, tender, harsh, unbearably lovely. It’s written in what I would call ‘Ozzy vernacular’, and took some getting used to, but once I did, I couldn’t think of a better way of writing this story. I’ll be recommending it to everyone.
July 24, 2019
I agree with the other commenters who struggled with the written language; I almost stopped after 4 or 5 chapters because the dialect wouldn't let me flow into the story. However, I soldiered on to the end and did like the characters and the storyline. It's an interesting quandry for a writer; he wants to convey how language has deteriorated over the generations, e.g., "one" is now "wun" and there is no longer much punctuation. And if it were narrated in an audiobook, you could get the flavor of the deterioration, but in writing, the reader's eye keeps stumbling over all the unfamiliarity.
October 24, 2020
I really liked this book. The writing style does take a bit to get into but once you find the rhythm it flows fairly naturally. Immediately after finishing it I was happy with the storyline overall but realized it went in a direction that I wasn't expecting and was both more and less dramatic than I was thinking it would be. After reflecting I realized I spent the entire book trying to figure it all out, where they were, what all the different words mean, all the places she goes and that's where my expectations led me astray. Well worth the read!
July 31, 2022
What an interesting book. It was written in a style that I've never seen before. Although the words were missing letters and spelled uniquely it was surprisingly comfortable to read although I did have to pay a lot of attention to understand what was written. It would have been nice if what happened to create this new world was a bit more clear. The story was rather fast-paced and was different from anything I've ever read before which is nice. My Librarian suggested this book and although it's not one I would have picked up on my own I'm glad that I took the time to read it.
November 11, 2017
Interesting book, I struggled throughout with the language used - it is a very hard trick to pull off, inventing a vernacular and then applying it so consistently and logically that it doesn't get in the way of the story. Findlay never quite got there, and eventually I found it so annoying that I gave up on the book. Pity, because the story is fresh and interesting, the characters compelling, and there was so much promise to the book.
August 7, 2019
Not just another post-apocalyptic novel, this wasteland is populated with some survivors who communicate through sign while others use an Australian patois. While the dialogue was charming, it also slowed down the reading process. The protagonist is the orphan of the title saddled with searching for a"big find' to scavenge but this "seasoned" reader knew early on what that discovery would lead to. So much for the surprise reveal ! Still all in all a good debut novel.
April 21, 2022
I listened to this on Chirp, and had problems following the narrative at times. I still found the main character and the story thread compelling, but I wished for more connective tissue. Sometimes the relationships and conclusions didn't feel quite earned. I would have liked to see at least a few more chapters of development. I would love to have learned more about what happened to the main character and continued to see The Orphan develop. Would love to find out that there's a sequel.
December 27, 2017
Post-apocalyptic fiction isn't a genre I read widely but I really enjoyed this book. It took me a while to get used to the narrative style but once I had my head around the language I read this cover to cover in a few days. The characters were so compelling and the plot had me hooked right until the last page.
November 25, 2020
Interesting post-apocalyptic premise/setting. In some future, Australia is a barren desert. People are few, and have lost most of their pre-apocalypse history. Much of the plot hinges around trying to decipher dangers from that distant past. The characters were compelling, but ultimately the dialect that the book was written in was distracting and pulled me out of the story.
June 1, 2023
Really enjoyed it. The language was definitely jarring at first, but after a little while you don't even notice and it just flows (helps being native Australian speaker maybe?). Interesting characters, setting, and action set pieces. Not sure if a tease of a sequel at the end or not, but I'd be curious to see where the story could possibly go next.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews