In a post-apocalyptic Australian landscape dominated by free-wheeling cyborgs, a young man goes in search of his lost lover who has been kidnapped by a rogue AI truck – the Brumby King. Along the way, he teams with Sinnerman, an independent truck with its own reasons for hating the Brumby King. Before his final confrontation with the brumbies, he must learn more about the broken-down world and his own place in it, and face his worst fears.
The strange and playful voice of the first-person narrator keeps the story kicking along as he comes to his final realisation that the only meaning to be found in a world in slow decay is that which you make for yourself.
This genre-bending work of literary biopunk mixes the mad fun of Mad Max II, and Mad Max Fury Road, with the idiosyncratic testimony of works like Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang or Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting.
“To write a story in such an unusual style is ambitious. It could easily sound
obvious, contrived or plain confusing, but Macrae has really pulled it off. The
language creates a strong vision of a harsh future, and through the unbroken stream of
slang, sayings, and profanities, the reader is immersed in a strong story into which the
folklore of Banjo Paterson, tales from the Dreaming, and the concerns of today are
seamlessly woven together.” – Aurealis Magazine
