The declaration by Gemma Malley
Allen and Unwin, 2008.
300p $17.95
Growing up in Grange Hall, where she has been taught to be subservient,
Anna is dismayed when a new boy a little older than herself comes to be
trained. She knows her place, keeps her eyes downcast, looks forward to
be useful when she leaves, and never, never asks questions. She
is a Surplus, a child born to parents who were not licensed to do so.
Those who have taken the Longevity drugs to avoid disease, ageing and
so death, were not allowed to have children and those who went against
the Declaration, had the children taken and put into care where they
were taught to know their place and learn to be useful, servants to
those who had signed the Declaration.
It is a world in the future, where anti ageing is taken many steps
forward, where the stem cells of the young are harvested to make the
Longevity drugs. But this means that the authorities must be alert to
overcrowding and so steps are taken to keep this under control. A
dazzling story, one which foresees the outcome of some of the steps
being taken today by science, where questions are asked about the
logical conclusion about these experiments. All sorts of ideas pop up
in this layered story, stem cell research, license to have children,
energy use, global warming, corruption and the exploitation by the
first world, of the third world.
The new boy challenges Anna in a way that makes her troubled, sensing
in him the downfall that may engulf her as well. When he is sent to
solitary, Anna overhears the matron's plans for him, and so she escapes
with him. There follows a heart stopping escape to London where an
underground movement waits. The second book in the series, Resistance
can't come soon enough. This is a tale of a nasty future which is
almost visible and certainly possible.
Fran Knight
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