Praise for The Island Will Sink
“The Island Will Sink is not ‘just’ a novel. It is the most assured and innovative debut I have read in a long time, one that has me excited about the political possibilities of postmodern fiction.”
— Pip Smith, 'The Australian'
Full The Australian review here.
“Science fiction fans will spot echoes of J. G. Ballard and Philip K. Dick in the narrative and quirky incidental moments (Max’s socks have an inbuilt compass and his house changes its settings when he enters). ‘The Island Will Sink’ is groundbreaking enough to hope it might lead to greater interest in publishing Australian science fiction.”
— The Saturday Paper
Full The Saturday Paper review here.
“Doyle can do humour, and has an engaging voice. The prose in science fiction may have to be information-rich, strenuously expository in its world-building, but Doyle never gets waylaid: she can find the poetry in the new world ... and the characters never seem as if they are overborne by the action or the conceptual framework. ”
— Owen Richardson, 'The Sydney Morning Herald'
Full Sydney Morning Herald review here.
“The Island Will Sink is a deep and demanding read. Doyle postulates a world in which climate change has hastened social change and political control and exacerbated the gap between the haves and have-nots, but one in which society has ultimately adapted to climatic deprivations.”
— Linda Morris, 'The Sydney Morning Herald'
Full Sydney Morning Herald profile here.
“Doyle’s future looks back to the SF avant-gardists of the 1960s and ’70s: ecological crisis and doom-lust from JG Ballard, games with memory and reality from Philip K Dick, a totemic island from John Brunner’s ‘Stand on Zanzibar’.”
— Michael Lucy, 'The Monthly'
Full The Monthly review here.
“The world of Doyle’s novel, while practically unrecognisable from our own, is meticulously and cleverly realised, from housing, transport and the sad irony of ubiquitous sustainability propaganda, to the convergence of technology and the self ... Like Don DeLillo’s ‘White Noise’ for the climate-change generation...””
— Alan Vaarwerk, 'Readings Monthly'
Full Readings Monthly review here.
“Your central character, Max, is constantly monitored and observed – he’s actually offloaded his memory to technology. Tell me about Max and his reliance on the world around him.”
— Sky Kirkham (interviewer), Radio National
Full interview on Radio National here.
“The environmental issues, philosophical ideas and visual descriptions, as well as the emotional relationships with the children, are put together with almost sculptural elegance and the novel builds to a very exciting and irresistible finish.”
— Folly Gleeson, 'Newtown Review of Books'
Full Newtown Review of Books review here.
“The pester-power of children is harnessed by ‘Pow-Pow the Panda’, an omnipresent digital mascot who awards points for eco-friendly behaviour. Max’s daughter, Lily, is observant of enviro-laws. She informs her father of the off-peak times to shower. It’s a little bit reminiscent of the informant children of 1984, though more loving. When news comes of the collapse of global krill populations, Max finds her in the yard attempting to raise krill. It’s uncertain how this would be of practical use even if she were to be successful, but she’s constantly trying.”
— Alex Gerrans, 'Overland'
Full Overland piece here.
“The worldbuilding is brilliantly handled and it’s a thrill to read a speculative and satirical story that’s so accessible. ... .Doyle’s debut is funny, engaging, fast and fascinating, but above all, it reads as a warning. I was thoroughly rattled by its end.”
— Angus Dalton, 'Grapeshot'
““It was like a really lovely, mean, cold sex scene – I was very into it ... Does that sound weird? Morning Dad!””
— FBi Radio's 'Book Club'
Listen to the full FBi Radio Book Club recording here.
“A disconcerting sense of alienation flows through Doyle’s novel… This same detachment also raises probing questions about memory, legacy and the emotional imprints we leave on others – and what of us is left behind when these imprints disappear.”
— Veronica Sullivan, 'Books+Publishing'
“Like all good futuristic or sci-fi stories, this novel is about us — us as we may already be and as we could become.”
— Daan Spijer
“I love this book. This is the hottest mess of a debut – a dystopian romp, as cinematic as a roller coaster ride, and deep with ideas and heart. It has everything – an amnesiac director of fully immersive disaster movies, an all-knowing coma specialist, a pair of perpetually plugged-in children who know even more, and one sinking island. Picture the technology section of the The Economist as directed by Jill Soloway. I have no higher praise.”
— Steven Amsterdam, author of 'Things We Didn’t See Coming'
“The structure is adventurous, dense and poetic … I thought of J.G. Ballard’s imaginatively coherent, hard-edged, full-fledged imaginings.”
— Luke Davies, author of 'Candy' and 'God of Speed', screenwriter of 'Life' and 'Lion'
“Intelligent, fast-paced, deeply considered and great fun, The Island Will Sink is a hell of a speculative ride through a future both familiar and strange. Doyle’s hyperactive Anthropocene vision is nothing short of thrilling.”
— Jennifer Mills, author of 'Gone', 'The Diamond Anchor', and 'The Rest is Weight'