Here are some pics from the nipaluna/Hobart launch of Salvage, which took place in the lovely Fullers Bookshop, where I was interviewed by my friend and publisher Geordie Williamson – how lucky am I?
It was great to talk apocalypse, dystopia, literary influence, community organising and genre plotting with Geordie, who is an extraordinary reader/writer/critic and has been an enthusiastic champion of my work over the years. There were many other excellent folks in the room, including some of my fave authors and humans, and also plenty of people I didn’t know which is always a pleasant surprise! Thanks to everyone who came along and especially those who traveled in from the countryside on a rainy night to listen.
A perfect end to the book tour.
A few more reviews have popped up since my last post:
This one in GLAM Adelaide calls Salvage “a piece of powerful dystopian fiction, examining a potential future where global warming has been left unchecked, and the ultra-rich use technology to try and escape the problems rather than solve them.” Sound familiar? Kristin Stefanoff notices my affectionate ND easter eggs, which made me smile, before concluding: “This book is an exciting read… the journey is more than worth it.”
This one in the Newtown Review of Books goes into the social and political aspects of the novel quite deeply as it considers our responses to climate destruction. “From a climate fiction perspective, Salvage is up there with the best of the recent crop of novels,” Robert Goodman writes. “Mills is clear-eyed about the challenges facing the globe but treats the changing climate as something humans are going to have to (and will) deal with. She is particularly interested in the impacts of wealth disparity but asks the very pertinent question of whether money, in the end, is going to help.”
I look forward to discussing all this and more at Byron Writers Festival in a couple of weeks, my next Salvage-related event. I’m on three panels, all quite different, about organising for change, tackling AI and writing across genres. Looking forward to catching up with friends, listening to some great writers & organisers, soaking up a little Northern Rivers sunshine, and hopefully spotting a whale or two!
Lastly, I must draw your attention to the existence of the audiobook version of Salvage, narrated by Eleni Cassimatis. It’s on Audible and Spotify and should trickle into the library system soon too (I can’t see it on Libby yet, but if you’re keen you could ask your library). I love a good audiobook and have a huge respect for the people who narrate them – it is a lot of work! When Picador asked me if I wanted a say in who read Salvage, I said I don’t mind so long as it’s a human voice actor and not AI. Fortunately for all of us, Eleni is a beautiful reader, an absolute pleasure to listen to.
