Twinmaker:Jump

Sean Williams

Allen & Unwin

Otago Daily Times, 2014

The tendency for publishers to designate any novel narrated by or focussed on teenage protagonists as “YA fiction” has removed many good books from wider circulation, particularly in the Sci Fi/Fantasy genre. This has been reversed in recent years by the efforts of authors such as JK Rowling, Suzanne Collins and Virginia Roth, who have not only reintroduced adult readers to the genre but also broadened its appeal to new audiences through their use of strong female characters.

This trend is reflected with in the debut volume of Sean William’s trilogy, Twinmaker: Jump by Sean Williams. It is set on a near-future Earth where the problems of global warming, resource depletion and famine have been overcome by the development of matter transporters that can disassemble anything from toxic waste to dirty clothes into their constituent atoms and recombine them into useful form, including food.

The same technology allows people to teleport via d-mat to anywhere in the world in an instant with stringent controls in place to ensure that nothing is changed during transition.

Although there are rumours that these safeguards can be subverted to allow people to “Improve” themselves, 17-year-old Clare Hill considers this to be an urban myth until the day her best friend uses the d-mat system to get rid of a disfiguring birthmark. But her personality seems to have changed too, and Clare begins to suspect that not only is the system less safe than she assumed, people may actually be using it for more sinister purposes.

Determined to save her friend and expose the truth, she finds herself caught up in a cat-and mouse game with a ruthless enemy that threatens not only herself but her friends and family too.

Fast paced and full of twists and turns, Jump not only kept my attention, the ending sets itself up nicely for a sequel. Williams depicts the teenage viewpoint quite believably, at least to my ear – I particularly liked his future equivalent of joy-riding; jumping to random locations and convening flash-mob parties at the most exotic spots – and I think this series will appeal to a wide audience.