When I decided to start this bookshelf spotlight series, I really didn’t think it through. Yes, I liked the idea of doing a slow tour through my bookshelves and I’d love to see this sort of thing done by lots of people whose bookshelf photos I’m always zooming into to see what they contain. But it is serving to remind me of all the books I have that I want to read/reread. A form of slow torture that makes me wish I could throw in my job and just spend my days reading 😆.

Ephemera by Tina Shaw is a book I’ve had on my shelves since it came out. Pretty common in Fantasy Friday and Murder/Mystery Monday, but not for Sci-Fi Saturday. Mostly because I tend towards buying older Sci-Fi as I delve more into the genre, or read them pretty much straight away when I buy new ones. I picked up this book at first because it was in the NZ fiction section, and I always like to check out NZ authors, but it also sounded interesting – oddly, this was the first of this style of novel I picked up (there was a real run of them), but while I have read all the others I picked up later, for some reason not this one.

‘We were probably doomed from the moment the virus hit the airport.’

Several years after a global meltdown, New Zealand, along with the rest of the world, is still in chaos. No electricity, no broadband, and people are in survival mode – at least until somebody turns the lights on again.

Ruth has always led a sheltered life. Pre-Crash, she worked as an Ephemera Librarian, now she is managing a simple, self-sufficient lifestyle. But her sister is dying from tuberculosis and her love for Juliana propels Ruth to undertake a perilous journey.

She intrepidly sets off from Auckland to find the man known as Nelson and his rumoured stockpile of pharmaceutical drugs. Word has it he is based at the old Huka Lodge. Along with the handsome Lance Hinkley and enigmatic Adebowale Ackers, Ruth travels by steamboat up the Waikato River – the only practical way. The group journeys through settlements that have sprung up along the river as people try to re-establish their lives in this precarious time. With society itself broken, will Ruth manage to keep her commitment to her sister without compromising her own values?

Hmm, after last Saturday, I was sure my Sci-Fi book for March would be one of Wyndham’s. Now I’m thinking it will be this one.