Eta Draconis

Author Identifier (ORCID)

Brendan Ritchie: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1517-7955

Abstract

Elora is leaving her hometown for university. Leaving behind friends, family, and safety to follow her dream of studying theatre while she still has the chance. Together, Elora and her older sister, Vivienne, set out by road for the city and the upcoming semester. The relationship between them is fractured and fading, turned upside down by Eta Draconis: the violent meteor shower that has rained across Earth since the beginning of their adolescence. In a land scarred by craters and shockwaves, to travel anywhere is to risk everything. As the showering intensifies and their way forward becomes threatened, the sisters are forced to confront their relationship and recalibrate their hopes for the future. Do they return home or press on in the face of the meteors? Can life ever be normal with the world crashing down all around you? Eta Draconis is an epic story about two resilient sisters who are determined to live their life in a world on the brink of destruction.

Non-Traditional Research Output

Original Creative Work

Document Type

Book

Date of Publication

2023

Research Statement

As the climate crisis deepens, Climate Fiction has emerged as a popular and urgent literary genre. Fictional texts can provide a safe place to explore climate anxieties and offer a unique lens on the potential outcomes of climate inaction. The examination of these issues within a rural Australian context has been under-examined in literature. Eta Draconis is a novel that explores key characteristics of Climate Fiction: the transformation of landscape, adaptation of humankind, notions of hope and despair, the agency of youth; against the unique context of an astronomical event, and within the often-overlooked setting of rural Western Australia. The novel highlights the potential and profound impact that climate change could make on the lives of future generations in these areas, alongside the resilience of youth in seeking out mechanisms to hold onto their collective humanity. Eta Draconis is published by UWA Publishing and was the winner of the prestigious Dorothy Hewett Award in 2022. The novel was also a CBCA Notable Selection in 2024 and has been reviewed extensively in significant publications such as The West Australian, The Advertiser, Westerly and Australian Book Review. Jason Seger of The Sydney Morning Herald described Eta Draconis as ‘a tense tale of two young women coping with constant and implacable threat, daring to imagine a future for themselves in a world where precarity reigns.’ The novel is also developing a strong presence on the curriculum at secondary schools across Australia.

Awards

2022 Dorothy Hewett Award

Publisher

UWA Publishing

School

School of Arts and Humanities

RAS ID

76584

ISBN

978-1-76080-261-5

Comments

Ritchie, B. (2023). Eta Draconis. UWA Publishing.

Link to Full Text

Share

 
COinS