Book+Review

Terra-Farma by Gillian Rubinstein


Terra-Farma is the sequel to Galax Arena. This science fiction novel is about how Joella, Liane and Peter deal with life on the escape from the Project Genesis Five. This story is told from the point of both Joella and her brother Peter. These three escapees and siblings are still amazed about their past experiences at the Galax Arena.

This story is mainly set in the outback and at Terra-Farma. Joella, Peter and Liane are all trying hard to survive in the outback. They have limited food and water to eat and drink and uncomfortable beds to sleep on. But suddenly, Joella and Liane decide that one night was the right time to escape and they left Peter by himself trying to survive in the outback. They felt guilty for doing that to Peter but they couldn't bring Peter with them because Peter thought that they shouldn't escape that night when Joella and Liane though it was a good opportunity so they decided to escape without him. The girls find some shelter at Terra-Farma which is simply another part of the Project and once again Joella must find a way to escape and at the same time rescue her sister and the others.

The way the author wrote this story is quite interesting. I liked the way how she alternated each chapter from the two different characters point of view. Each of the characters I have never seen an author use this technique to write a book before. I can tell the illustrator has put a lot of thought into making this front cover. It tells the reader where this story is set. The person on the front of the cover has half a boys face and half a girls face, this tells us that this story is told from the point of view of two people.

Recently, I have also read another science fiction novel called 'The Giver'. The Giver has many similarities and differences from Terra-Farma. Terra-Farma has roughly the same number of characters as The Giver. Some of the characters in both of these books are trying to escape from something. Eg: Joella, Liane and Peter escaped from the Project Genesis Five while in The Giver at the end of the story escapes from his family and his community to save Gabriel so he can still live and not be sent down the shoot. These are some similarites between the two novels. The Giver is a different sort of science fiction genre to Terra-Farma.

This book explores many themes. One of the themes is Choices. Peter is always determined to make better choices but he is not quite sure how to control them. Joella and Liane also make a lot of choices during the story. Another theme is friendships. During their escape, Joella and Liane meet a lot of people along the way. Some of those people help Joella and Liane when they are finding it hard and need food and water to eat and drink and beds to sleep on at night. ( Even though the beds are uncomfortable Joella and Liane are still glad that they have something to sleep on and they don't have to sleep on the ground.) Eventually those people become friends with Joella and Liane and they were glad that they met them.

Overall, I think this book is a brilliant read. It has a lot of description and a storyline that is easy to follow. I would especially recommend this book to students in Year 7 and 8 who enjoy reading science fiction novels or adventure stories. I rate this book 4.5 out of 5.