Set in the future on an isolated island with its citizens divided into ‘sects’. To change position exams must be taken. We follow a young girl taking such an exam with her chosen subject a man who forged the beginning of their society. As she answers the examiners so she questions her beliefs and that of her upbringing. What emerges is a debate about philosophy and artificial intelligence, an extraordinarily thought-provoking work which was written as a children’s book and indeed long-listed for the 2009 Guardian Children’s Prize. The writing is simplistic, the themes are not.
2041 - First global dust storms, 2050 - First shot in The Last War fired, 2051 - The Great Sea Fence completed; the Republic founded, 2052 - First plague released, and 2077 - The Great War begins. A...Fourteen-year-old Anax thinks she knows her history. She'd better.
She's sat facing three Examiners and her grueling five-hour examination has just begun. If she passes, she'll be admitted into The Academy - the elite institution that runs her utopian society.But Anax is about to discover that for all her learning, the history she's been taught isn't the whole story. And that The Academy isn't what she believes it to be.
The reader is about to discover a provocative novel of dazzling ingenuity. Anax's examination leads us into a future where ancient - eternal - philosophical questions have dramatically collided with the march of technology, where just what it means to be human is up for debate, and where the concealed stain of an Original Sin threatens the very existence of her Brave New World.
Bernard Beckett has a degree in Economics, and has taught in the Wellington region for several years. He has published nine novels, and has won many awards for his fiction.
In 2006 Bernard was awarded a New Zealand Science, Mathematics and Technology Teacher Fellowship where he worked on a project examining DNA mutations. This new direction led to the publication of Genesis in 2006, which won the Young Adult Category in the 2007 NZ Post Book Awards. In 2008 the book made publishing history when UK publisher Quercus Books offered the largest advance ever put forward for a young adult novel in New Zealand. The novel, also published in Australia, is to be released in the UK as two separate editions: adult and young adult, and is to be published – at this date – in over 20 countries.
Bernard’s fascination for science also led to Falling for Science: Asking the Big Questions (2007), his non-fiction exploration of the relationship between story-telling and science.
Bernard currently lives in Wellington with his wife, Clare Knighton (and co-author of Deep Fried.)
