What do you think?
Rate this book
Swagman & Jumbuck
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
June 23, 2026
A quick comic-book like, young adult read at only 142 pages.
Milumbe Haimba has taken inspiration from Australia's famous bush ballad Waltzing Mathilda for her very short story about a young girl that is rescued from a virtual reality gaming enterprise.
The author jumps ahead, skipping from one scene to the next without inserting new paragraphs or chapters, like in a fast paced TV or film manuscript. No time for much character development here.
After some virtual reality scenes, Haimba starts something of a coming of age part and then suddenly, perhaps with a mixed inspiration from Shakespear's Romeo & Juliet and the aforementioned ballad, decides to end it rather too quickly in my opinion.
The idea was good in my opinion, but could have been so much more, which the blerb on the back cover indicated falsely, also in my opinion.
So it ends up as a script-like story for one of those short DUST films that we can watch on YouTube.
Milumbe Haimba has taken inspiration from Australia's famous bush ballad Waltzing Mathilda for her very short story about a young girl that is rescued from a virtual reality gaming enterprise.
The author jumps ahead, skipping from one scene to the next without inserting new paragraphs or chapters, like in a fast paced TV or film manuscript. No time for much character development here.
After some virtual reality scenes, Haimba starts something of a coming of age part and then suddenly, perhaps with a mixed inspiration from Shakespear's Romeo & Juliet and the aforementioned ballad, decides to end it rather too quickly in my opinion.
The idea was good in my opinion, but could have been so much more, which the blerb on the back cover indicated falsely, also in my opinion.
So it ends up as a script-like story for one of those short DUST films that we can watch on YouTube.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review