Eta Draconis

by Brendan Ritchie

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. Winner of the 2022 Doro­thy Hewett Award, Brendan Ritchie’s Eta Draconis is timely, hopeful and full of suspense.

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Dystopia, Australia, Apocalyptic

250 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2023

About the author

Brendan Ritchie is an early-career novelist and academic from the south coast of WA. He is the winner of the 2022 Dorothy Hewett Award for an unpublished manuscript and author of novels including Carousel (2015) and Beyond Carousel (2016). Brendan has a PhD in Creative Writing and has also published poetry and non-fiction in several notable journals and collections.

Reviews

[Sheree | Keeping Up With The Penguins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eta Draconis is like an upper-YA Australian take on The Grapes Of Wrath, complete with the misery spiral and messy teenage relationships (that Ritchie absolutely nails, by the way). You won’t be able to help glancing up at the night sky after you’re done, wondering whether the stars might actually fall someday.

My full review of Eta Draconis is up now on Keeping Up With The Penguins.

[hannah! · Rating 2 out of 5]

im gonna be honest i barely knew what was going on

loved the writing style tho

[Clare Snow · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There's no point stopping for a meteor, Elora. They explode where they want."

This is catastrophic, as most asteroid impacts are. I'm not sure I've ever read such a bleak apocalypse story. Perhaps because it's so close to our real world. Asteroids are slightly more realistic than zombies. And I know the route they travel across the south west. Some of the towns aren't named, but I could work them out. And that shopping centre.

"She had seen how distance could turn into forever in this world."

I've never read The Grapes of Wrath, but after the despair of Elora and Vivienne's trail of horrors, I feel like I don't need to read the original. I wonder if the ice-cream is Caritas Romana?

"The town would blink away quietly, forgotten to the world amid the chaos and light."

My book group read it last month and I hadn't finished it, so I didn't go. Then the library took it off me, only to give it back in three days. Obviously it took me three more weeks to finish. I wish I had gone to hear what everyone thought.

Eta Draconis is an amazing book from every angle.

"The curtains were drawn, and beyond them lay the thickness of the present, coiled and ready. Existing once only and then never again."

[Hollie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extinction by meteor sounds pretty rough now I get what the dinosaurs were on about; but really a very touching depiction of sisters.

[Kathryn O'Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

A coming-of-age roadtrip that moved slowly and held firmly to the mantra of 'these uncertain times'.

[Carol Seeley Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! I didnt want this narrative to end.

[Aksel Dadswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful, layered book. Ritchie's characters feel achingly real as they navigate fractious and heartfelt relationships, and the world they move through is beautifully realised, the towns and people and landscapes all rendered with stunning, meticulous prose. There's not a word out of place here and everything feels so polished and considered. His observations of both people and the natural world always feel fresh and his perspective really fleshes out the world with a depth that belies the book's length. Eta Draconis is a novel that's both quiet and propulsive, its narrative orbiting a terrifying and well-realised premise. A sense of panic and impending extinction whirls around a nucleus of humanity, rendered by Ritchie in every facet of its warmth and fallibility. Highly recommended, and a well-deserving winner of the Dorothy Hewett prize.

[Julianne Negri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eta Draconis by Brendan Ritchie asks the question: How do we come of age in an apocalypse?
Elora has finished high school and about to begin to university. Eta Draconis is a shower of meteors that has been raining havoc and destruction over the earth since Elora’s early teens. The existential threat has also created fault lines in her family, as her older sister Vivienne has chosen a more cavalier approach than her more cautious family. She has been living in Perth while they have taken shelter in the country.

Now Vivienne is driving Elora back the Perth to start uni. But will they make it there with meteors crashing and burning around them, causing fires, blocking roads and destroying internet coverage?
This book has resonates with today, living with pandemics, looming war and the climate crisis. "There's no point stopping for a meteor, Elora. They explode where they want."
Here we see young people in the formative time of leaving home and yearning for all the usual interactions, parties, sex, drugs and rock n roll without any guarantees of a future. Eta Draconis offers the reader memorable moments, dramatic visuals and devastatingly insightful sentences that you will want to underline and re-read and ponder.
Elora has chosen to study drama, which is seen by some as a frivolous undertaking while the world burns. This book asks the big question, why make art in an apolocalypse, but succeeds in answering that question by being a wonderful connecting moving story. It answers the question by it’s very existence. Highly recommend. For readers who loved Stations Eleven this is a book for our times. This book won The Dorothy Hewett Award in 2022 and I recommend it for young adults and adults alike.
"The curtains were drawn, and beyond them lay the thickness of the present, coiled and ready. Existing once only and then never again."

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘The radio wavered with static, like it did sometimes when a meteor breached the upper atmosphere.’

Once upon a time, the constellation Draco had an occasional impact on Earth. Eta Draconis is one of its stars. While the constellation is only visible in the northern hemisphere, the Earth passes through its cometary debris which may occasionally hit the ground as a meteorite. In this novel, Eta Draconis is a violent meteor shower which has persisted for years.

Sisters Elora and Vivienne are travelling from Esperance in Western Australia to Perth, where Vivienne is returning to university and Elora is about to start studying theatre. Theatre is not considered a particularly useful course of study in a world under siege: communications and medicine are much more highly valued.

But a trip which would usually take a couple of days is complicated by meteor showers and shockwaves. The sisters must change their route and at times wonder whether to persist. Many people have fled cities for the country even though meteors are as likely to hit in the country as in the city.

I finished this novel (which won the 2022 Dorothy Hewett Award) wondering about the future. Bushfires and floods are the current disasters facing Australia (just before Christmas 2023): what will be next? I particularly admired the way in which Mr Ritchie explores the relationship between the sisters and their hopes for the future.

‘A thousand things to say but no time for any of them.’

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Ashleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew nothing about this book until I saw it in the literature section in my local Dymocks. Upon reading the blurb of this book I decided that this was a book for Ashleigh and now I've finished it I can tell you that I was entirely correct.

Eta Draconis is set near future Australia where everything revolves around Eta Draconis; a meteor shower which has hung over the world for a decade. The landscape of the world has changed as well as our aspirations, young adults finish school and go on to study communications and medicine, needed professions in a world struggling to survive. Elora however, sets out on a road trip from Esperance to Perth with her sister Vivienne in order to attend university to study Drama.

This novel has a timeless quality and I also found it harshly relevant for a post-pandemic audience. The prose is poignant and thought-provoking, Brendan Ritchie drives his message home in a uniquely refreshing Australian voice. The main plot is a road trip undertaken by two sisters, the story passing back and forth between past and present in a way that does not hinder the pace or suspense. Ritchie's world is a perfectly fully realised concept, the world building had a depth to it which leaves the reader with much to dwell upon. Eta Draconis itself reads like it is alive, vivid and a character within this novel. There is much literally and figuratively hanging over Elora and Vivienne as they set out on their journey. It is inspiring to read about resilient characters who aspire to live not just survive, timely for our current climate.

Because surviving is not enough. READ THIS BOOK!! 5 stars

[Catsalive · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, more of a peri-apocalyptic tale than post-, Eta Draconis is still very active & taking its toll as we read. Two sisters are on a road trip from the southern Western Australian coast to university in Perth. Society is still functioning to a certain extent, although communications & transport have been badly effected by the meteorite strikes & have become unreliable. Vivienne & Elora's experiences on the road are intriguing, their trip is as fraught with sibling relationship problems as with physical difficulties. Vivienne is only 4 years senior but her reaction to the changes caused by Eta is much different to that of Elora, who was only 9 years old when the first strikes occurred.

In these parlous times, young people study such things as medicine, engineering communications, & the like, but Elora is heading north for the only course offering Drama. In the end, I wonder if this tale is a plea, a call to say that entertainment in the form of Art & Drama will always be necessary no matter how difficult the rest of life becomes. Did Arts funding get reduced again, queries the cynic in me.

While I was never deeply engaged by the book, I did find it easy to read, interesting &, perhaps, a little thought-provoking.

[Liv · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like how Ritchie tried to portray a modern WA. Personally couldn't totally relate to how it was represented but hey we all live in different neighbourhoods I guess.
I also like how lots of good language was used to describe the surroundings, although it got a bit repetitive. Even for one who generally enjoys good imagery, I found myself subconsciously skipping paragraphs describing the same or very similar land/landmarks.
Storyline wise, I feel like it realllyyy dragged... This may be my advice for most books I read, but the major elements of the story that were important to the purpose really didn't need to take up that many pages. Even Elora's personal character development only really required like half the pages... And I'm still not sure what the resolution was. Maybe that was the point. Nevertheless I do feel like Vivienne's character really needed more of a redemption then one good memory from when she was ~12 and Elora 9, and a dubious one at that.

All in all, I'm not really sure to say about the book...But I respect the time and effort it would have taking to make 😁

[Dia Aghera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe this is just so complex and deep that it's beyond me but this felt like a chore to read, the writing style is nice and complex, there were tons of literary devices and things so it's a developed novel, it's just that the plot was anticlimactic and there was so much underlying meaning behind small things that nothing super interesting really happened. The coming of age aspect is nice and I like that the story is about two sisters, but for something that's such a central element of the book, it seems like a random choice that doesn't hold a lot of value itself, like the fact that they're two sisters is emphasised a lot but I feel as if the two girls could be replaced by two brothers or two friends and nothing about the meaning would change. But I do appreciate that the author talks about the significance of arts like theatre in times when the world is changing and going out of our control.

[Laura Farrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this whole book in a single sitting! I couldn't put it down, and kept picturing a mash up of every disaster movie I have ever watched- Greenland, asteroid, deep impact, comet- except in the Aussie outback. I felt the sisters conflict like it was my own, was scared for them hiding under the car, gasped, grumbled and cried. And unfortunately like many disaster movies -NO CLOSURE!!
-what was wrong with the mum?
-does the sister make the plane
-could they see draconis from earth or just meteorites?
-why the desert??
-was the 'city' Perth?
I will be thinking about this book for a long time

[Sari James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the writing style of this novel. Sometimes, it was a little confusing, but I believe it was just because it is such a different writing style to most novels.

The ending I was hoping for more. There wasn't any closure really with the family or with the outcome of the meteorite showers.

I found this an interesting book, and a different perspective on life.


Quotes:
"Meeting here was like stepping through a gateway to a life lived in spite of it all. Or perhaps not in spite, for they were all now struck by its wonder"

"If they were to become extinct , it seemed important to leave in the manner with which they had arrived. To be looking. Thinking. Reaching."

[Jada De Luca · Rating 2 out of 5]

— “eta draconis” by brendan ritchie
˗ˏˋ ★ ★ ˎˊ˗


i don’t have a sister and this book doesn’t make me wish i had one, even with the complexities of such a relationship i felt as if ritchie’s writing fell a little flat in terms of the journey. the two main characters (sisters) are driving across a crater stricken western australia to attend uni, but in the same way they were on a road trip, the road of the plot of this book dragged on and felt a bit monotonous. what ritchie does very well, however, is highlight the simple moments with an efficient use of language. (did not finish)

[Niki · Rating 3 out of 5]

“So far we’ve only experienced this tiny piece of the earth. But there are millions of other tiny pieces. People are out in them right now. Hiking up mountains. Riding subways. […] The world feels huge and unreachable, but everything is connected. There’s nowhere you can’t touch.”

A dystopian glimpse into the notion of “it is what it is” and how to keep on after you recognise that there isn’t much that you can change.

[Rhonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as well this has a Dorothy Hewett Award stamp on the front cover, because no-one is going to pick it up based on the title or the rest of the cover design. I liked the story set in south-west WA about two sisters on a road trip in a somewhat dystopian, but completely believable, world with meteor attacks.

[Win · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written & atmospheric.

[Wendy Hamill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got bored and dnf

[Just Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this dystopian novel. It was brief, but I still think about it from time to time.

[Jodie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eta Draconis by Brendan Ritchie
A dystopian journey that provides glimpses of our planet being destroyed by ongoing meteor strikes. Set in an Australia that is hard to recognise but still has the smells of the ocean carrying on a breeze, of eucalypts burning, the Aussie ability to stare disaster in the face and throw a barbecue. In all of this two sisters try to get to the city for school. This relationship is the bedrock of the story. the author has captured the misunderstandings, assumptions and general angst in sibling relationships pretty well. In amongst the human dramas there is a backdrop of a salt lake that reflects the meteor shower and the picture that the author paints in pure poetry. Read for that chapter alone.