Desolation: The Overdue Library

by D. Harrigon

Hetch didn't mean to destroy the world. She was just curious.

A broken spaceship orbits above, winking from the heavens, taunting those who remain with the proximity of their salvation.

Below, the survivors still reach for the stars. Reverting to steam power, with remnants of advanced technology, they create a society of strange rituals amongst the planet’s fearsome fauna.

Then along comes Hetch.

“D. Harrigon is striking, profound, humorous, and bold.”

Paperback

First published July 7, 2025

About the author

Working mainly as an actor and director Dave Dawkins has also published half a dozen short stories over the years under the nom de plume D. Harrigon. He has lived in Australia, UK, China and America, travelling the world at every opportunity.

His acting work has engaged with everything from Shakespearean companies, through circus performers, to opera.

The pandemic sent him from London back to Australia, where he currently resides, walking the many trails of the Tasmanian wilderness in his spare time.

Reviews

[Chez Za · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, I don't know how I feel after the end of this book. I enjoyed the world building and I feel it could be really interesting - but the last chapter almost ruins it for me. Maybe it's just to make sure we hate the character, but the ick factor is high in that last chapter.

I am interested in knowing what happens next, so will be getting the next book.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Desolation: The Overdue Library, by D. Harrington, is set on a strange planet far from Earth, many years in the future. It wasn’t the first choice of the original settlers, but where they ended up when their survey ship malfunctioned. Their descendants remain stuck there, struggling to assemble a shuttle that will get them back out to their still-orbiting parent craft.

While humans have managed to survive on the planet for 300 years, it’s been a huge challenge to avoid its bigger, deadlier crustaceans, identify and settle habitable places, and harness steam as a source of energy. What’s more, something in the food has skewed the population heavily female over the past few generations.

Now, there are only around thirty men available to reproduce with, and a hierarchy has developed: the men, and women who have been deemed worthy of bearing their children, live in the luxurious palace of Muha-Maho in the city of Desolation. Those who wish to join them literally have to fight one another, in a series of matches held each season.

Hetch is a shrimp diver with a questioning nature, and she doesn’t quite buy what she’s been taught about the colony’s history. Determined to access the library in Muha-Maho, her plan is to get into the palace disguised as one of the latest round of contenders.

Hetch’s mission turns out to be even more fraught with danger than she anticipated. Can she find the evidence she’s looking for and live to tell the tale?

I found a lot to enjoy in Desolation: The Overdue Library! It’s tense and pacey virtually from the get-go, as we first encounter Hetch just as she’s preparing to ambush breeding hopeful Shestia’s steam-pulled carriage. From there, events come thick and fast as Hetch gets into one fix after another, and has to improvise, charm, and rely on pure luck to get out of them.

At the same time, we’re learning about the world she inhabits – information that is imparted as it becomes relevant, so I didn’t feel overwhelmed or diverted from the exciting unfolding events.

The author has clearly put a lot of thought into the colony’s history and the planet’s geography, and really engages with, and gets a lot out of them. The former is developed enough to have both an official and alternative version, while the latter is inspired (steam power! Crustaceans of all shapes and sizes! Entertaining place names!), and also key to the conspiracy Hetch is attempting to uncover.

Refusing to take things at face value, questioning what she’s been taught, and digging deep for answers in the library, Hetch is a character after my own heart. I could identify with her particular interest in, and talent for noticing minor details and discrepancies – and what she eventually turned up in the library made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Unlike me, though, she has bravery and presence of mind in abundance, which is a good thing, as she frequently needs them!

I also really liked the friends Hetch made along the way – two steam engineers who are quirky in their own ways, and an initially very hostile librarian – and am hoping they’ll continue to work together in the second book of the series.

While the cast are chiefly women, for the most part, the male author avoids the pitfalls of “men writing women”. We get a sense of the characters’ personalities first, with their appearance only coming into it when it’s relevant to how a scene plays out, or providing further information about a character’s priorities and preoccupations. There’s fierce rivalry between women in the palace, but a spirit of co-operation and camaraderie elsewhere, not least because it’s necessary for survival. Some of the men clearly find the organised fights titillating, but the one the reader sees isn’t presented as such.

I did wonder why Hetch’s commandeering of Shestia’s clothes had to involve total nudity, though this could be a continuity error, considering Hetch is wearing underwear when she sheds a different disguise later on (even so, there might have been a blanket in the well-appointed carriage to cover poor Shestia!).

The book closes with an interlude following one of the men, who’s revealed to be pulling some strings and hiding many secrets, and is thoroughly unpleasant to boot. While this gives the reader insights Hetch and co. lack, and affirms that they’re the goodies and he’s a baddie, his misogynistic (to say the least) opinions, behaviour, and language does mean the first part of the series concludes on rather a sour note. Nonetheless, I’m looking forward to spending more time with the compelling heroes in the next part of the story.

Desolation: The Overdue Library is an imaginative and fast-paced start to a new sci-fi series.

[Robert Clay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun, thrilling and sharp.

I had some time today so I thought I start reading my latest Kickstarter indie book. That was a mistake. I lost the entire afternoon finishing this novella in one go. I've read previous work by D. Harrigon. I must say, his writing has improved from book to book. This latest book is accessible, immediate, and enjoyable. But there is that sharpness underneath it all. Easy to miss, but worth digging out. There's a delightful Hamlet riff in the middle, but why Hamlet? This story is set in the far future. Has there been no new media since then? The answer to which is never made blatant, but is obvious once you finish the novella.

There are sections of world-building, but only in delightful, bite-sized pieces that add to the immediate story. Other than that, we are on a thrilling ride that pushes action without feeling as though it's just stuff happening for the sake of a story. We spend time with some fascinating people - I love Veva's section in particular - and watch them get caught up in the accidental tornado that is Hetch.

And what a great heroine Hetch proves to be. She isn't driven by the usual shallow motivations that every writer uses. Instead, she's curious. She has a drive to dig out answers, and intends to do so at the Library. Obstacles manifest almost immediately as she attempts to execute a naive plan, but she pushes through. Not without consequences, and I'm looking forward to see how some of those are going to return in the next book. I really do like her.

When she gets to her goal in the library, the revelation there is truly worthwhile.

Another reviewer has complained about the end section, but that final interlude does strongly level up the threat. It's not just social norms that Hetch is violating. There's a whole different level of nastiness underneath it all. Highly original story-wise. Plus the chapter signals the destruction of the entire colony, via a collision course between the unexpected big bad and Hetch. I, for one, am very excited to see how this plays out.

[Lewis Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went into Harrigon's first novella of the 'Desolation' series with little idea of what to expect. Immediately I was dropped into a dystopian, low-tech sci-fi world defined with expertly trickled backstory - enough for me to know there were many layers below the surface, keeping me intrigued without being belabored. Likewise, each of the key characters are introduced with a pacing that allows them to show their depth and gradually reveal themselves to the reader over time.

The mysteries of the world are ultimately what drives the narrative - we discover many of its secrets at the same time as the protagonist, Hetch. Her quest for discovery is compelling, as are the characters she encounters along the way. As the world broadens before Hetch and the reader, its scope and inhabitants are as intimidating as they are enthralling as we see a very different world among the elites compared to what Hetch knows.

What really stands out about this piece, especially being a relatively quick read, is the world-building. There is a sense of history, culture and struggle that permeates every word, action and piece of dialogue. In-world colloquialisms are peppered throughout, enough to be quiry without being distracting. The ways of the world are brutal, but understandable in context. A world whose inhabitants try to make the best of it, and largely try to be their best in it, despite the odds. Harrigon also illustrates the world's flora and fauna in a way that is appropriately alien, but familiar enough that its human inhabitants can conceivably survive if not thrive.

The bombshell revelation at the end of the novella took me completely by surprise, and opened an entirely new layer to the story that has me more than ready to jump into part two of the series!