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Salt
Sando and Hedda break out of Sydney, the walled city of 2075, into an Australia decimated by civil strife, rising salt levels and unbearably hot temperatures.
Their flight to this salt-encrusted otherworld forces them to face its unimaginable inhabitants, bred in a secret weapons laboratory.
Their flight to this salt-encrusted otherworld forces them to face its unimaginable inhabitants, bred in a secret weapons laboratory.
348 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
3 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
About the author
Gabrielle Lord
108 books238 followersGabrielle Craig Lord is an Australian writer who has been described as Australia's first lady of crime.
She survived being ‘razed’ by the nuns, acquired an education despite this, and after working in many different areas, sales, teaching, brick-cleaning, peach-picking and packing, and in the Public Service as an employment officer, started writing seriously aged 30.
Her first two manuscripts ended up composting the tomatoes at her market garden – another attempt to make a living – but the third one FORTRESS was picked up internationally and made into a feature film starring Rachel Ward. A later novel WHIPPING BOY was made into a telemovie starring Sigrid Thornton. The film rights money, coinciding with her daughter leaving school, allowed Gabrielle to resign and instead of getting up at 4.30am and writing for several hours before heading off for work, she could write full-time and lead a more ‘normal’ writer’s life – hanging around with scientists and detectives, badgering forensic anthropologists (she studied some Anatomy at Sydney university) and doing work experience with a busy private security business and of course, writing.
Research is everything, she says. ‘Out of my contacts with experts (who are always far too modest to describe themselves that way) I get not only the fine-tuning necessary for today’s savvy readers, but also wonderful incidents and images that enrich and enlarge my books.’
Gabrielle’s interests are very simple. ‘After a misspent youth, I don’t have many brain cells left so I enjoy walking, meditation, singing, gardening, chatting with close friends, being with my family and grandkids, feeding my goldfish and keeping up to date with bodywork and enlightened psychotherapy.’
Gabrielle has now written fourteen adult novels and a novel for young adults. Once the 12 books of Conspiracy 365 are completed, this tally will be a tad bigger! Following this mammoth endeavour she already has plans for another three adult novels and two more YAs.
2013
She survived being ‘razed’ by the nuns, acquired an education despite this, and after working in many different areas, sales, teaching, brick-cleaning, peach-picking and packing, and in the Public Service as an employment officer, started writing seriously aged 30.
Her first two manuscripts ended up composting the tomatoes at her market garden – another attempt to make a living – but the third one FORTRESS was picked up internationally and made into a feature film starring Rachel Ward. A later novel WHIPPING BOY was made into a telemovie starring Sigrid Thornton. The film rights money, coinciding with her daughter leaving school, allowed Gabrielle to resign and instead of getting up at 4.30am and writing for several hours before heading off for work, she could write full-time and lead a more ‘normal’ writer’s life – hanging around with scientists and detectives, badgering forensic anthropologists (she studied some Anatomy at Sydney university) and doing work experience with a busy private security business and of course, writing.
Research is everything, she says. ‘Out of my contacts with experts (who are always far too modest to describe themselves that way) I get not only the fine-tuning necessary for today’s savvy readers, but also wonderful incidents and images that enrich and enlarge my books.’
Gabrielle’s interests are very simple. ‘After a misspent youth, I don’t have many brain cells left so I enjoy walking, meditation, singing, gardening, chatting with close friends, being with my family and grandkids, feeding my goldfish and keeping up to date with bodywork and enlightened psychotherapy.’
Gabrielle has now written fourteen adult novels and a novel for young adults. Once the 12 books of Conspiracy 365 are completed, this tally will be a tad bigger! Following this mammoth endeavour she already has plans for another three adult novels and two more YAs.
2013
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 3, 2018
This is a nice little Australian, dystopian novel very identifiable as from the 1980's - which is to say, it has dated a little bit.
Sando is an elite pilot in Sydney, circa 2075 Australia (and indeed we believe, the world) has been devastated by a ravaged ozone layer making daytime sun fatal. High temperatures, civil strife and authoritarian regimes are the order of the day while the rising salt levels have killed agriculture and made water a vitally precious commodity.
Sando is sitting pretty, as a pilot he earns very well, but he is a barely functioning alcoholic as the things he sees get the best of him. Then Hilliard, his friend, boss and mentor vanishes and after a conversation at Hilliard's memorial, Sando can no longer ignore the fact that something is very suspicious about the regime he lives under.
This book has pluses and minus' to it and since one has to balance them fairly finely, in the end, I can only give it three stars, though I did enjoy it and would recommend it to anyone intrigued by the theme. Others will probably not be as critical of some of the details as I have been.
For a start, while the society, the ecology and the setup are fascinating the casual wave of the hand that makes Sydney 2075 represent ALL of Australia is staggering and not even remotely believable. Some explanation for ruling out the countries immense diversity is really, really needed and is not given. Lord is Australian, she should know better than to lump nearly 8 million square kilometers of immensely variable country into a single demographic.
While I enjoyed the descriptions of life in the different locations, these descriptions were very light on detail, I could have done with a LOT more information of how things worked, how they looked, what they were. Sydney is not badly visiualised, but does not have much depth as we follow Sando around inside of his head. Tantalising drops of information about different locations is given up in a few words, but never followed up on.
Some authors are light on externals but big on the internal landscape of the characters, perhaps that is what Lord is trying for, but I did not feel it worked. Sando repeats his alcoholic little theme over and over, believably, but without any real depth to his character. Of the others, three or four are attempted, but their characters remain superficial at best. All detail, characters and landscape both, reduces more and more as we contiue toward the end of the book.
The central storyline is pretty good, if you remember it is from the 80's - scientists and science, are, of course, always immoral and evil. Governing bodies are corrupt. There is the bleakness of the dystopian future we brought upon ourselves. The ending however is very neat, very nice and well worth reading for. In general the story is well worth the occasional wince.
Sando is an elite pilot in Sydney, circa 2075 Australia (and indeed we believe, the world) has been devastated by a ravaged ozone layer making daytime sun fatal. High temperatures, civil strife and authoritarian regimes are the order of the day while the rising salt levels have killed agriculture and made water a vitally precious commodity.
Sando is sitting pretty, as a pilot he earns very well, but he is a barely functioning alcoholic as the things he sees get the best of him. Then Hilliard, his friend, boss and mentor vanishes and after a conversation at Hilliard's memorial, Sando can no longer ignore the fact that something is very suspicious about the regime he lives under.
This book has pluses and minus' to it and since one has to balance them fairly finely, in the end, I can only give it three stars, though I did enjoy it and would recommend it to anyone intrigued by the theme. Others will probably not be as critical of some of the details as I have been.
For a start, while the society, the ecology and the setup are fascinating the casual wave of the hand that makes Sydney 2075 represent ALL of Australia is staggering and not even remotely believable. Some explanation for ruling out the countries immense diversity is really, really needed and is not given. Lord is Australian, she should know better than to lump nearly 8 million square kilometers of immensely variable country into a single demographic.
While I enjoyed the descriptions of life in the different locations, these descriptions were very light on detail, I could have done with a LOT more information of how things worked, how they looked, what they were. Sydney is not badly visiualised, but does not have much depth as we follow Sando around inside of his head. Tantalising drops of information about different locations is given up in a few words, but never followed up on.
Some authors are light on externals but big on the internal landscape of the characters, perhaps that is what Lord is trying for, but I did not feel it worked. Sando repeats his alcoholic little theme over and over, believably, but without any real depth to his character. Of the others, three or four are attempted, but their characters remain superficial at best. All detail, characters and landscape both, reduces more and more as we contiue toward the end of the book.
The central storyline is pretty good, if you remember it is from the 80's - scientists and science, are, of course, always immoral and evil. Governing bodies are corrupt. There is the bleakness of the dystopian future we brought upon ourselves. The ending however is very neat, very nice and well worth reading for. In general the story is well worth the occasional wince.
November 12, 2018
Brilliant.
Strangely prescient novel by Australia's First Lady of crime that examines the social consequences of climate change.
Strangely prescient novel by Australia's First Lady of crime that examines the social consequences of climate change.
July 8, 2022
This book really didn’t grab me. I expected more from this well-known Australian author but the story line really didn’t have any depth.
July 29, 2016
It was so exciting to find a post apocalyptic novel set in Australia. "Salt" was pretty good. I didn't have great expectations, not being familiar with the author's other work, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's been in print for a while too. The main protagonist is pretty unlikeable, but he's meant to be. The setting is well imagined and the plot flows along nicely. I can honestly say that "Salt" is the best post apocalyptic novel set in Australia that I've ever read. Sorry I don't have links to the book title. There are a lot of books with the title "Salt."
March 1, 2012
The story is unpredictable, with the 2nd half being totally different to the 1st. Loved that it was set in Sydney but the dystopian future was scary particularly as some of it is coming true (global warming, desalination plants etc). Eery, unforgettable, but not really my thing.
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August 23, 2008isbn,original
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews