New Keepers

by Jayne Bauling

In a future labelled the Prosperity, Jabz rounds up a motley gang of adventure seekers to travel with him to the mountain of his vision. They don't realise they're expendable - their only purpose to fund the journey in Jabz's old Quantum bus. But none of them has ventured into the Wildlands before. Are the rumours of wild people and savage animals true? And perhaps Jabz isn't the only one keeping secrets ...

Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Jayne was born in England but grew up in South Africa. After many years in Johannesburg and 17 women's fiction novels published in the UK, a move to White River, Mbombela in Mpumalanga, coincided with an exploration of new writing directions - youth fiction, short stories and poetry. Her YA novel E Eights won the 2009 Macmillan Writer's Prize for Africa, Stepping Solo was awarded the 2011 Maskew Miller Longman literature award for novels in English, and Dreaming of Light won the 2012 Gold Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature and was chosen for the 2014 IBBY Honour List. Her youth short story Dineo 658 MP won the 2009 MML silver medal, while This Ubuntu Thing was shortlisted for the inaugural Golden Baobab award and The Saturday Dress was shortlisted for the same award in 2014. In 2011 she also won the inaugural African Writing flash fiction prize for Settling. She has twice been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Another youth novel Our Side of the Wall was shortlisted for the Sanlam Prize. Her adult short stories have appeared in The Bed Book of Short Stories (Modjaji Books), The Edge of Things (Dye Hard Press), African Pens 2011 (Jacana), Feast, Famine & Potluck (Short Story Day Africa), the e-anthology Behind the Shadows, and (the stories An Inappropriate Woman and Witch and Bitch)in the People Opposing Women Abuse Breaking the Silence annual anthologies (Jacana). Rage and Misfortune, her retelling of the OT Samson story was published online by Ludic Press. Poetry: Symbiosis won SAFM's Express Yourself prize, Fist was placed 3rd in the 2008 POWA Women's Writing Project and published in Murmurs of the Girl in Me, while Unschooled was published in POWA's 2010 anthology Stories of the Othere(ed) Woman and The Ladies Take Tea in POWA's 2012 anthology Sisterhood. More poetry in ouroboros review, Markings, poetandgeek, Ons Klyntji, Litnet and the Lowvelder.
Her latest novel is Soccer Secrets (Cover2Cover Books).
Visit her Facebook page Jayne Bauling Writer or follow her on Twitter @JayneBauling

Reviews

[Nerine Dorman · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s absolutely wonderful to see more SFF being taken on by South African publishers, and Jayne Bauling’s New Keepers is clearly an engaging first novel in what I suspect will turn into a series. Bauling’s post-apocalyptic dystopia sees the survivors of a global catastrophe living in an age dubbed the Prosperity, where every aspect of their lives is controlled by an authoritarian government that provides for all their needs. Society has been stratified into strict castes, each with its own function – the high cost for protection in a hostile world. Only a lucky few are allowed to have children, and you are constantly in fear of being subjected to ominous sounding processes known as Parking or Rinsing.

Our protagonist Jabz is a Stain – a particular caste that lives out in the Margins, at the edges of the Prosperity and in the ruins of the old world. He has a gift for knowing which plants can heal, and in his smoke-visions he’s called to a mysterious mountain that exists far out in the wilds. But he can’t do this alone – he has to bring together a team to help him finance the quest, which is why he assembles a ragtag bunch to accompany him. It’s a bit of a Starship Enterprise scenario as the merry band of misfits boldly venture forth into the unknown.

Bauling has a strong narrative voice and it was lovely to read a YA novel that didn’t shy away from the realities of human existence. I did to a degree feel as if the novel lagged somewhat in the start, but considering that a degree of world building was necessary to establish the milieu, and that this is clearly a first book in a series, this is unavoidable. In addition, the cast of characters is large, and I did feel at times that they didn’t truly get an opportunity to shine or have sufficiently fleshed out character arcs. And I understand how difficult this is – keeping the story flowing forward but having enough threads to develop later if you have a bigger picture in mind.

Towards the end, I did feel almost as if the pace hurried a bit too much and that important bits were glossed over – especially in terms of the try/fail cycles that characters experienced. I’d personally have liked to see a bit more tension, more lows and highs to offer contrast within the overarching structure, as well as more detail in terms of action sequences.

These things considered, New Keepers is still a great read that I enjoyed and made me care about the characters; I’m a sucker for imagining post-technological southern Africa and the sort of what ifs that come into being from envisioning possible futures. New Keepers blends the magical with a dystopian future, and I’m curious to see where the author will take Jabz and his friends.

[Rowena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put it down. Can't wait for the sequel.

[Jude · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did like this book, although I had a few misgivings. I like the idea of a YA dystopian novel set in South Africa with direct links to the pre-disaster period - this gave the story a sense of history and continuity. I also liked the comparison of the various sects of society being likened to the previous existence of different linguistic and cultural groups. At the same time there are a number of different groupings/castes and it s not always obvious why they are differentiated as they are - especially the Feathers. It is clear that this is intended to be a series, and so I can see that the author had to set the scene for the different characters and give herself the opportunity to develop various threads of the story in the sequels. But the relatively large number of characters made it difficult to recall who was who, especially at first. The only characters that I connected with as a reader were Jabz (the chief protagonist who I was convinced was a female for the first chapter or so) and, to a lesser extent, Silver. The others are more blurred and inevitably flatter. The journey out into the Wilds to find the mountain could have been a little more protracted, with more difficulties and episodes along the way - which would have helped develop the characters and the relationships between them a little more. Having said all that, I will certainly read the sequel when it comes out as I am interested in how the story turns out.

[Matthew Field · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author builds a fascinating post-apocalyptic world and the story is an exciting adventure. Sadly, it's let down by an ending that's just a summary of what happens next (it's the book version of Fallout New Vegas' end-game slideshow). I'd have much rather either it be either a set-up for the sequel or at least left ambiguous. Instead it just deflates all the excitement

[Rhiannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Overly ambitious, clumsily written, confusing and ultimately unsatisfying. Whatever the author was trying to do, she failed.