The Old Lie

by Claire G. Coleman

Shane Daniels and Romany Zetz have been drawn into a war that is not their own. Lives will be destroyed, families will be torn apart. Trust will be broken.

When the war is over, some will return to a changed world. Will they discover that glory is a lie?

Claire G. Coleman's new novel takes us to a familiar world to again ask us what we have learned from the past. The Old Lie might not be quite what you expect.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Australia, Historical Fiction, Dystopia, Book Club, Audiobook

358 pages, Paperback

First published August 27, 2019

Reviews

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ★s
The Old Lie is the second novel by award-winning Australian author, Claire G. Coleman. A fighter pilot, a soldier, a fugitive, a prisoner, a mortally-infected man: the opening chapters introduce these five ostensibly-unconnected characters and detail their situations. The fighter pilot has been flying for the Federation since Conglomeration forces began attacking Earth. The soldier left a spouse and children to fight for the Federation, for her family, her Country. The fugitive is on the run from the Federation. The prisoner is held captive by the Federation. And the mortally-infected man is the victim of a Federation experiment.

Race and gender are not immediately apparent; this is almost certainly intentional as it forms part of the overall theme of the novel: how perspective and judgement alter when we know this about a person. The astute reader will begin to make the links between the characters and see the parallels with events in Australian Indigenous history as the story progresses. If the battle descriptions are a little tedious, and if the connections only very gradually become clear, they are worth persevering through for a powerful, heart-breaking and thought-provoking read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Hachette Australia.

[Bram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back when I was a teenager, I was obsessed with a PC game called Wing Commander. A wild, enormously enjoyable but politically conscious space flight sim, it kept me up through many nights when I should have been doing homework. Or sleeping. The Old Lie is basically Wing Commander in print, which isn't to suggest that it's in any way derivative of the game but it gave me all the same feels. Perhaps even more, given its thoroughly Australian context and my more mature understanding of our deeply fraught history. Another bravura performance by Claire Coleman!

[Rebecca Bowyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Old Lie, by Claire G. Coleman is one of those brilliant but infuriating novels that you really want to tell other people to read, but is really hard to describe properly without including at least a couple of almost-spoilers.

I can tell you that it’s a wonderfully imaginative, dark novel set in the future (mostly in outer space, but also on Earth in Australia), told from multiple points of view about humans trying to find their way back to Earth and make sense of what’s happened to their home planet.

Romany “Romeo” Zetz is one of the best fighter pilots the Federation has. Along with her best friend, infantry-woman Shane Daniels, she has been drawn into a war that is not their own but which they must fight to support the intergalactic Federation and keep their families safe back on Earth safe from the enemy forces of the Conglomeration.

You’ll probably spend the first half of the novel fairly confused about how the various points of view can possibly be related and wonder where this whole story is going. But you won’t care because you’ll be wholly immersed in the characters’ vivid, painful and violent journeys through intergalactic war and captivity.

It’s often been said that reading fiction is an excellent way to develop empathy. In her award-winning first novel, Terra Nullius, Coleman proved herself a master at putting colonisers in the shoes of the colonised and giving them a taste of what it’s like to be invaded by a race who believe the existing inhabitants are inferior and expendable.

She has managed to do it again in The Old Lie, this time on an intergalactic scale.

The narrative is at once alien and all-too-familiar. The horrific trench warfare of World War I is echoed in Shane Daniel’s first scenes. The desperate modern plight of refugees rejected by country after country is brought to the fore with Jimmy, Itta and Speech’s dangerous journey from one space station to another. The racism (and speciesism) suffered by supposedly allied members of the Federation is a daily reality for too many people in 2020. The dangers of scientific research without the restraint of basic ethics is… actually, I won’t go there. That would be one spoiler too many.

You’ll just need to go and read it yourself to find out.

[Gabi · Rating 5 out of 5]

As brilliant as her "Terra Nullius".

Again did Coleman succeed in letting the reader feel (at least a part of) the horrors of real world colonization by projecting it into a SciFi setting. We follow five POVs on Earth and in space from a future where Earth is but a minor non-citizen part of a galactic federation taking part in an universal war.
Lines by war poet Wilfred Owen accompany the story and connect the fictious plot with our war time reality. Coleman writes in a blunt, brutal prose with no place for glory or heroes in the dirty matter that is war. The hurt and pain inflicted on her people is palpable in every scene and turns this military SF into a gut punching and in my humble opinion important read.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

So to be clear, this is certainly an SF novel, and has all the usual spaceships, battles and alien races that you expect, but, BUT, this is also a gut-punch of a novel, as the horror of the story, and the truth of the allegory slowly dawn on the reader. This one is going to sit with me for a while I feel, and has made me look more closely at parts of Australian history that I have only slowly been fully appreciative of.
This book holds up a dark mirror to the world (and the reader), I also feel that the use of WWI poetry was very powerful, but this is a genre that I have always been strongly affected by.
Not an easy read, as Claire continues to channel her anger into the written word, but it is a book that should be read, and then lived with.

[Rachel England-Brassy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning follow up to Terra Nullis and second novel. As per the first novel, these ought to be curriculum reading in both the UK and Australia.
Highly recommended.

[Maree Kimberley · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I'm being honest, I found The Old Lie a bit of a struggle and almost abandoned it. I'm glad I didn't because in the end I enjoyed the novel but it was a hard slog for at least the first half. Still, by the end I was absolutely hooked. It was a real race to the finish as the main characters fought to attain their final goal, and the horror of the new reality they faced was revealed.

I'm not a fan of space opera as a general rule, and perhaps that's why I didn't enjoy the first half of the book. In particular I found the fighting and war descriptions repetitive, and at times confusing. I honestly think at least a third of the front half of the book could have been edited out and the story would have worked equally as well. The writing was a bit sloppy at times and needed a tighter edit, and I feel the author may have been rushed into getting the final product onto the shelves.

It's a pity because there is so much to like about this novel. Using a speculative fiction lens, it gives an excellent critique of the cruel legacies of colonialism and how colonialist policies continue to resonate over centuries through structural racism, and cause ongoing trauma and despair.

I wanted to keep reading because I loved Coleman's first novel, Terra Nullius, and I trusted she would bring the goods in the end, which she absolutely did. However, it wasn't until about 2/3 of the way through that I was really hooked and I found the final section of the novel compelling and unputdownable. If it had been another author I probably would have given up on the book halfway through. Of course, others may not find the first half as tough going as I did.

I do recommend reading The Old Lie. Coleman is an important voice in Australian literature, and especially in speculative fiction, and while the book is not perfect it has a lot to offer so, despite its flaws, The Old Lie is definitely one to put on your TBR list.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

In depth ★★★★

In The Old Lie, Coleman subverts reader expectations to deliver a biting critique of colonial Australia, with a creative twist. Coleman excels at putting the audience in her characters' shoes, while telling a story that's both frightening and compelling. Readers should note triggers for graphic descriptions of war-related violence and dead bodies, racism, and violence towards refugees, including children.

Told from a range of perspectives, The Old Lie follows a core cast of First Nations characters - Corporal Shane Daniels, outlaw Jimmy, bomb victim Walker, pilot Romany Zetz (aka Romeo) and doctor William - as each struggles to survive the world they're faced with. It's hard to say more without spoiling Coleman's twist, so I'll simply say that each face violence and great trauma, and must battle for their homes, families and lives. Coleman includes queer representation without making a fuss of it - one of this novel's many strengths.

The premise makes for an action-packed story - the stakes are high, and, as we're propelled through the action, we look up only to find the stakes raised once again.

The central theme is displacement and violence inflicted by an outside force, and the courage it takes to rebel. It also probes the way governments have, time and time again, broken their contract with citizens, especially soldiers. This approach allows Coleman to shine a light on the treatment of First Nations Australians through her unique lens.

I love a good multi-viewpoint narrative, and thought Coleman managed the jumps (both between perspectives and time) deftly. The writing swung from lyrical (taking Wilfred Owen's style of using beautiful words to describe the brutal truth of war), to no-nonsense and paired-back as the moment needed. I found the romance sub-plot a little underdone in its initial development (a bit too "love at first sight"), but the relationship, once established, was a highlight of the plot.

I loved reading about the kick-ass Shane Daniels - having a strong, yet emotionally rich First Nations women protagonist is the first, but not the only, reason to pick up this book. I found the ending to be perfectly balanced between tragedy and hope, with foreshadowing of justice that readers will find satisfying after such a wild ride.

I received a copy of The Old Lie from Hachette Australia in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Out now, RRP $32.99.

[Stef Rozitis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this, I found it harrowing.

I immediately loved Shane Daniels and Romeo. Awesome protagonists both. It took a while for me to work out how the other POV characters were connected. I guess at first I was lulled into thinking this was going to be Star Wars with Aboriginal protagonists and I strapped myself in to really enjoy us. Sure it was very scathing of colonialism and sure there were 2 evil empires invading earth but the sheer heroism seemed like it would triumph.

Slowly the book unwound into darkness, darker and darker and darker. I kept hoping until the end (despite how many important characters had died horribly and that noone in the book seemed to be able to even have a decent meal at any moment.

Then when I realised it was all going to end badly, that all hope was going to be cut off I felt angry and sort of ripped off. I felt that the author should not be universalising this sort of shitty colonial behaviour, should not be reifying it. I guess in the end I realised that this is probably not written to increase or excuse white guilt, it's about fighting no matter what

The book is interesting in how gender is portrayed, for a few sections there is a careful omission of Shane's gender- I assume that is deliberate. Then Shane and Romeo are so macho and even Harper is a geek/stem-lord. Jimmy is nurturing (though he can fight when he needs to), William is emotional and nurturing. All of them are convoncing in their roles. I was barracking for all of them and Walker too.

This is NOT escapist fiction. It's a great book but it hurts.

[K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trigger warnings: war, violence, death, systemic racism, death in custody, suicide, removal of children by authorities/Stolen Generations, incarceration, mistreatment of refugees, radiation poisoning, testing of weapons of mass destruction on Indigenous land (a la Maralinga).

Wow. Just...wow. This book, much like Terra Nullius, blew me away. It was a slow burn though - for the first half of the book, I enjoyed the characters and the writing but wasn't sure where the story was going. But as more and more twists were revealed in the second half, I was absolutely hooked. Again, Coleman has done a spectacular job of retelling elements of Australian history through sci-fi. And when you factor in the frequent use of Wilfred Owen's poetry - aka basically the only poetry I like - this was absolutely OUTSTANDING.

I would LOVE to see this turned into a TV miniseries, because it's just. that. good. (Instead, I shall settle for rewatching Cleverman and hope like hell that the ABC pick this up)

[Ceyrone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Huge fan of this author, and I will continue to read what this author writes. Very much looking forward to the next book this author releases later this year. Once again, Coleman subverts the readers ideas by putting colonisers in the shoes of the colonised and giving them a taste of what it’s like to be invaded by a race who thinks they are inferior, expendable, and savages. The story follows five characters that we are introduced at from the beginning. It follows a fighter pilot, a soldier, a fugitive, a prisoner and a mortally-infected man. Their situations are not connected. I love how Coleman has created this sci-fi story while making links with events in Australian Indigenous history.

[Rose]

A while ago I read an article explaining that the threat of invasion, a trope so common in sci-fi, is not a threat for Indigenous nations. It’s a trope for White folk; the invasion has already happened—is still happening—for Indigenous nations. The Old Lie says this with it’s whole chest.

It’s a strength of the book how rooted in history it is. Even someone who is unfamiliar with British colonisation of Australia would recognise how history repeats in this book: the Stolen Generations, First Nations people fighting a war for their oppressors, and the bombing at Maralinga being the most notable. The book is powerful, and the parallels it draws to Australian history made me emotional. I can’t imagine how reading this as an Indigenous person would have felt.

While I thought the story was powerful, I think it did fall short on pacing. There were often moments that I wished stretched out for longer, or reveals I wished had been more heavily foreshadowed. Harper and Romeo’s relationship was sweet, but I felt unattached by how quickly the story moved—which sucked because I really wanted to enjoy their open affection.. The dialogue felt stilted a lot, and it often drew me out of the story.

So while I liked what the book had to say, the imagery, and the parallels, I did struggle a bit to get through it.

[G Batts · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really struggled with this one. The prose was clunky, some metaphors seemed mixed and paragraphs lacked progressive flow. As an example of the last point, at the beginning of the paragraph Kelly noticed a drop of water on her phone. Next sentence was that her eyes were pouring tears. By the end of the paragraph her tears were red, presumably with blood. There was no process of escalation between the three descriptions of tears.
The story was also remarkably unimaginative. My guess is that this is why it’s not being marketed as sci-fi; it’s much more historical fiction that is set in the future. I’d recommend saving time by just reading the author’s note at the back.
Redeeming the novel slightly is that the characters, although one dimensional, were sketched with warmth and the sense of longing for country was acute.

[Kirstie Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Challenging but powerful.

This was quite a hard read but certainly does what it sets out to do. I went into this (somehow) not realising it was sci-fi and was pleasantly surprised when the first spaceship touched down. There are a lot of characters - like a lot, a lot - which is hard to wrap your head around first but then as the story progresses things begin to come together.

I really enjoyed how Coleman takes the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders - particularly in relation to the Stolen Generations - and translates it to this global, sci-fi piece of fiction that resonates really well with the reader, no matter their own background.

I'd say this is the kind of book that is hard to wrap your head around, but worth persevering with.

[Andi C Buchanan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Old Lie is, at its core, a combination of space opera and military SF, and like most of that genre it has something to say about actual war and history. I received a proof copy as part of a publisher giveaway (thank you!) with no expectation of review - it's odd that as someone who tries to stay on top of SFF releases I don't think I'd otherwise heard of it. I'm more intrigued by what appears to be a decision to market it more as literary/historical fiction than science fiction, and how a non-science fiction reader would approach it.

I _am_ a science fiction reader, and one with a love of war poetry, so there was a lot for me to like in here. Nevertheless, the first half of the book left me unsure whether how I felt about it. There were a lot of threads that didn't seem to come together and I was often left wondering if the author had read very little science fiction, or if she had read a lot and was trying to evade the obvious tropes. Having finished the book, I'm pretty confident it's the latter - but it didn't always work and I am still left a bit unsure about the consistency of technology levels throughout the story.

Coleman makes an effort to make it clear that there are non-binary people and there are...at least non-dyadic aliens if not actual intersex humans in the world she creates, and I think she does so in good faith. Unfortunately there's some problematic language and misunderstanding of concepts that made this a bit of a difficult read for me in places. I'd honestly rather this than the majority of books that just work on the assumption everyone is cis, but this is the sort of thing sensitivity readers are there for and it's a disappointment that the publisher doesn't appear to have engaged that expertise.

All that said, Coleman creates characters who you give a damn about in really very few words for each. I almost surprised myself how nauseous I felt at one reveal, and the devastating effect it would have on the character in question. When the story's threads started coming together the book became very effective very fast: emotional, shocking, fast paced.

Alien invasion as a metaphor for human colonisation may be considered a trope, but I haven't read many examples of it by Indigenous authors and I think there might be a lot left in it. This isn't exactly that, in any case, but it engages with it in brutal ways, turning what I think many of us find comforting in science fiction right around. This book refuses to give easy answers, and if there's any relief or hope at all it's in the solidarity and determination of its characters.

I don't recommend this as a flawless work. I do recommend it as science fiction that engages with history, engages with oppression, and that, rather than writing to the genre as if it were some kind of roadmap or restriction, takes its conventions and assumptions and uses them as a weapon.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starship Troopers meets Australian space opera.
There's a definite message here about the shoe being on the other foot with our treatment of indigenous people.
Aliens invade and to fight them off we must form an allegiance with other aliens, but the alliance is not an equal one and while we're fighting what are we losing at home.
Fabulously done on so many levels.

[Amy Heap · Rating 5 out of 5]

Claire G.Coleman has, again, written an engrossing work of speculative fiction that cleverly, and powerfully brings home the impact of Australian history. Not an easy read, it is awash with bodily fluids and stench, and there are long, detailed battle scenes, but the emotion is gut-wrenching, and it is intensely thought provoking about race, gender, war, and power. The WWI and Wilfred Owen references appealed specifically to me, and I love how Coleman sets up familiar situations and then turns you upside-down.

[Natasha Hurley-Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely amazing. When it starts you think "oh, military sci-fi, sure, yawn, seen this before". Plucky pilots perform amazing space acrobatics to shoot down the baddie aliens and save their friends. Trench warfare on alien worlds is appropriately horrifying. But then, halfway through the book... the war ends. It's over. The core crew who you've been cheering on have won! And now they're heading home to enjoy their well-earned victory. Except absolutely nothing goes to plan. And you begin to realise this isn't just Starship Troopers for the current century. It's an exploration of what has happened and what continues to happen to people caught up in fighting for a system that they think is on their side, but really, really isn't. There is a reason all of the main characters are Indigenous Australians and events unfurl the way they do. The absolute desolation of reading about events that are ostensibly set in the future but you realise have happened in the past is just breathtaking -- and a really important remembrance that we should all have. It wrongfooted me in the same way that The Overstory did -- and it's in those free-falling moments where our worldview shifts that we learn to think bigger and care more. I can't recommend this book enough.

[Wendy Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable, with a vivid immediacy and a serious underlying purpose. If it's not too shallow of me, I would also really like a sequel because I became so attached to the characters and their story but I guess the old lie always goes on.

[Becca · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to say what this book is about without spoilers so I will just say this amazing book is about a war and have the various characters in this story play a part in/cope and suffer from the consequences of it.

It's a gripping and thought provoking novel that you have to ease into and it unfolds into so much more. I recommend staying for the authors note at the end and telling all your friends to read it.

[Katie Sfetkidis · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to warm up to this book. It’s hard not to make comparisons between this and Coleman’s first book Terra Nullius. In both Coleman mange’s to weave Australian colonial history and speculative fiction together to tell a great story that invites some deep reflection. Similarly this book traces many characters, in short sharp chapters, which sometimes makes it difficult to keep up with what is going on.I feel like I possibly missed some important things earlier in because of this and am tempted to do a second read. Overall I think this is a great follow up to the success of TN but doesn’t quite have the same ‘zing’. Coleman is such great voice in Australian fiction and Speculative and I am looking forward to reading more by them in emerge future.

[Veronica Strachan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast-paced sci-fi and a sharp revisit with colonisation.
The vivid opening to Claire G. Goleman's The Old Lie had my eyes glued to the page and the multiple threads of this futuristic colonisation story kept me there. Brilliant plot and effortless world building combined with characters who ring true and drag you into their thoughts and hearts. At its core, connection to Country and the horrors of colonisation, land grabs, and family dissolution, all set in the near future after a brutal response to first contact.
A great read.

[Lauredhel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is superb SF. If you've wondered where all the Aboriginal people are in military SF, they're here (and yes we need more books!) Content notes for grimness, violence, the hideousness of war, body horror, colonisation horror including stolen children.

[Zoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Just wow. This book is such a well crafted, nuanced story in a fascinating futuristic world, with so much humanity in each of the characters and storylines. At the beginning, I struggled with how many different plotlines there were that didn't seem to intersect at all (similar to Terra Nullius!), but when it came together WOW it came together. I hope this one has a sequel!!

[Kiah · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be honest, I started this book with an entirely misguided idea of what it was. The opening chapters left me a little confused as you jump from character to character with little context, but all it made me want to do was keep reading, and that's just what I did.

Possible spoilers:
The Old Lie is set in the future, but the heart of the story echoes from Australia's history. It's a story of wars fought for others' causes, children ripped from their families, prejudice, inequality, oppression, soldiers who were willing to give their lives for a cause that does not value them. It's the Stolen Generation, it's Maralinga, it's the treatment of Indigenous veterans, it's the atrocities this country was founded on.
And yet. The story doesn't preach to you. It tells its tale and it's only as you're forced to draw parallels between the unthinkable tragedies these characters experience and real life, that you become overwhelmed with the sheer grief that resonates through this book.

Buy this book, read it, fall in love with the characters, fight with them, grieve with them, then educate yourself.

[Gloria (Ms. G's Bookshelf) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Old Lie begins with several unique character storylines, it takes a few chapters to get into the story but it all unfolds cleverly.

It’s a story of war on Earth and in Space, human and alien. A very modern science fiction tale with a lesson in trust.

This was very well written and not the usual type of genre I read but I found it an entertaining and unforgettable story. It’s written by talented Australian author Claire G. Coleman

I loved the way Claire's story was influenced deeply by historical events she is very passionate about.

I was lucky enough to win an advanced copy from the publisher, thank you Hachette Australia.

[ariana · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book rlly was giving Avatar but better and also there was soo much war and gore. pew pew pew

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book operates on several levels. It's most straightforward is space opera. Coleman is a tense, taut scene writer, and the novel is packed with chase, battle, heist and escape sequences, with clever use of imagined-but-plausible tech.  John Scalzi's Old Man's War came to mind a number of times during the battle sequences, and the Old Lie will appeal to fans of that series.
At another level, the book operates as a series of challenges to the reader's assumptions. Coleman does love exploiting an implicit bias or two, gently letting the reader settle in before yanking them into a different headspace. Starting to watch for these means engaging with the text at a different level - and yourself at a different level - a kind of socially conscious gamification of reading.
And of course, at a much deeper level, the book is an analogy about colonisation, land theft and global/intergalactic war. That list feels wrong because some of the power of Coleman's technique is to avoid breaking the experiences and impacts into a set of discrete categories: rather she takes the reader *through* the experience, hitting up extra empathy by asking all humans to imagine ourselves as the colonised. It is an extremely powerful technique - despite expecting it, I found myself far more jolted than I thought I would be - and it facilitates understanding of how effects reverberate against each other, not as isolated experiences. It is, I suspect/hope, impossible to move through this book without contemplating yourself, your society and whose stories get told.
I'm not a great fan of combat narratives, and the book dragged a little in places for me (as does Scalzi et al). As seems to be a trend with sf, the editing wasn't as tight or as thorough as I wanted it to be. The reader is introduced quite quickly to a range of characters in different, and rapidly changing situations. You need your wits about you for a bit to keep up, until the broader plot starts to take shape. The deeper levels of the novel kept me engaged at all times, however, and the central characters of Shane and Romeo, plus those we meet later on Country, resonate long after the book is finished (well, a week at least, given that's how long it's been!).
Really have to mention the awesomeness that is the cover as well.

2019 Reading Challenge #35. A book by an author whose first and last names start with the same letter

[Meredith Jaffe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Claire G Coleman came to national attention with her debut novel Terra Nullius, which had been the inaugural winner of black&write! Indigenous Writing Fellowship. It went on to be shortlisted for many major prizes, including the Stella Prize, and Coleman’s writing attracted praise from many different quarters. Therefore, publication of her new novel The Old Lie was hotly anticipated.
The idea for The Old Lie springs from Coleman’s personal history. Her grandfather (a Noongar man) and his brothers enlisted in the armed forces in World War II and went to fight for a country that did not then recognise them as citizens and failed to recognise their contribution after the fact.
However, the imagined world Coleman places on the page is, at first glimpse, a far cry from familiar tales of previous wars. This war takes place in space between earth and its allied powers The Federation, who are united to defeat the common enemy, the Conglomeration forces. Told from the perspective of two combatants, Shane Daniels and Romany Zetz, Coleman uses this futuristic setting to explore old injustices and to remind us of the human predilection for history to repeat.
There are refugees, xenophobia, disease, and chaos as violence disrupts lives and uproots species from their homes across the galaxy. Coleman does not shy away from depicting the brutality of war and this is where her writing is often at its most evocative. The reader sees this world mainly through the eyes of Daniels and Zetz, who are battle-hardened and battle-weary; brave, passionate and intelligent. They believe they are fighting the good fight and that right will eventually prevail. But, as in every other war, their world view is challenged when the ugly truths about governments and political expediency are revealed. Then things become deeply personal.
The energy and imagination in this writing roars off the page. Coleman is an exciting writer. Just as she is in person, Coleman’s writing is articulate, passionate, funny and fizzing with energy. For those of us who don’t consider ourselves science fiction fans, do not be put off. The Old Lie is an allegorical tale for our times told with finesse and enormous heart.

[Timothy Dymond · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Corporal Shane Daniels was lost, the grey uniformity of the sky and dirt, the rain, the muck, had rendered the flat, bomb-wracked plain featureless … Tangled barbed wire was a constant obstacle, tangling, tearing, hidden, trampled into the soupy mud …’

Claire G. Coleman's ‘The Old Lie’ is a space opera that evokes the trenches of the First World War. The hard slog of battle for ordinary soldiers is front and centre, along with the results of war, such as the proliferation of refugees.

This is all deliberate, the original old lie is is from Wilfred Owen’s posthumously published poem about World War One. Owen’s last line is a Latin phrase from the Roman poet Horace: ‘Dulce et decorum est/ Pro patria mori' (it is sweet and proper to die for one's country).

In ‘The Old Lie’ the idea of Country (note the capital ‘C’) is particularly important. Coleman is a Wirlomin/Noongar woman, and many of her characters are First Nations people from Australia. They are motivated by the desire to maintain connection and defend Country - a concept which is not simply ‘patriotism’ of the type that Owen was so cynical about. Rather Country is about everything in a landscape: land, waters, air, trees, rocks, plants, animals, foods, medicines, stories and special places. People on and from Country have custodial responsibilities to care for it. That so many of ‘The Old Lie’s’ characters are separated from Country through the act (they think) of defending it is certainly not sweet or proper. The ‘Lie’ is not the Country, but how the people of it are mislead, exploited, and their trust abused. Coleman makes this quite explicit when she dedicates the novel to ‘my grandfather and other Black Diggers [slang for solider] who went to war for a country that did not see them as people’. This was the experience of First Nations people who served in the Australian armed forces of both world wars, even though they were not legally citizens of Australia.

The action of ‘The Old Lie’ mainly takes place in a galaxy spanning conflict between two sides: the ‘Conglomeration’, and the ‘Federation’. The war has created refugees and stateless beings, a consequence not often explored in space war fiction.

The characters include: Romeo, a Starforce pilot; Jimmy, a runaway teenager; William, an imprisoned medic; and Walker, the survivor of an epidemic. There is also Corporal Daniels who is far from Earth, fighting for the Federation. In the recent past the Earth has been invaded by the Conglomeration. Humans have fought back and joined the Federation (as provisional members) to save their planet. The reasons for the conflict between the Conglomeration and the Federation are left unexplored (possibly there are more books coming in a series?). The Conglomeration attacked the Earth, and the Federation saved the Earth, however Daniels reflects that we have no idea who started the original fighting.

The use of the term Federation evokes the political state of Australia, which is a Federal system. The Federation is made up of many different species, and in that sense is ‘multicultural’ - as Australia prides itself on being. However multiculturalism doesn’t stop racism (and speciesism) being directed at humans by supposedly allied fellow members of the Federation. Empires are often multicultural while being oppressive. It turns out that humans, not being full citizens of the Federation, have lost their right to their own planet while they have been away fighting.

Another aspect of ‘The Old Lie’ that is unusual for a space opera is its setting out the negative experience of bureaucracy for the characters. Daniels’ efforts to return to Earth, for example, are less prohibited by an upfront ‘no’ than by administrative hurdles that become outright barriers. She is shunted between different departments until it becomes clear that the Federation is simply not going to let her through. In this way the ‘Federation’ experience is akin to the ‘Australian’ experience. The political scientist A.F. Davies wrote that the ‘characteristic talent of Australians is not for improvisation, nor even for republican manners, it is for bureaucracy. We take a somewhat hesitant pride in this, since it runs counter not only to the archaic and cherished image of ourselves as an ungovernable, if not actually lawless people’. This is of course the white Australian talent, because First Nations people, migrants, and refugees, have all experienced Australian bureaucracy as an oppressive force. Their talent is in fighting bureaucracy. The recently published memoir by asylum-seeker detainee Behrouz Boochani, ‘No Friend But the Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison’, sets out in detail how Australian bureaucracy can create a chamber of horrors for those on the receiving end of its power.

‘The Old Lie’ covers a lot ground as it weaves together multiple stories. The action scenes of the space battles are exciting and draw you into the story straight away. However there are also hints of the tragic backgrounds of various characters that move into the foreground as their stories converge. At first it’s hard to see how Coleman will tie the treads together, but tie them she does.