''Deucalion'' is a 1995

young adult A young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages of human development significantly influencing the definition of ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

novel by

Brian Caswell Brian Caswell (born 13 January 1954) is an Australian author of young adult fiction. Biography Brian Caswell was born in a village called Gwernaffield in Wales, on 13 January 1954. His family moved to England, when he was 5 years old. When he ...

. It follows the story of many settlers who have travelled across space to build a new future on the planet Deucalion. However the future is uncertain for the Elokoi or Icarus people who were settled on the planet first.

Background

''Deucalion'' was first published in Australia on 1 September 1995 by the

University of Queensland Press Established in 1948, University of Queensland Press (UQP) is an Australian publishing house. Founded as a traditional university press, UQP has since branched into publishing books for general readers in the areas of fiction, non-fiction, poetr ...

in trade paperback format. In 1996 it was published as an

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

by Louis Braille Books and in 2002 it was released in the United Kingdom by Flyways. It has also been distributed to North America by International Specialized Book Services. ''Deucalion'' joint won along with

Garth Nix Garth Richard Nix (born 19 July 1963) is an Australian writer who specialises in children's and young adult fantasy novels, notably the ''Old Kingdom'', '' Seventh Tower'' and '' Keys to the Kingdom'' series. He has frequently been asked if his ...

Sabriel ''Sabriel'' is a fantasy novel by Garth Nix, first published in 1995. It is the first in his Old Kingdom series, followed by ''Lirael'', ''Abhorsen'', ''Clariel'', ''Goldenhand,'' and ''Terciel and Elinor''. Plot introduction The novel is set i ...

the 1995

Aurealis Award for best young-adult novel The Aurealis Awards are presented annually by the Australia-based Chimaera Publications and WASFF to published works to "recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy, horror writers". To qualify, a work must have been fi ...

and was a short-list nominee for the 1996

Children's Book Council of Australia The Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) is a not for profit organisation which aims to engage the community with literature for young Australians. The CBCA presents the annual Children's Book of the Year Awards to books of literary merit ...

: Book of the Year, Older Readers award.

Setting

The novel opens in the late 23rd century AD, by which time, humanity has explored light years out into space. However, only one habitable planet has been discovered, named Deucalion. Deucalion is 34

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

s away from Earth, with one large continent and an inland sea. Deucalion has a native sentient population, named the Elokoi, similar to H.G Wells' Eloi from ''

The Time Machine ''The Time Machine'' is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895. The work is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle or device to travel purposely and selectively for ...

''. The Elokoi are at a level of civilisation similar to the Stone Age. Both Human and Elokoi settlements are only on the east coast of the continent, however, human settlers have forced the Elokoi to live on reservations. The human capital is called New

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

. Though having developed interstellar travel, spaceships can still only travel at the speed of light, and no faster, so it takes thirty-four years for even the fastest of ships to reach Deucalion. Passengers on board ships have to be cryogenically preserved.

Synopsis

Part One: Colony

Part Two: Republic

References

1995 novels Australian science fiction novels Children's science fiction novels 1995 science fiction novels Australian young adult novels Aurealis Award-winning works University of Queensland Press books Novels set in the 23rd century 1995 children's books {{1990s-child-sf-novel-stub