Review: Blood Binds the Pack by Alex Wells

Part two of Wells’s Dune meets biker gangs and labour disputes science-fiction tale is an excellent follow-up. The writing is tighter and setting feels more confident in its myriad mix of influences.

Tanegawa’s World is the centre of the mystery of interstellar travel — a process tightly controlled by the TransRift corporation. The planet’s surface is habitable but prone to storms and strange electromagnetic effects that makes advanced technology unreliable. After events in the previous book, tensions between the miners and company are on a knife edge and TransRift’s external enemies are keen to exploit its weakness.

The novel starts slow, with the various characters (and specifically Hob and Mag) regrouping after the epic battle. The lingering mystery of the blue mineral moves to the forefront of the story, as does Hob’s relationship with the enigmatic and supernaturally powerful Bone Collector. The tension builds like a ratchet by entwining levels of conflict and raising the stakes for the characters at a personal emotional level and at a cosmic level simultaneously.

The story isn’t packed with new ideas but it deploys familiar concepts in novel ways that like the first book feels fresh and engaging. The recurring theme of friendship and comradeship is so strong that at times it feels like its mapping out its own genre — the Australian term “mateship” sums it up (but without the same gendered or nationalistic connotations). The book is about people looking out for one another, loyalty to things that matter and sticking together in the face of adversity.

There are also explosions, superpowered people and motorbikes jumping out of helicopters. It would be so, so good as a Netflix style series.