Book Review: The Dreaming Dragons

Damien Broderick's The Dreaming Dragons begins with a simple premise; Alf Dean Djanyagirnji, an Australian anthropologist and his nephew are exploring caves in an attempt to find ancient representations of the Rainbow Serpent, a creator god in traditional Australian Aboriginal mythology. What they find instead leads to a secret military base, alien technology and the history of humanity itself.

Having read a lot of Science Fiction over the years, I have to say I haven't read a lot from Australia - Max Barry's Jennifer Government (an excellent book!) and a few fantasy novels by Sarah Douglass are the only ones that come to mind, so I was quite intrigued when I realized how focused this book was going to be on the region.

Although the book has a few flaws; not really any female characters of note, and extensive dream sequences (that do move the plot forward, but were often a little confusing to read), it's portrayal of the treatment of Aboriginal peoples in Australia's history is both harrowing and factual.

In the end, I found the book to be an interesting read, and like all good science fiction, a read that left me thinking a lot about who we are, and where we come from.