‘[Rise & Shine] could easily be an episode of Charlie Brooker’s Netflix series Black Mirror… Rise & Shine does not shy away from the complex moral terrain of political agency. Carefully, subtly, Allington lets the tension between multiple propositions build: that law and order form a part of collective survival; that service of the people can easily slip into control of the people; that people want a leader; that effective leadership requires multiple perspectives; that people can change; that some people don’t. Allington sustains the tension until the final pages, where he offers a thought-provoking ending worthy of his imaginative take on dystopia.’
Naama Grey-Smith, Australian Book Review
‘There is a definite Kafkaesque air to Allington’s writing, as well as echoes of 1984 and Brave New World… The dialogue is one of the great strengths of Rise & Shine: buoyantly paced, drolly comic and easily absorbing … Rise & Shine is apt reading for our current atmosphere of environmental, societal and economic precarity. It is an undeniably imaginative and engrossing fable.’
Jack Callil, The Age
‘Rise & Shine is a piece of timely, suitably intriguing speculative fiction.’
Ben Adams, Herald Sun
‘Patrick Allington’s Rise & Shine, drops us headfirst into a future in the wake of an ecological catastrophe that claimed the lives of more than eight billion people … The novel strikes a balance between the absurd and the horrific that feels reminiscent of George Saunders’ science-fiction work.’
Jack Rowland, The Saturday Paper
‘It should be of interest to fans of satire, surrealism and magic realism. Rise & Shine is clearly inspired by texts such as Brave New World, Catch-22 and even Waiting for Godot. It is an able critique of reality TV, media manipulation, personality politics and ecological catastrophe.’
Books+Publishing
‘Richly imagined and described and close enough to our own world to feel scarily possible.’ FOUR STARS
Good Reading
‘Unputdownable.’
ANZ LitLovers
‘An astonishingly imaginative work of speculative fiction.’
Elizabeth Flux, Kill Your Darlings
‘In his first novel since the Miles Franklin-nominated Figurehead in 2009, Adelaide writer Patrick Allington again vividly paints a dystopian future that pushes the reader to explore the human condition … This is a Day of the Triffids for our times.’
Kylie Maslen, The Adelaide Review
‘[T]he novel is certainly effective in highlighting contemporary issues of government surveillance, political manipulation and the pervasive impact of fake news.’
Colin Steele, The Canberra Times
‘[A] witty piece of thinking from the Adelaide-based author, reminiscent of the thought play found in spec fiction authors such as China Mieville … Rise & Shine is an intriguing addition to a series of recent speculative Australian authors whose work eschews the dominant realism of Australian literature.’
Ed Wright, v
‘[T]he apocalypse told as an absurdist black comedy… a funny novel. ... Allington is also not afraid to play up the absurdity of his premise, whether it’s the overly polite officers who interrogate the dissenters or a family giving thanks for the battle they're about to witness. In the end, though, the novel’s best gag, a beautifully judged bit of black comedy, is that it takes the death of billions and the devastation of the planet for humankind to find a practical use for compassion.’
Locus Magazine
‘Allington’s debut is set in a future Australia devastated by climate change and nuclear war ... An interesting novel that looks at a society that struggles with the effects of ecological and nuclear disaster and that clamps down on any dissent from what has helped humanity survive. Fans of dystopian science fiction will find this tale, from a new voice from Australia, of interest.’
Booklist
Praise for Figurehead:
‘Original in conception and dauntless in execution.’
The Australian
Praise for Figurehead:
‘Brilliant … With its Kundera touch, suave style and assured scepticism, Figurehead fascinates, appalls, and introduces an impressive talent.’
The Age
Praise for Figurehead:
‘Risky, bold, and evocative.’
The Advertiser
Praise for Figurehead:
‘The boundary between truth and history has always been elastic but novelist Patrick Allington uses the middle ground as a trampoline, gleefully leaping between what is plausibly known and what is demonstrably invented.’
Sydney Morning Herald
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