Seed (Bri Lee, Summit Books)

Bri Lee’s Seed is a suspenseful literary thriller that asks urgent, existential questions: What does it mean to leave an impact on the world? Is it too late to halt climate change? Set in the beautiful but desolate Antarctica, the novel follows two scientists, Mitchell and Frances, working to secure humanity’s future by preserving seeds from around the world in an impenetrable secret vault buried deep in the ice. When their communication systems fail and their return transport from base camp doesn’t arrive, the pair are left stranded, facing the isolating extremes of their environment. As the tension builds and the mystery of what happened at the base deepens, Lee (The Work, Eggshell Skull) uses precise, evocative prose to capture what it means to love another person in times of struggle. Though the novel is immersive and hard to put down, the ending may feel underwhelming for some readers in comparison to the narrative’s slow-burning suspense. The scientific language and detail are sometimes dense, which may challenge readers unfamiliar with the terminology. Still, Seed rewards those who appreciate ambitious literary fiction and are drawn to thrillers, climate fiction and science fiction, and stories that attempt to answer what it means to make a difference in this world. It will appeal to readers who enjoyed the atmospheric melancholy of Charlotte McConaghy’s Wild Dark Shore.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Tierney Khan is a writer based in Naarm and an avid reader. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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