In times of trouble

Three novels of magic, dark dystopia and espionage have women struggling for better lives.

- GILL SOUTH

THE HUMMINGBIRD EFFECT
by Kate Mildenhall 
(Simon & Schuster, $37.99)

Australian novelist Kate Mildenhall proves once again she's highly adept at writing about the world to come. In her new novel, the author of the near future The Mother Fault delivers a stark warning about what might be ahead if climate change and humankind's greed go unchecked.

The Hummingbird Effect is set in four periods following the lives of four women living in 1933, 2020, 2031 and 2181. In each case, they are witnessing progress they are fearful of. Interspersed in their stories is the "Hummingbird Project", a series of eerie and at times impossible-to-answer Q&As between a character, ErisX, and an AI chatbot, asking big questions such as what human innovations it would undo if that were possible.