As this book begins the generations ship 'Colony' is returning to Earth. It first left the planet three centuries earlier with the aim of spreading human life to the stars, but when their destination proved a impossible to tame they headed home. During their absence civilisation on Earth has collapsed, and their intentions towards their home world are now a little skewed - they intend to restore civilisation by wiping out the existing human populations and reseeding the world.

Disease has ravaged both the Colony and the Earth during their three hundred years of separation such to the effect that people surviving far into adulthood is extremely rare. On Colony this has meant these elders are revered above all else and their word is almost as gospel. The result has seen civil war on the ship and left it with the upper (command) decks under the strict control of the Elders and the lower decks being the defeated rebels, an underclass of Colony society, and the place you are cast if you are found unworthy.

Welkin is a fourteen year old newly promoted Ensign onboard Colony as the ship begins its final descent towards Earth (to crash as it happens). However his high status is short-lived as he is judged unworthy of the Upper Decks by the tyrannical elders - guilty by association being rife on this ship in an almost McCarthy-ite manner.

He is sent out onto the Earth's surface to bring back intelligence on what the would-be conquerors might find when they venture forth. On this trip he encounters Sarah, the leader of a group of teenagers/kids just striving to survive in this devastated future Earth. Sarah is a elder of sorts having survived 'The Wasting' (the disease that is claiming most people on Earth in their early twenties) but she is gentle kind and supportive where Colony's elders are harsh and vindictive.

Sarah and her 'family' are attempting to contact like minded individuals she feels are sure to be still out there scraping a living as best they can and sees the potential in Welkin if only she can break through his 'Skyborn' indoctrination.

This is a wonderful read. It is a young adult book in the sense that there is nothing unsuitable for teenager readers and the majority of the characters are teenagers; but it's not a book that stops being readable as soon as the reader is the other side of 20 (or 30, or 40 etc).

The characters are engaging, the situation they are in is grim and feels grim. They are truly struggling daily just to remain alive. There are feuds between gangs on the surface (most especially with Bruick's gang, a group of pierced tattooed street thugs who like to take advantage of others where they can). Also there are groups who have degenerated almost below human and are referred to as the Ferals.

This is a rich book. Okay it's a desperate future but it's a well-presented desperate future. And for all the destruction and decline in the world Sarah's aims to restart civilisation make this quite an uplifting novel - the feeling that no matter how bad it gets someone will always strive to make things better, even if just a little.

Much as the book centres around Welkin and follows his course through the action it is Sarah who is the strength of this book. This is not to say the other characters are one-dimensional and easily forgettable, they aren't - an interest bunch they are too - but Sarah shines through this book like a beacon on a dark night.

This is book one of an intended series, and as such the ending leaves one or two things not completely resolved. This is not to say without a follow up book this would not make sense, it can be read as a standalone, you just get the feeling that there is so much more to tell here. I so hope the others get the go ahead from a publisher so that Paul Collins will be able to let me know what happens next.

It's good, what more can I say!

Synopsis
Welkin and his sister Lucille have grown up on the spaceship Colony, which left Earth three centuries earlier. Their parents have been killed in one of the uprisings that take place from time to time on Colony. A strict hierarchy governs the latter, with the Elders as the upper class and a rebellious underclass confined to the bowels of the ship. These 'Skyborn' people lack the opportunities for affection and spontaneity that the Earthborn once had. Now, however, both Colony and the Earth are disease-ridden and plagued by factionalism and greed.

Colony crash-lands in a St Kilda that is almost unrecognisable after decades of civil war. Gangs roam the territory and fight to the death over scarce provisions. Welkin is sent out in a search party to reconnoiter the area, but is quickly separated from his people in an ambush. Sarah, who leads a troupe of earth kids subsequently rescues him. Sarah has managed to live through the wasting disease that kills most of the population when they reach their early twenties. Her wisdom is a revelation to Welkin, who quickly finds a home in the group and forms a strong bond with Gillian, Sarah's headstrong daughter.

Sarah's goal is to erect an antenna on top of Mt Dandenong so that her group might make contact with like-minded survivors. Although Colony is equipped with sophisticated weaponry, the ingenuity and solidarity of Sarah's 'family' is more than a match for them – or it would be if their energies weren't drained by Bruick, a gangleader who is in violent opposition to everything Sarah and her family stand for.

There is an urban cool in the gang members' body piercings and the religious fundamentalism of some of the gangs, all of which gives the reader a sense of time collapsing – so much is recognisable, yet set in a time when all recognisable cultural artifacts and infrastructures have disappeared or become impotent. An example might be the Stockade – Bruick's fortress – where the medieval qualities also play off a sense of time folding in on itself.

The Earthborn details Welkin's struggle with his new world, and his journey towards identifying himself as one of the family. It is about Welkin's faith in self, and about fighting with everything you've got for what you believe in; it's about being prepared to sacrifice yourself for the greater good.