Jack Lasenby: Kalik

By MARGIE THOMSON

With this, the fourth volume in his Traveller's Quartet, Lasenby's darkly imagined adventure concludes. Here, Ish arrives at Lutha's Headland, a cruel, primitive society driven by fear and superstition.

Wanting to escape, Ish is determined to wait until he can also rescue a group of terrorised children.

Lasenby's writing always dignifies his audience with deep and complex ideas. His readers are implicitly asked to consider the notion of good and bad, us and them, when everyone, it sometimes seems, is capable of frighteningly destructive behaviour.

And he cleverly investigates the nature of superstition, and why it is that people cling to ideas even when the evidence suggests it is time for a change. But as well as this, he provides a gripping read. The previous titles in this quartet have been shortlisted for the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards (as is Kalik this year), and Taur was the category winner in 2000.

Longacre

$14.95