Book one of the Helix Trilogy, The Seventh Wave chronicles another Australia, one that we barely get a glimpse at, one filled with magic, demons and spirits. This book is a great start to a series by Paul Garrety in which good versus evil and the fate of the world appears to lie in the hands of a thief by the name of Callum who must stop the machinations of Sebastian Cervantes and his elite circle.

Cervantes is not all that he seems; in fact he is a conduit between this reality and another. Working ceaselessly to bring the Great Ones back to Earth to rule, he has united world leaders under a banner called The Gathering under the pretence of helping them get even more power than what they already have. All of this is a falsehood however as Cervantes wants to replace all these people with his own, the Great Ones taking over their bodies and the people of the world being none the wiser.

Written in terms that bring to life both the characters and the environments he writes about, Garrety does a great job of making this tale very Australian in ways that will endear Australian readers with locales they will have heard of before and language they would hear on the street. Audiences from other parts of the world will warm to the series for the way that it takes them around our beautiful country, albeit with a supernatural twist.

Callum is a complex character who has his own story and reasons for doing what he does. A master thief who doesn't need to steal, an intelligent man who has been thrust into the role of saving the world, Callum is a great character with whom I think Paul Garrety has to feel an affinity for, he is written that well.

I enjoyed this tale. I must confess that I wished that I had the whole story to read through in one go but the pacing is great and I believe the sequel to be released later in the year. There is a website fans can go to that will help them know a bit more about the author and what is going on with the series. It's Paul's blog http://www.theseventhwave.com.au/

Make sure that you take the time to check it out, both the book and the blog, both are really well written and entertaining works. I look forward to the next book in the series, titled The Emerald Tablets. Great stuff. Make sure you support local talent and grab a copy of this book.

Tory Favro