australian writer max barry is going to be huge in hollywood, all his novels are ripe for adaptation including his newest 'lexicon.' 

street hustler emily ruff is recruited by an exclusive school to learn the art of manipulation, persuasion and how words become weapons in the right hands. 

meanwhile wil jamieson is on the run from warring factions of poets, he can't remember why, how or who he really is, only that the answer lies in the decimated town known as broken hill.

lexicon starts messy and confused but the writer untangles a riveting and unusual tale, science fiction, horror, romance, semantics and NLP manual lexicon has it all but my only criticism is the need for barry to share his characters 'urination' details with us. it's the first time i read barry and i'm looking forwards to his back catalogue. i usually avoid australian science fiction, but there are a few good writers out there, certainly greg egan ranks amongst the better.