Blue Giant is a bang-on-time critique of the whole mess we’re in right now. Whichever way you look at it, the mess is diabolical, but in Jordan Prosser’s very capable hands we might as well have a hell of a good time as the ship goes down.

Meet Abby, the kind of extremely untogether antihero the times require: previously a very important emerging fashion designer/wunderkind, currently a binge-drinking kidult living off the last of her breakout collection’s royalties, she is deep in her newsfeed, desperately trying to work out what her purpose in life should be before the cash runs out. She lives in Melbourne with her long-suffering bestie and photographer on the upswing, Niki: they went to school together and Niki is the kind of friend who knows where all the bodies are buried (and who can call Abby on her BS).

Enter Tor Skovgaard, your average megalomaniacal billionaire, and his MarsNow project seeking applicants to join the first off-Earth colonial project. This one-way trip is Abby’s real life’s work, right? Before she has a moment to scrutinise that question and its answer too closely, she’s officially All In, and sets to work completing a submission video to secure her spot on the one-way mission, gets in training and starts to divest herself of the last of the relationships that might ground her mission, though manages to pick up a new one by mistake along the way.

This is a very funny book that nails the chaotic and nihilistic mood of the moment, with perfect comic pacing, tightly written set pieces and a lot of terrific snarky dialogue that made me laugh out loud on a number of occasions. While Prosser’s satire is scathing, his characters are real and really conflicted, and there is a genuine warmth and sadness here: you can’t help but barrack for Abby, in all her narcissism, shallowness and hypocrisy. She is of her time, and she’s doing her best – as we all are – but can any of it ever be enough, at this late stage?