'From a searing caricature of John Howard's white picket fence to a Canterbury tale of 21st century Britain; from a parable of life in a city skyscraper to a futuristic Western set in an impossible desert; from the end of the Earth to and Earth surviving under alien rule; from an adult fairy tale of a plague ridden Europe to the future. The Year's Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy fifth annual volume represents the best of Australia's writers for the fantastic, at the peak of their form' (Amazon).
In a future Australia ruled by criminal cartels, women are vastly outnumbered by men, leading men to go to haunting lengths to procure (and subsequently utterly control) a wife. One of Paul Haines's most anthologised works, 'Wives' is also rather contentious for the brutality of the world that it shows.