A 'colony world collapses after supply ships stop coming' tale with a vaguely Australian feel to it. The story centres on Richard Florey, a dissident professor in the main university city which maintains power over the rural outposts by limiting access to technology. Florey becomes caught up first in intrigues between scheming university factions, then a full-fledged civil war, then a cyberpunk-esque battle inside a mainframe computer. And there are the native aboriginal aliens, who throughout remain as inscrutable as ever.

It has a bit of a C J Cherryh feel to it: lots of political infighting and characters who spend most of their page time second-, third- and fourth-guessing their own actions. It also has a bit of every kind of 80s SF genre, which is possibly why it doesn't really hold together for me. Or maybe it's that the hero really isn't all that likeable, or the world not alien enough, the computer plot too cliched, or the aliens too alien and their impact on the story too hard to parse. There's certainly plenty of action, depth, and characterisation. I think it just needed a simpler and clearer plot, because I never really knew who I should be cheering for.

it was there so picked up

CAUGHT IN CHRISTCHURCH CANTERBURY NEW ZEALAND

Found it