This novel is set sometime in the future, where elite wealthy people live in Sky Islands which support huge apartments in glass towers that rise high above the city. The city towers are joined by a network of sky tubes. This is how the people travel from one place to another. They do not usually go down to the street level where the poor people live. They sit in huge chairs looking out at mist and lightning.
The authorities have put forward a plan to send ships to establish the first colony outside earth on a newly discovered planet. There is very little known about the planet but it is of no consequence, for the people they are sending are only convicts. They will be sent to establish a settlement known as New Sector West. It will ease the burden of the overcrowded satellite prison hulks that drift above earth.
Based loosely on Australia's early history, 'Breakaway' is a story of adventure and intrigue.