After not writing a word of fiction in over fifteen years, what made me pick up the pen (or the laptop) in 2011 with my first novel, Thy Kingdom Fall? Was it an idea tormenting me to put it to paper? Was I burning to make a point? A story was dying to be told from within the depths of my creative mind, but it actually was one of many. The uniqueness of the After Eden Series is that it attempts to do something different in science fiction. It attempts to directly link current affairs and project them out, in this case, seventy-plus years in the future. I have been very good at predicting trends all my life and doing so with this series shows a very realistic and dystopian world.
So every dystopian saga has an underdog. What group would be the underdogs in such a futuristic world? One doesn’t have to manufacture them. They already exist—religious people.
Let me back up a bit. As someone who has been in politics for a long time (going from one side to another), I learned a long time that different backgrounds and ideologies see very different things when looking at an identical set of facts. It amazes me that there is still even a United States of America because the activists and elites of these two sides are truly incompatible.
Here is a quick snapshot of my worldview. I was born in the super diverse New York. I live in the super diverse Los Angeles. And I lived in Paris, France for an entire year. I have been immersed in the melting pot of the world for forty years. I have a very simple assessment of people: good people and bad people come in all races, ethnicities, religions (or lack thereof), nationalities, classes, political ideologies, and both genders. Good guys and bad guys change over time and does those who are persecuted.
Two major themes exist in the After Eden saga: America will become a majority atheistic nation and the persecution against religious Americans will grow. Europe will become a majority Islamic region and the remaining secular Europeans will have to flee. But guess what? Though it features heavily in this science fiction series, it is not science fiction. It’s fact. The transformation is happening before our own eyes.
No, this is by no means what I want to happen. American Christians have proven to be, in the last twenty years, politically pathetic in the public square (I’m a Christian by the way) and one would think the growing cultural and political attacks would light a fire under them to at least push back in some way, after all, Christians make up over 80% of the population, but nothing doing. We cannot even get a public show of condemnation for the persecution, enslavement, rape and murder of Christians at the hands of radical Islam all over the world. Christian leaders are all hiding under their desks.
The Jewish state of Israel seems to have a genetic inability to combat the lies spread about its nation around the world. I don’t mean the Muslim world, but I’m speaking specifically about America and Europe; especially on college campuses. If Israel can’t do this now, even in the face of naked anti-Semitism and actual murder, then what do they plan to do when all of Western Europe becomes Islamic in about the next quarter century? This is not my own personal political ideology or pessimism, it is simple math: Islamic Europeans and immigrants have lots of kids, secular Europeans don’t. The Muslims that will “transform” Western Europe are already born; they’re all sweet little children now, but babies grow up and the Islam they are being exposed to is not the “nice” kind.
So is After Eden supposed to be advocacy fiction?
I thought of that the other day, but the answer is no, even though it can be used as such. My main point of the series is that the future will not be so wonderful after all. America becoming anti-religious and Europe falling to radical Islam are only two of a long list of things that those of us living today, regardless of politics, religion (or not), will be quite disturbed by. By looking at ourselves and our current culture, the signs of what is to come is already here.
So is After Eden religious fiction? Or religious science fiction?
That is up to you to decide. For me, it is an international science fiction thriller (though I will speak more on this in my next blog post). The After Eden saga ends with World War III in which religion is a major part–the Islamic superpower wishes to make the entire world Islamic and two anti-religious atheist superpowers (America is one) wish to wipe religion from the entire world. All the technological advances (consumer, robotic, cybernetic, biological, genetic, etc.) will be used in this global Armageddon.
If there is any point I wish to make, it would be as a warning to both religious and atheists alike. Jews and Christians better wake up and stop the cultural, political, and murderous persecution of their peoples. Atheists need to reign in their crazy, anti-religious atheist zealots (numerically small in total number but still have tremendous political power), and Muslims better have their Reformation within their religion just as Jews and Christians did. It is the absence of all three of these things, not Global Warming, that will have catastrophic consequences for the entire planet. The After Eden Series is fiction. But sadly, I don’t believe much of it will stay that way.
#AfterEdenSeries #Dystopian #Religion
Austin Dragon is the author of over 30 books in science fiction, fantasy, and classic horror. His works include the sci-fi detective LIQUID COOL series, the epic fantasy FABLED QUEST CHRONICLES, the international futuristic epic AFTER EDEN Series, the classic SLEEPY HOLLOW HORRORS, and new military sci-fi PLANET TAMERS series. He is a native New Yorker but has called Los Angeles, California home for more than twenty years. Words to describe him, in no particular order: U.S. Army, English teacher, one-time resident of Paris, ex-political junkie, movie buff, Fortune 500 corporate recruiter, renaissance man, futurist, and dreamer.
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One Response
Mr. Dragon,
I enjoyed reading your blog today. I’m looking forward to reading this series … or maybe I’m afraid! Being a Christian in this day and time is scary. I remember as a kid from the 60’s being in church meant shoutin’ and hollerin’ and stompin’ and mom hiding us kids under the pew to keep us from getting hurt. Oh yea, I was raised in North Carolina in a pentacostal church. Most of those shoutin’ and stompin’ days are over. Or maybe it’s because I live in New Mexico now and it’s not part of the ” Bible Belt. Well anywho, thank you for the newsletter today and keep writing.
Tracy Allen