April 4, 2013 is when I became a published author.
I hadn’t written a word of fiction in over 15 years and then I released Thy Kingdom Fall, Book 1 of my epic, international, science fiction After Eden series (subtitled: The Genesis of World War III). Four months later, I released Stars and Scorpions, Book 2 of the series. These are not short books, but I was able to do so because I actually wrote Book 2 before Book 1. (I’ll explain why and how that happened next month.)
The After Eden Series is very political, religious, and provocative. It’s not political in the sense of Democrat or Republican, but it is a thriller starting out with a murder in Washington DC of a political king-maker. It’s not political in the sense of liberal or conservative either because it’s 80 years in the future and the “culture wars” are over—any form of marriage is legal, prostitution is legal, all drugs are legal, the US Constitution has been replaced by the Rule of Law, there are 53 states, presidential term limits have been abolished, and America is majority secular. Ironically, abortion is illegal, but not for why you think.
I wrote the book in 2012 predicting a number of things that were not true at the time: expansion in the use of domestic drones, redefining marriage, redefining gender, and the Baron Trump Hotel. For the last item, that prediction will take on a whole other level, if what happens in November 2016, happens.
The series is very religious and has done well in the Christian Futuristic Fiction category, but it’s not quite that at all—though I am a Christian. In other words, the goal is not to proselytize, though for the serious Protestant Christian, Book 1 will have special meaning–just as Book 2 will have for Jews and Catholics, and so on. The underdogs in this future world are the religious—religious Jews, Christians (Protestant and Catholic), Mormons, Amish, Mennonites, etc. who no longer live in the major tek-cities. One would describe this future as utopian in the tek-cities; dystopian for life outside of it—called the Outlands, and beyond is Trog-land, or where religious people live. But everyone is living in exactly the communities and in the society they wish to live in. The series is not for Christians only and by no means paints a cartoonish world where all religious people are good and all atheists are bad–far from it. There are the major “facts” (America becomes majority militant atheist and Western Europe becomes Islamic), but there are also the individual stories.
The series is provocative in not only showing this radically different (and plausible future) world, but for what comes after the midpoint in the series in Book 4, which I’m working on now. That is the outbreak of World War III with the attack on the United States by the Supreme Islamic Caliphate. In fact, that’s how Thy Kingdom Fall opens with its first chapter, this “flash-forward” to September 11, 2125. It is through different timelines that the book takes us through the story. It is also through various flashbacks that we learn about pivotal characters in the series (and the future war).
The After Eden Series is also international. Thy Kingdom Fall takes place in America, but we are introduced to the global political landscape every much as we are immersed in the domestic political landscape. Domestically, it isn’t just the divide between the anti-religious majority and a religious minority, but those who live in the cities, and those who don’t; those who are part of the Grid, and those who are not. Internationally, we see the world is divided into three superpowers—America, the Supreme Islamic Caliphate (born from the “assimilation” of Western Europe), and the Chinese-Indian Alliance.
Thy Kingdom Fall is all this and a dramatic thriller too. We meet a lot of people—pacifist Amish, violent Vampires (not what you think), Jewish and Christian freedom fighters, Outland Nihilist Goths, powerful governors and presidents, and possibly more powerful hackers and “tek-lords”.
What is the message of the After Eden Series? From the foreward…
“After Eden, Thy Kingdom Fall. All Kingdoms Fall, New Kingdoms Rise.”
World War III. It was inevitably going to be one of religion, this great, grim, evil war of humans, machines, and other things in the shadows that have never existed before. Unfortunately, neither the cause nor the outcome was within our perception, though the former should have been. No one could ever have imagined that it would not just be the third of the world wars, as that is unremarkable, but the explosion of the first global war of the Technological Age, the Tek Age—a hell we had never seen before.
The message is very simple: It could have all been avoided.
Thy Kingdom Fall buy page is HERE.
The After Eden Series page is HERE.
Next Week: Thy Kingdom Fall – How bad is bad?
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.
LATEST RELEASE: THE OFFICIAL FABLED QUEST BESTIARY
