Gods of the New Wasteland

 

The problem with writing a book that starts off with a science fictional premise is that its hard to market as anything but science fiction. Once it’s been labelled that way, readers look at it through a science fictional lens and judge it by the standards they use to judge all science fiction. For many of those with a science fictional mindset, that entails a withdrawal of their willing suspension of disbelief if everything doesn’t play out in a convincingly logical way. Forgive me, but I honestly couldn’t come up with another way to market it.

Avenging Glory (the diptych) was never intended to be a science fiction book, even though this first book, The Human Template has a very science fictional premise. It presents as sci-fi, even though it was conceived more as a satirical, action adventure.

This was a concern to me when I wrote it and will probably become even more of a concern when I release the second book, which pretty much drops all pretense of being science fiction and becomes speculative mythopoeic fantasy. If that were considered a valid marketing category, I’d be laughing.

I have long been thinking of our Earth’s future from the perspective of the pantheon of new gods we will create to help us survive. My artwork has depicted these Gods of the Wasteland, even while most of the fiction I was writing dealt with a much more domestic and short sighted breed of horror. As I got into my sixties, I realized that I couldn’t continue to hold back. I had to write the stuff that has been in my soul for pretty much as long as I’ve been alive.

If we survive as a species and come out the other side of whatever lies ahead, new mythologies will emerge to help us deal with the challenges we ourselves have created. Imagining what form these new gods will take is what these books are really about.


Get the scoop on my new novel, The Human Template at https://dalelsproule.com.


I write literature of the fantastic. My short story collection, Psychedelia Gothique is mostly psychological horror. My just released novel, The Human Template is available through most online book retailers - and book two of the diptych, The Carnivorous Forest will appear in 2021. https://www.dalelsproule.com As a book reviewer I have written for Rue Morgue Magazine and AE Science Fiction. As a visual artist, I have illustrated books and magazines and have carved numerous sculptures out of stone.

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