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THE CYCLE OF SOIL
If Ursula Le Guin wrote Little House on the Prairie with a religious cult looming, it would be THE CYCLE OF SOIL. Set in the near future, Earth is ravaged by climate change but Global Governance has a solution: select the very best of the population to live on technologically advanced "lilypads" while the land is left to heal. Tebastiana holds a prestigious position as Global Governance's lead art curator, deciding which of the remaining art pieces go to which lilypad. They are assured a place on these miraculous floating islands, but Tebastiana gives it up when they learn the artists themselves are being left behind. Instead, Tebastiana leads a rag-tag group of these neo-pioneers as they create an In-Lander community in the woods, distanced from the chaos of the abandoned cities. When Mira joins the community, life is thrown into disarray. Their mystical powers of communicating with the ominous Kaiseki threaten to tear the community apart as they struggle to determine which of Mira's predictions are prophecy and which are madness. THE CYCLE OF SOIL explores the cross-paths of science and spirituality, the rise of primitive communities, the ethics of governmental overreach, and what actions are truly within our human power to control. |
THE CYCLE OF SALT
The second book takes us into the futuristic worlds of the ten man-made lilypads and the sadistic plot of Salax, Tebastiana's former lover who betrayed them in favor of a secret plot that resulted in rampant infertility across the In-Land communities in SOIL. THE CYCLE OF SALT is a near future novel about what happens to humanity when urban planning goes haywire. After the government implements mandatory Taste Removal so the citizens will readily ingest their daily level Scrape, the loss of taste causes 67% of the population to fall into one form of depression or another—including turning to Burn, a drug that mimics taste by burning, like hot peppers. An epidemic of junkie Burners breaks out. Seeing an opportunity, Salax drives dozens of Burners to traumatic 'Rock Bottoms' that are terrifying enough to alter their epigenetic information—the genetic information we can change during our lifetimes. Salax then breeds the Burners to create children who will inherit genetic material that makes the notion of addiction as frightening as poisonous spiders. But that's not Salax's only reason for the devious genetic alteration... THE CYCLE OF SALT is a near future novel that explores the cross-paths of science and spirituality, the ethics of governmental overreach, and how perfection is really imperfection. After the Earth is ravaged by climate change, Global Governance has a solution: select the very best of the population to live on technologically advanced "lilypads" while the land is left to heal. On the coldest of them, New Russia, people grow weary of living a perfect, planned life that robs the soul. Many turn to the drug Burn, causing an epidemic of junkie "Burners". Our antagonist Salax sees this as a HIlter-esque opportunity. They drive selected Burners to traumatic "Rock Bottoms" terrifying enough to alter their epigenetic information—the genetic information we can change during our lifetimes. Salax then breeds these Burners to create children who will inherit genetic material that makes the notion of addiction as frightening as poisonous spiders. Utopia from utopia, right? |