Slaughtmanus scribe’s debut novel establishes utopian vision of future

Instead of imagining the kind of bleak, post-apocalyptic dystopia typical of the aforementiond masters of grim Blair’s debut The Paegonaean Story envisages an alternative future for humanity in which a new empire has arisen which has united mankind.

The Londonderry man’s debut describes an unprecedented global regime which has no monetary system and under which people are united by a core set of beliefs with everyone existing in communities where chores and resources are shared.

The novel is “an intrepid journey through this land made by a young King, who has been implicated in a prophecy that will see him and two others set off on a mission and bring about everlasting peace on Earth.”

The Slaughtmanus scribe will sing copies of the novel at a book launch at the Londonderry City of Culture office in Waterloo Place on Friday, May 20, from 5pm to 8.30pm.

The 29-year-old graduated from the University of Ulster with a Degree in English and French and recently spent a year teaching English to primary school children in France, where much of his novel was written.

He told the Sentinel: “There are no shortage of books on war in the world today, but there are very few on peace.

“Fewer still are any novels set in relatively peaceful worlds. Many seem to believe that a story about peace would be boring and uneventful, but what I wanted to show is that if crime and wars were reduced to a point where they no longer existed, mankind would flourish into something much greater than we could ever imagine.

“In my novel, world peace is only the first test for humanity in a long line of cosmic laws that bestow enlightenment as they go along. With all the downcast, film noir cinema and literature that is out there, I wanted to write an uplifting tale for humanity, where the future is more beautiful that we could ever hope.”

He believes the time is ripe for the kind of uplifting story provided in The Paegonaean Story.

He explains: “We live in a time of grave discontentment and uncertainty. Governments repeat old patterns and people are finding it increasingly difficult to survive. There is an area in my novel known as the wastelands, and the civilisation there is a simplified version of the world today.

“They could relate to everything that goes on there; from the company who govern this unruly patch of land and who created a recession in their monetary system so that they could widen the gap between the rich and the poor, to the hopes for mankind to be found in the Paegonaeans’ global regime.”