We have a guest post from Gabriel Madison who recently published his first science fiction novel – The Thorndike Legacy. Here he tells us some of the reasons that inspired him to write his latest novel.
Let’s welcome Gabriel!
After the Apocalypse
When I first sat down to write my new novel, The Thorndike Legacy, my main objective was to entertain readers. I wanted people to read my story, and place the book down feeling satisfied they’d been able to escape whatever obstacles they had to endure in the real world. The story came to me easily, a futuristic world with a misunderstood princess being the best of humankind.
It wasn’t until halfway through the story that I realized what direction I wanted to go in. Let me state I am a huge fan of post-apocalyptic stories. From the books I read to the movies I see, to the TV shows I watch. Okay, I’m not a big fan of zombies, but any other post-apocalyptic story and I’m there.
I also love the Dystopia novels, but as I wrote TTL, I realized I didn’t want it to be like most of the post-apocalyptic stories I’d read or seen. I wanted to take it in a different direction because I wanted to think better about humanity.
A bestselling author posted on Twitter that people will be crying at the end of her trilogy. From her tweet, I summarized someone asked her why her story had to end in tragedy. She said what if the main character ended up with a puppy and gave a few other boring examples of how she could end it. She stated, “People don’t like happy endings.” I, for one, disagree with her completely.
First, let me start off with a theme through all post-apocalyptic stories I wanted to stir away from. It seems most people think if an apocalypse hits, the worst of human kind will be left. The taking of human life would be easily executed. We would turn on each other, oppressing and treating each other in the worst possible way. Maybe we would, but I’d like to think instead of the worst of humanity taking over, the best of what makes us would shine brighter.
Yes, we do horrible things to each other, from murder, to rape, to genocide to other monstrosities. But we also have the capacity to do extraordinary things for each other. We care about things and people on the opposite side of the world than where we live. We protest injustices and a large amount of people actually dedicate their lives to helping others.
The Thorndike Legacy takes place seventy years in the future, after the apocalypse. A part of the story is about a small group of people taking on the worst traits of what it is to be human: selfishness and placing their lives over those less fortunate than them. But the largest theme of the book, the thing I wanted to do different than others, is that humans can be more than that.
We seem to focus on the worst of humanity. I wanted to tell a story about what humanity truly is to me. When the world is made dark and hopeless. When those living in safety while many more live in horror, we as humans come together and place ourselves in danger to help those that were lost. I wanted to tell a story about people that believe the only thing that matters is that all humans are safe and have a chance of freedom.
Yes, we have our flaws. Yes, we can do unthinkable things to each other. Yes, humanity can be ruthless. But it can also be beautiful. We can have happy endings and show the best of who we are beyond our dark sides as storytellers.
The Thorndike Legacy is about a future surrounded by darkness and death, but with people living in safety after surviving the apocalypse saying they would risk jeopardizing their own lives to make sure all humans have the opportunity to live in peace.
About The Thorndike Legacy: Eydis Thorndike carries two secrets with her: the first, she can see glimpses into the future and read people's thoughts, and the second secret is so horrible it could destroy what's left of the human race - a sub-fleet has been created to kill the people left behind in the Old World.
In the year 2086, seventeen-year-old High Princess Eydis Elisabet Thorndike finds herself graduating from the Rangers Academy, despite the controversy. Royalty usually joins one of the other fleets. It's unheard of to have a high princess become a ranger.
Eydis feels a responsibility to the people left behind, because she knows Survivors are in more danger now than ever before, and because her mother, the High Queen, is one of the people behind the secret sub-fleet. Eydis will place the love of her mother in jeopardy, as she does all she can to protect the Survivors.
Paperback | 254 pages | July 4th 2013 | Whimsical Publications
Gabriel Madison started writing when he was in high school, mostly short stories and poetry, and then developed a passion for screenplays. He attended a private art University in Atlanta Georgia for Media Production where he wrote a few screenplays and made a few short movies, including a twelve-minute vampire movie he adapted from a short story called Midnight Diner. Later, he returned to writing novellas and novel length projects.
Gabriel was once asked to describe himself; the answer he came up with was: storyteller. http://gabrielmadison.blogspot.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment