ERASURES

Imady presents a retro-futuristic dystopian tale about social progress and how traditional institutions must adapt to avoid irrelevancy.

It’s 2049, and the world is trying to rebuild after seven years of worldwide war triggered by overpopulation, environmental crises, and social inequities. The conflict began with a series of terrorist strikes across the globe that targeted entire civilizations and their cultural heritages; the attackers hacked into information and infrastructure systems specifically to destroy books—the things that most effectively memorialize a country and its people. Now that the war is over and the terrorists have been defeated, the global community rebuilds by digitizing and archiving information across various disciplines; a predictive system uses algorithms to track everything from life expectancies to the potential for another major terrorist attack. Ray Blankenship, archivist for the Literature Hub for what’s known as Zone 4, is a consummate information professional who thrives in a world of structure and predictability. This relative peace is upended when entire passages from the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Quran begin to disappear—first in digital format and then in the original print. Each major religion that failed to adapt to modern “liberal democracy” seems to be a target, and Ray plunges into a chaotic milieu as he discovers who’s behind this new wave of cultural destruction, and how and why they’re doing it. Imady’s speculative tale, which recalls and pays tribute to classic SF works such as Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels, strikes a happy balance between worldbuilding and world-destroying. Throughout, readers are immersed in a rich, robust fictional atmosphere with characters who question aspects of both tradition and progress. Futuristic elements throughout the text effectively create an intriguing utopian backdrop for an engrossing mystery.

An immersive after-the-end story that tackles the challenges of modern society as it examines the role of the written word.