Chris Dietzel's Blog - Posts Tagged "dystopian"
The end of one world, the beginning of another
When I first set out to start writing about the end of the world, I had an exact vision of the story I wanted to tell: the last normal human, forced to care for the plagued masses. As I started writing The Man Who Watched The World End, the story quickly morphed into an old man taking care of his brother in an abandoned neighborhood. But the world of the Great De-evolution was born. From there, I wrote a completely different type of story that took place in the same world of mankind’s slow and quiet decline. A Different Alchemy gave a fuller view to the world I had created. It’s only fitting that now, in my third and final Great De-evolution book, The Hauntings of Playing God, that I end the ‘quiet apocalypse’ by telling the story I first envisioned: the story of the last human, alone, overwhelmed with the task of caring for the afflicted masses. I can’t think of a better way to conclude my take on the end of mankind.
While I’m done writing about the Great De-evolution, it’s not cause for me to be sad. It’s the end of one thing, but the beginning of another. I’m already deep into a series of books that take place in a completely different type of dystopian world. I’m not sure what worlds I’ll create after that, but whatever does come next, I hope readers of my previous books enjoy them. There is no time to be sad at the departure of one world because there are always new worlds to create and new stories to fill them with. So while The Hauntings of Playing God is the end of one part of my writing life, another will soon begin. The journey always continues.
While I’m done writing about the Great De-evolution, it’s not cause for me to be sad. It’s the end of one thing, but the beginning of another. I’m already deep into a series of books that take place in a completely different type of dystopian world. I’m not sure what worlds I’ll create after that, but whatever does come next, I hope readers of my previous books enjoy them. There is no time to be sad at the departure of one world because there are always new worlds to create and new stories to fill them with. So while The Hauntings of Playing God is the end of one part of my writing life, another will soon begin. The journey always continues.
Cover Reveal - The Theta Timeline
I'm very excited to share the cover of my next novel with everyone. I hope you love it as much as I do.
Leaders who rely on war and fear. The men and women who refuse to accept a tyrannical government. And an unreliable means of time travel in which most people don’t survive. Welcome to the nightmarish future of The Theta Timeline.
It's completely different than the covers for my Great De-evolution books so it'll be clear this is a departure from what I've written in the past. The Theta Timeline is also dystopian, but a completely different kind.
Everyone who signed up for my mailing list got an early preview of this cover a month ago. Have you signed up yet?
Leaders who rely on war and fear. The men and women who refuse to accept a tyrannical government. And an unreliable means of time travel in which most people don’t survive. Welcome to the nightmarish future of The Theta Timeline.
It's completely different than the covers for my Great De-evolution books so it'll be clear this is a departure from what I've written in the past. The Theta Timeline is also dystopian, but a completely different kind.
Everyone who signed up for my mailing list got an early preview of this cover a month ago. Have you signed up yet?
Author Spotlight - Roderick Vincent
Roderick Vincent is an author I met on GoodReads a while back. In addition to being a fan of dystopian fiction, he runs a great discussion group here called ‘Fiction Threads.’
More recently, he wrote a dystopian novel of his own, The Cause. Due to be published on Nov 28, The Cause takes place in the near future and focuses on the second American Revolution. It is book 1 in what will become the Minuteman Series.
Interesting Fact: He spent a good part of his childhood and young-adult years living on the island of Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands.
A little more about The Cause: The year is 2022. America is on the verge of economic and social collapse. The government has made individual freedom its enemy. A hacker enters a black-ops training camp where he discovers the leaders are revolutionaries seeking to return the U.S. back to its Constitutional roots. Soon the camp fractures. Who is traitor? Who is patriot? And what happens when martial law meets revolution?
The Cause is available for pre-order at Amazon.
More recently, he wrote a dystopian novel of his own, The Cause. Due to be published on Nov 28, The Cause takes place in the near future and focuses on the second American Revolution. It is book 1 in what will become the Minuteman Series.
Interesting Fact: He spent a good part of his childhood and young-adult years living on the island of Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands.
A little more about The Cause: The year is 2022. America is on the verge of economic and social collapse. The government has made individual freedom its enemy. A hacker enters a black-ops training camp where he discovers the leaders are revolutionaries seeking to return the U.S. back to its Constitutional roots. Soon the camp fractures. Who is traitor? Who is patriot? And what happens when martial law meets revolution?
The Cause is available for pre-order at Amazon.
'The Theta Timeline' is now available!
Now available: THE THETA TIMELINE
I hope you all like it. While it's still dystopian, it's nothing at all like my Great De-evolution books. If you read it, I'd love to hear what you think.
Leaders who rely on war and fear. The men and women who refuse to accept a tyrannical government. And an unreliable means of time travel in which most people don’t survive. Welcome to the nightmarish future of The Theta Timeline, where '1984' meets 'Slaughterhouse-Five.'
Freedom was not stolen overnight, but gradually chipped away through a campaign of war and terror. People were told new laws and restrictions were for their own good. But the reality was a monstrous regime bent on controlling its subjects. Now, there is only one way to stop the Tyranny: go back in time and prevent it from ever starting.
Pick up your copy today at Amazon, Smashwords, Itunes, or any other place books are sold!
I hope you all like it. While it's still dystopian, it's nothing at all like my Great De-evolution books. If you read it, I'd love to hear what you think.
Leaders who rely on war and fear. The men and women who refuse to accept a tyrannical government. And an unreliable means of time travel in which most people don’t survive. Welcome to the nightmarish future of The Theta Timeline, where '1984' meets 'Slaughterhouse-Five.'
Freedom was not stolen overnight, but gradually chipped away through a campaign of war and terror. People were told new laws and restrictions were for their own good. But the reality was a monstrous regime bent on controlling its subjects. Now, there is only one way to stop the Tyranny: go back in time and prevent it from ever starting.
Pick up your copy today at Amazon, Smashwords, Itunes, or any other place books are sold!
Creating my first book trailer!
I’m very excited to share my first book trailer with everyone. Having never done one before, I wasn’t sure what to expect. After a brief but frustrating learning curve, I quickly got the hang of the program used to make videos. I couldn’t be happier with the result.
This is one of those times where I had a vision in my head of what I wanted to achieve with the book trailer, and with the exception of a few small details that were beyond the software’s ability, the video turned out exactly as I had planned. So, without further ado, here is the trailer for my latest dystopian release, ‘The Theta Timeline.’
I hope you enjoy it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd7xe...
This is one of those times where I had a vision in my head of what I wanted to achieve with the book trailer, and with the exception of a few small details that were beyond the software’s ability, the video turned out exactly as I had planned. So, without further ado, here is the trailer for my latest dystopian release, ‘The Theta Timeline.’
I hope you enjoy it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd7xe...
Magic and Mayhem... without the magic and mayhem?
Before I ever wrote my three books about the end of the world (The Man Who Watched The World End, A Different Alchemy, and The Hauntings of Playing God), I knew they had to take place in a world full of imagination and possibility—the type of stories I enjoy reading myself—but I also wanted them to be realistic, something I could envision actually happening. I wanted to write about the end of the world, but I didn’t want to create your typical apocalyptic books, which always seem to be filled with marauding gangs, children with special powers, and so on. Instead, I wanted to focus on simple things such as looking back on life and regretting how time was spent, about the importance of family, and about the everyday things we take for granted. In short, I wanted to write about the magic and mayhem of the apocalypse, only without any magic or mayhem!
To do this, I focused not on the fantastic and supernatural elements of mankind’s impending extinction, but of the human elements—people growing older each year, the human population slowly fading away. Instead of zombies terrorizing everyone or battles for the few remaining resources, my Great De-evolution stories have people reminiscing about the final movies they watched, the final vacations they took.
In my books, there is no hope for a better tomorrow, but there is still the marvel of realizing which few things in life are truly important. And although there are no warlords or flesh-eating zombies, there is still the quite human havoc of rats and spiders taking over basements, of water dripping through ceilings, of people feeling overwhelmed with day-to-day life.
When you read The Man Who Watched The World End, A Different Alchemy, or The Hauntings of Playing God, you won’t be given gift-wrapped happy endings in which the teenage hero has rallied against some grand villain. You won’t have the immediate satisfaction of an invasion being prevented. After all, my books are science fiction without the magic. They are the apocalypse without the mayhem. But in place of a feel-good story or a climactic battle, my hope is that you’ll find stories about real people and real concerns, and because of that, the stories will remain with you long after you’ve read them.
Originally published at the Magic&Mayhem blog site.
To do this, I focused not on the fantastic and supernatural elements of mankind’s impending extinction, but of the human elements—people growing older each year, the human population slowly fading away. Instead of zombies terrorizing everyone or battles for the few remaining resources, my Great De-evolution stories have people reminiscing about the final movies they watched, the final vacations they took.
In my books, there is no hope for a better tomorrow, but there is still the marvel of realizing which few things in life are truly important. And although there are no warlords or flesh-eating zombies, there is still the quite human havoc of rats and spiders taking over basements, of water dripping through ceilings, of people feeling overwhelmed with day-to-day life.
When you read The Man Who Watched The World End, A Different Alchemy, or The Hauntings of Playing God, you won’t be given gift-wrapped happy endings in which the teenage hero has rallied against some grand villain. You won’t have the immediate satisfaction of an invasion being prevented. After all, my books are science fiction without the magic. They are the apocalypse without the mayhem. But in place of a feel-good story or a climactic battle, my hope is that you’ll find stories about real people and real concerns, and because of that, the stories will remain with you long after you’ve read them.
Originally published at the Magic&Mayhem blog site.
'1984's Enduring Dystopian Legacy
In many ways, George Orwell’s 1984 has become the benchmark by which all other dystopians are judged. And for the readers who loved the tale of Winston versus ‘Big Brother,’ they are always looking for books that can compare in some way. Here are a few books I‘ve come across recently that have something in common with it.
THE CIRCLE
Replace an all-seeing authoritarian government with an all-seeing Facebook-type of company and you have The Circle, by Dave Eggers. This might be the closest thing I’ve found to a modern day ‘1984,’ with many of the same ideas of personal freedom versus the group’s lack of true identity being discussed. It even has a set of three contradictory mottos like ‘1984’. Instead of Big Brother saying:
War is peace
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is strength
The Circle says:
Secrets are lies
Sharing is caring
Privacy is theft
If you loved ‘1984’, I think you’ll enjoy ‘The Circle.’
HIGH-RISE
Although it doesn’t have an all-knowing tyranny or any of the themes found in ‘1984,’ High-Rise, by JG Ballard does have something important in common with Orwell’s work. Both books use the setting as the driving mechanism to push their social allegory. In ‘High-Rise,’ one apartment building encapsulates all of society by housing the lower class tenants on the bottom floors, the middle class tenants on the middle floors, and the upper class tenants at the top of the building. The scenario gives Ballard the same type of ability to drive home the social messages that made ‘1984’ so incredible. But whereas Orwell thrives under this type of approach, ‘High-Rise deteriorates into your typical anarchy type of story. I would only recommend ‘High-Rise’ only to fans of dystopian that can’t get enough of the genre.
WE
More than any other book, We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin, is the book you have to read if you loved ‘1984.’ And it shouldn’t be any other way. After all, ‘We’ is the book that inspired Orwell to write his masterpiece. ‘We’s government of OneState is eerily similar to that of ‘Big Brother’, both authors write about authoritarianism with an air of absurdity, and the major theme is the individual versus the state, just like in ‘1984’. Everyone who loved ‘1984’ should read this book at least once.
THE THETA TIMELINE
I have to end with my own book, The Theta Timeline. My goal with this book was to create a novel that could continue what Orwell did in ‘1984,’: give readers a dystopian that is at times satirical, infuriating, scary, and all too possible, all while delivering an important warning. If you’ve been looking for the next ‘1984’ or if you just enjoy realistic, character-drive stories, you should definitely check out The Theta Timeline.
If you read any or all of these books, I’d love to hear what you think. Drop me a line!
THE CIRCLE
Replace an all-seeing authoritarian government with an all-seeing Facebook-type of company and you have The Circle, by Dave Eggers. This might be the closest thing I’ve found to a modern day ‘1984,’ with many of the same ideas of personal freedom versus the group’s lack of true identity being discussed. It even has a set of three contradictory mottos like ‘1984’. Instead of Big Brother saying:
War is peace
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is strength
The Circle says:
Secrets are lies
Sharing is caring
Privacy is theft
If you loved ‘1984’, I think you’ll enjoy ‘The Circle.’
HIGH-RISE
Although it doesn’t have an all-knowing tyranny or any of the themes found in ‘1984,’ High-Rise, by JG Ballard does have something important in common with Orwell’s work. Both books use the setting as the driving mechanism to push their social allegory. In ‘High-Rise,’ one apartment building encapsulates all of society by housing the lower class tenants on the bottom floors, the middle class tenants on the middle floors, and the upper class tenants at the top of the building. The scenario gives Ballard the same type of ability to drive home the social messages that made ‘1984’ so incredible. But whereas Orwell thrives under this type of approach, ‘High-Rise deteriorates into your typical anarchy type of story. I would only recommend ‘High-Rise’ only to fans of dystopian that can’t get enough of the genre.
WE
More than any other book, We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin, is the book you have to read if you loved ‘1984.’ And it shouldn’t be any other way. After all, ‘We’ is the book that inspired Orwell to write his masterpiece. ‘We’s government of OneState is eerily similar to that of ‘Big Brother’, both authors write about authoritarianism with an air of absurdity, and the major theme is the individual versus the state, just like in ‘1984’. Everyone who loved ‘1984’ should read this book at least once.
THE THETA TIMELINE
I have to end with my own book, The Theta Timeline. My goal with this book was to create a novel that could continue what Orwell did in ‘1984,’: give readers a dystopian that is at times satirical, infuriating, scary, and all too possible, all while delivering an important warning. If you’ve been looking for the next ‘1984’ or if you just enjoy realistic, character-drive stories, you should definitely check out The Theta Timeline.
If you read any or all of these books, I’d love to hear what you think. Drop me a line!
Mark Your Calendars
I’m going to be doing two promotions from May 21-23.
FREE!!! The Last Teacher, my short story that takes place in the same world as my three Great De-evolution books, will be free. If you haven’t read it yet, now is your chance to get it for free! Always been curious what my end-of-the-world books are like? Now is your chance to find out. Did you love one of my books and wish your friends or family would read them too? Send them all free copies between May 21-23. The more the merrier.
$0.99!!! My third novel, The Hauntings of Playing God, will be less than a cup of coffee! If you read 'The Man Who Watched The World End' or 'A Different Alchemy' and wanted to read another story that takes place in mankind’s slow and quiet extinction, now’s your chance to get it for cheap.
Don’t forget!
FREE!!! The Last Teacher, my short story that takes place in the same world as my three Great De-evolution books, will be free. If you haven’t read it yet, now is your chance to get it for free! Always been curious what my end-of-the-world books are like? Now is your chance to find out. Did you love one of my books and wish your friends or family would read them too? Send them all free copies between May 21-23. The more the merrier.
$0.99!!! My third novel, The Hauntings of Playing God, will be less than a cup of coffee! If you read 'The Man Who Watched The World End' or 'A Different Alchemy' and wanted to read another story that takes place in mankind’s slow and quiet extinction, now’s your chance to get it for cheap.
Don’t forget!
Cover Reveal: The Theta Prophecy
I'm very excited to share the cover of my next novel with everyone. I hope you love it as much as I do.
The Theta Prophecy is scheduled to be released on September 28th. While it takes place in the same world as The Theta Timeline, it has different characters and a different story, so it doesn't matter which one you read first.
I'll be doing a couple GoodReads giveaways for it. The next one will begin on Sept 29 so make sure you enter for a chance to win a signed copy.
The Theta Prophecy is scheduled to be released on September 28th. While it takes place in the same world as The Theta Timeline, it has different characters and a different story, so it doesn't matter which one you read first.
I'll be doing a couple GoodReads giveaways for it. The next one will begin on Sept 29 so make sure you enter for a chance to win a signed copy.
Now available: The Theta Prophecy
The treasure at Oak Island. JFK’s assassination. A tyrannous regime’s inner-workings. Welcome to The Theta Prophecy, where alternate history meets modern dystopian.
Irreverent but insightful, The Theta Prophecy is an adventure spanning centuries. More than just another dystopian story, it offers a disturbing vision of the future that will leave you asking, what is reality and what is fiction? And most importantly, can the Tyranny be stopped?
Don’t miss the book Kirkus called “A terrifying glimpse at a believable future.”
Get your copy today!
I'm also doing one last GoodReads giveaway for it. Make sure you sign up for a chance to win a signed copy of the paperback.
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
Irreverent but insightful, The Theta Prophecy is an adventure spanning centuries. More than just another dystopian story, it offers a disturbing vision of the future that will leave you asking, what is reality and what is fiction? And most importantly, can the Tyranny be stopped?
Don’t miss the book Kirkus called “A terrifying glimpse at a believable future.”
Get your copy today!
I'm also doing one last GoodReads giveaway for it. Make sure you sign up for a chance to win a signed copy of the paperback.
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
