Coming Soon! OGDEN: A Tale for the End of Time
It's my honor and pleasure to invite readers into the magical world of Ogden, a trollish man-child sent by the Spirits of Nature to live among humans at the dawn of the industrial age. His mission: to judge humanity's suitability for survival or extinction as a species.
The baby troll is abandoned in the woods by his father. A hunting party of men capture and make of him a present for their master. They don’t know it, but they’ve been led into a trap that will expose humanity’s legacy of malice toward the living world to Nature’s judgement.
I suspect there is a flourishing new market for stories that contextualize universal anxiety over ecological disasters within the shared social experience of modern life. Books like Richard Powers’ "The Overstory" convey the wonders of intimacy with nature. Non-fictional nature books, like David Abram’s "The Spell of the Sensuous" revitalize the readers’ connection with the hidden magic that is discoverable by silencing our certainties and perceiving creation free of our cultural filters. "Ogden: A Tale for the End of Time" belongs on the same shelf with these and other such books of wonder.
There is also a sub-genre of fantasy that I’ll call “true magic” that does more than storytelling. Novels like Hope Mirrlees’ "Lud-In-The-Mist" bring the boundaries between the every-day mundane world and the magical realm of faerie close within reach, so that the reader begins to feel and smell the fragrant winds from over yonder, “beyond the fields we know,” as Lord Dunsany use to say. "Ogden: A Tale for the End of Time" will have a similar effect, transporting the reader across the border between dreams and dull reality, into a world where every “thing” is aware and alive.
Yet, "Ogden: A Tale for the End of Time" is unique for placing Life, expressed as Nature, in the role of judge and jury, with authority to decide which branches on the tree of life will flourish, and which will wither and drop away. And so, at the infancy of human industrialization, as the apex of primate evolution prepares to enslave Nature and all its elemental parts to the satisfaction of human desire, Nature sends the young troll, Ogden, as its proxy. Can humanity survive when Nature is the judge?
I hope you enjoy reading "Ogden," and let me know what you think!
Praise for "Ogden: A Tale for the End of Time"
“Ogden: A Tale for the End of Time takes us back to the moment when we had a choice between the cunning allure of today’s socially constructed virtual reality and the real magic of living in the natural world as participants, not just distant observers. The story connects us to an organic intelligence, where nature is infused with mysteries that transcend the human.”
-- Andreas Kornevall, Storyteller, Ecologist and Author of Waking the Dragons: Norse Myth, Folklore, Runes and Magic
“Ogden is fantasy of the highest order. In the lost and adopted character of the Troll baby Ogden, we witness his growth and maturation in the context of his loving human family. From the trial and error of innocence, we follow his rapid and sometimes humorous journey to maturation. He fulfils his ancient identity as a descendent of a very real and magical lineage, magic often being that which was once innate to the experience but is now relegated to dusty, brittle manuscripts. Ogden will leave you in wonder, wistful for more and an unwavering insight that Nature is sentient.” -- Tom Mullian, Editor, La Mott Times
The baby troll is abandoned in the woods by his father. A hunting party of men capture and make of him a present for their master. They don’t know it, but they’ve been led into a trap that will expose humanity’s legacy of malice toward the living world to Nature’s judgement.
I suspect there is a flourishing new market for stories that contextualize universal anxiety over ecological disasters within the shared social experience of modern life. Books like Richard Powers’ "The Overstory" convey the wonders of intimacy with nature. Non-fictional nature books, like David Abram’s "The Spell of the Sensuous" revitalize the readers’ connection with the hidden magic that is discoverable by silencing our certainties and perceiving creation free of our cultural filters. "Ogden: A Tale for the End of Time" belongs on the same shelf with these and other such books of wonder.
There is also a sub-genre of fantasy that I’ll call “true magic” that does more than storytelling. Novels like Hope Mirrlees’ "Lud-In-The-Mist" bring the boundaries between the every-day mundane world and the magical realm of faerie close within reach, so that the reader begins to feel and smell the fragrant winds from over yonder, “beyond the fields we know,” as Lord Dunsany use to say. "Ogden: A Tale for the End of Time" will have a similar effect, transporting the reader across the border between dreams and dull reality, into a world where every “thing” is aware and alive.
Yet, "Ogden: A Tale for the End of Time" is unique for placing Life, expressed as Nature, in the role of judge and jury, with authority to decide which branches on the tree of life will flourish, and which will wither and drop away. And so, at the infancy of human industrialization, as the apex of primate evolution prepares to enslave Nature and all its elemental parts to the satisfaction of human desire, Nature sends the young troll, Ogden, as its proxy. Can humanity survive when Nature is the judge?
I hope you enjoy reading "Ogden," and let me know what you think!
Praise for "Ogden: A Tale for the End of Time"
“Ogden: A Tale for the End of Time takes us back to the moment when we had a choice between the cunning allure of today’s socially constructed virtual reality and the real magic of living in the natural world as participants, not just distant observers. The story connects us to an organic intelligence, where nature is infused with mysteries that transcend the human.”
-- Andreas Kornevall, Storyteller, Ecologist and Author of Waking the Dragons: Norse Myth, Folklore, Runes and Magic
“Ogden is fantasy of the highest order. In the lost and adopted character of the Troll baby Ogden, we witness his growth and maturation in the context of his loving human family. From the trial and error of innocence, we follow his rapid and sometimes humorous journey to maturation. He fulfils his ancient identity as a descendent of a very real and magical lineage, magic often being that which was once innate to the experience but is now relegated to dusty, brittle manuscripts. Ogden will leave you in wonder, wistful for more and an unwavering insight that Nature is sentient.” -- Tom Mullian, Editor, La Mott Times
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