Dance of the Warriors

by Kevin Esser

The dystopian novel takes place in the middle of the twenty-first century where Christian fundamentalist policy has reduced the Americas to a wasteland of failing crops and decaying cities. Non-heterosexual people, so-called fag-crims, are packed off to detention extermination camps in Utah and the only vag rebels live in abandoned reaches as North Chicago. The story is the uplifting odyssey of Teddy in his early teenage who must fight through battles toward freedom. The book is a B genre of controversial boylove literature.

288 pages

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[David Corvine]

I assume this was influenced by Wild Boys (William S. Burroughs) although in terms of literary merit it falls far short of this work. However, its simplistic prose style works with the age group of the main protagonists. Prophetic with regards to the resurgence of the christian fundamentalists and the current witch-hunt mentality.

[Karl Andersson]

Spectacular, never read anything like it. First of all, this is underground fiction. It’s written to excite, entertain, and empower you – and it does all that! Feels like a mix of young adult and gay fiction. I love it!

The dystopian society that the author describes doesn’t feel far off from where we might be heading – the novel is set in the mid 21st century, so we still have a quarter century to go. In some ways we’re already there. The only thing he got wrong was the conflation of BLs and gays, which was not only believable but mainstream back in 1988 when the book was published, but which is laughable today.

I loved the world-building and the alternative society of the “vags” that he sketches. It’s over-the-top idealist, a true paradise – but I liked that, maybe even needed that.

Published by Acolyte Press in Amsterdam. Felt very special to get my hands on this rarity, by chance. Read it in a few days, with a couple of longtime sessions in bed (how’s that for excitement). Will miss it!