Rien’s world exists because of a vague idea I once had. When Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE, it only destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum. But Mt Vesuvius has the potential to be a much worse eruption, then and now. It’s 150 miles/242km from Pompeii to Rome. Ash fell from Mount St Helens over 7 states. What if, instead of destroying two cities, Vesuvius destroyed Rome as an empire? What if Vesuvius went worst case scenario – a Mt Tambora or a Yellowstone caldera? When Yellowstone goes, there’s a good chance that Salt Lake City, Boise and Spokane will cease to exist, and Seattle, Denver and Portland may not be far behind. It’s 500 miles/800km from Denver to Yellowstone.
What would have happened to Rome’s farthest outposts? What would Britannia have become if Rome ceased to exist and they were on their own? And what would have happened to Christianity in Europe if the foundational cells were destroyed before they were really established? What would have happened to monotheism at all?
That’s sort of Galantier – Britannia, a thousand years after Rome collapsed in ashes and those little camps had to sort out for themselves how to survive.
But also, what happens when a government gets complacent? When its internal immune system turns itself off? When one cell in that body won’t stop growing and dividing? Are bad politics an injury, or a viral illness, or more like an auto-immune disorder? Or cancer? And how do we heal?
I can’t say I foresaw a need to write a book about a civil war in a country that deposed its extremely qualified but female leader in favor of a completely unqualified male waste of space. I’m not a Prognosticator. (At least, I hope I’m not, and you better hope I’m not either, because what I imagine makes good stories and very bad realities.) And yes, this is me laying out my position. Selfish governments are bad and they do not last. Selfish leaders are destructive of themselves, others and they do not last. That shouldn’t be divisive, but it is. So to an extent, Rebellion is also my response to the Objectivist-Libertarian version of conservatism. One person working alone for themselves does very little. Many people, working together, accomplish much. Cooperating doesn’t equal the collective, it’s the nature of a social species. Which humans are.
I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I enjoy writing them.
