The Liberty Trilogy
“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.”
The ambition is to tell one story at the end of civilisation, via three consecutive tales, in the tradition of a saga: journeys of danger, discovery and deeds, under the companionship of a hero and heroine. Each tale to portray liberty through a multitude of angles and layers, drawing upon allegorical elements of today on what liberty means, its complexities and how it gets abused or misunderstood. Book one, Liberty Bound, is complete. It focuses on fear and ignorance and how we imprison ourselves by avoiding facing up to difficult decisions. Book two, Where Liberty Lies, is complete, exploring the deceit and illusions that underlie societies. While book three, The Will of Liberty, is under construction and will tackle the fragility and strength of liberty.
The trilogy falls within the genre of dystopian but I have some unease about pigeon-holing it there. This is due to what it is not. It is not a zombie-fuelled, bloodfest of violence, which is a popular sub-genre. As an allegorical adventure, I have simply utilised the freedom of a future, post-apocalyptic world to build my own landscape. I could quite as simply set it on a distant planet and called it sci-fi (more in keeping with Harry Harrison’s Deathworld trilogy) or a make-believe domain and called it fantasy. The core is adventure with social musings threaded throughout, hopefully of a cerebral nature. Foremost, I want readers to enjoy a gripping yarn and, secondary, ponder some of the issues raised around the meaning of liberty.
I don’t confess to any expertise in the matter of liberty other than having enjoyed many of its benefits throughout my life and studied a past littered with those less fortunate. Nor do I have the answer to what true liberty looks like (is there such a thing?). But I hope by placing my characters in a range of testing situations and going on this journey together, both the reader and myself will appreciate the topic more and understand it a little bit better.
Visit each link below to find out more on each book.
Thank you
