GUEST POST: Beginning to Remember by Anderson O’Donnell

Beginning to Remember by

Anderson O’Donnell

There’s no question that, both as individuals and as a
collective society, our attention spans have narrowed. We bounce from one shiny
new diversion to another, forgetting much of our past in the process. New
buildings are thrown up on top of old ones; we can’t even spare the time or the
expense to give our history a proper burial.

In my new biopunk thriller, Kingdom, I tried to address this cultural amnesia by creating a
city that is devouring itself: Tiber City, the dystopian capital of my
fictional universe, is in a constant state of “progress” that allows its
denizens no time for reflection or contemplation. New businesses rise and fall
almost overnight; entire alleyways vanish—or perhaps they are forgotten.
No one can remember, but, without question, they’re gone.

At some point, this process becomes almost autonomous; there
is a sense that Tiber City is somehow not only sentient, but, driven by a dark
energy, is intent on perpetuating our societal ADD.

I’ve been looking forward to my tour stop at Beauty in Ruins
because I knew BiR’s audience would be sympathetic to the idea that landscapes,
that monuments and ruins, can project a certain power, an energy that captures
the imagination. Tiber City is that kind of place. But this is also a city
without a soul that seems intent on exerting its will over its people. There
are parts of the city, however, that still hold mystery and wonder; places that
were constructed with care and vision and lie in patient repose. In fact, the
fate of Kingdom’s protagonist rests of his ability to navigate these ruins, and
understand their secrets.

Below you’ll find a short excerpt from Kingdom, a paragraph that describes Tiber City and its descent into
cultural amnesia.

Reaching the exit,
Campbell pulled open the steel door that marked the camp’s main entrance. Like much of Tiber City, the old
warehouse—the basement levels of which held Camp Ramoth—had been hastily
constructed to satisfy an immediate need and then forgotten, money, politics,
and power always pushing forward, need begetting need begetting ever more need.
Consequently, rather than taking the time and the money to tear buildings down,
these structures were buried alive, fresh concrete and steel poured over the
still-viable structures. When the money dried up, these new buildings—little
more than heaps of cheap material slapped together atop uneven foundations by
strangers, by men who were not from these neighborhoods, by men who couldn’t
care less—began to crumble. And when they did, no one gave a shit because the
goal had never been sustainability; turn a profit and move on was the
fundamental philosophy. Structure began cannibalizing structure, and as the
foundations of the newest buildings collapsed, older, forgotten buildings were
unearthed. As a result, the Jungle’s geography was forever changing as the
slums rose up to reclaim the land, prefab material no match for the infinite
patience of time.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. And a huge
thanks to Beauty in Ruins for allowing me to hijack valuable blog space.

Cheers,

Anderson

αωαωαωαωαωαωαω

The Kingdom

by Anderson O’Donnell



In a secret laboratory hidden under the desert, a covert bioengineering project--codename "Exodus"--has discovered the gene responsible for the human soul.



Somewhere in the neon sprawl outside the nation's collapsing economic core, a group of renegade monks are on the verge of uncovering a secret that has eluded mankind for centuries.



In a glittering tower high above the urban decay, an ascendant U.S. Senator is found dead--an apparent, yet inexplicable, suicide.



And in the streets below, a young man races through an ultra modern metropolis on the verge of a violent revolution....closing in on the terrible truth behind Exodus--and one man's dark vision for the future of mankind.



Welcome to Tiber City.