The Fires of Orc 12+

📕 The Fires of Orc has a primary story line set in 2032, recalled by a narrator looking back from 2082. The major events of the book center on a third-party presidential campaign and pit characters against one another in a test of idealism versus pragmatism. “More than anything,” says the author, “I wanted to explore the question of just how far one can go in using means to justify ends. It’s an important and relevant question for a democratic republic.A loser cannot change the status quo. But does that mean a change agent should do anything necessary to win? Is there any motive so noble that it justifies using ignoble tactics?”As the narrator recalls the events of the election, we get a clear picture of the electoral calculus, a picture of how national political campaigns actually work – not just in 2032, but today. The characters plot and plan and skew their appeal to voters to win support of pockets of America. There is no concern with reaching the people in general. The campaign focuses entirely on specific target voters in key areas.The narrator recalls how the old world consumed itself with hubris and indifference and how the end came in a conflagration. The reader is left to wonder what the narrator, now at the end of his life, will share with the post-apocalyptic world. Is there hope for a new world, or will the past haunt the future?