Fantasy
fiction for everyone - from Adult to Young Adult
Ferren
lives one thousand years in the future from now. Progress has
ended and the world has gone backwards. But Ferren knows almost
nothing about it.
He
doesn't know that, early in the 21st Century, medical scientists
invented a technology to bring dead people back to life - and
then heard them report that they'd really been to Heaven, really
seen angels. When scientists sent teams of psychonauts to investigate,
they triggered the Millennial War between Heaven and Earth.
First
came the period known as the Rising of the Undead, when recently
arrived souls were driven out from Heaven, back to their dead
buried bodies. This was a terrible period of marauding murdering
corpses, which emptied cities and devastated every nation on the
Earth.
Then
came a period of phony peace and negotiations, while scientists
secretly manipulated Heaven into Earthly space and time. When
the golden battlements and green hills of Heaven appeared in the
sky, thousands of people flew up to see the sights. The result
was the Great Collapse, when huge portions of Heaven fell down
onto the Earth, causing terrible fires. The same fires are still
burning across Asia and Europe, nearly nine hundred years later.
The
Great Collapse changed everything. On Heaven's side, God retreated
in disgust behind impenetrable clouds, leaving a War Council of
the highest archangels to continue the war. On the side of the
Earth, artificial types of being displaced real human beings.
These
artificial types, called Humen, include Doctors (shrivelled brains
maintained only by life support systems), Plasmatics (combining
organic nerves and muscles with machinery) and Hypers (clad in
black rubber, composed of an inanimate material, fueled by injections
of living memories and experiences).
The
real human beings, like Ferren himself, survive in small isolated
tribes, ignorant, fearful and despairing. At regular times, the
Humen take away one or more member from each tribe for what they
call 'military service'.
This
is the world Ferren has been born into. He still knows almost
nothing about it - but he's about to find out. When he does, the
world will change forever.
The
three books in the Ferren trilogy are
Praise
from multi-award winning author, Jack Dann:
'Harland
is a wonderful writer - funny and satirical - he will take you
to some pretty weird and wild places.'
The
background of the trilogy is drawn from traditional lore about
angels and Heaven, also known as angelology. It took me ten years
to do the research before starting work on Ferren
and the Angel, and I'm still learning more all the time.
There's
so much fascinating material hidden away in forgotten books and
old sources! I've included a selection of little known facts about
angels, archangels, fallen
angels, Heaven and Hell.
