By J. Aldric Gaudet & Paul Schultz
ISBN: 978-1-329-73359-6
Dark, gritty – usually adult-oriented – re-workings and reinterpretations of traditional fairytales have been a staple of modern popular entertainment for some time now. Perhaps they are an easy way into the consciousness of the audience or maybe it’s just that the best plots are endlessly adaptable…
In this brief – perhaps introductory or pilot – tale of a possible future, humanity is slowly recovering from a global climatic collapse which has destroyed modern technologies and reduced survivors to frantic daily scrabbling for existence.
The fatal trigger was a wandering planet which passed too near Earth, causing super-magnetic storms, monolithic gravity-induced tidal waves and a 40-day flood. In the aftermath pockets of humanity eke out a hard-fought life on isolated island enclaves, serviced by maritime explorers, mail-carriers and traders sailing between them.
‘The Future Past’ – scripted by author and screenwriter J. Aldric Gaudet (5 Fables for the Young at Heart, The Littlest Hobo) and illustrated by Paul Schultz of Jaded Dragon Studios – opens as one of those sailing ships docks at a particularly embattled colony.
Life is hard, trade is crucial and the grain harvest is disappointing. There’s worry that blue spore mould will decimate the specialised quick-growing crop but rather than carry what produce the farmers have, the mariners want to leave the precious sacks behind to salvage a stranded vessel and save pre-disaster books from being lost…
Young Digger and his dad are taking a sensible long view but the landsmen have a valid point too. If the grain is left behind the plague of giant Northland rats infesting the island will get it all and the growers will earn nothing in return…
Eventually a compromise is reached and the partners in peril retire to celebrate. Later when the ship sails, it carries fliers advertising the desperate need for a professional exterminator…
Life goes tenuously on but soon everything changes as a macabre individual arrives in a converted coach pulled by horses. It’s none too soon. The giant rodents are bold enough now to attack humans as they congregate in their meeting halls…
The vermin eradicator is frankly terrifying: employing savage dogs and bizarre bagpipes making an infernal din. He also drives a hard, harsh bargain but eventually a deal is struck.
Then all that’s left is herding the pests into a secure killing-zone where the farmers can safely destroy them but the over-eager growers also shoot the Ratcatcher’s dogs and refuse to recompense him for his loss…
It’s a stupid, venal mistake that will cost hem dearly…
After creating an explosive distraction the stranger steals all the children and babies; heading out and resolved to sell them in the thriving slave markets he frequents. In response the resource-poor community can only spare ten individuals to go after them. Everybody else has to stay to repair the incredible damage the stranger has left in his wake…
Before the children are saved and some sort of order is restored the rescuers will confront death and destruction at close hand and learn some shocking secrets about the rats and the grain everybody depends upon…
Stark, bleak, and relentlessly uncompromising, this suspenseful saga of the struggle for survival also shows the irresistible power of unity and offers a message of hope that will certainly impress all lovers of dystopic fiction.
© 2016 J. Aldric Gaudet. All rights reserved.