Why the most radical fiction in the world has yet to be banned.

Catch it if you can, or if you dare

“It is hard to believe that a book which contains child abuse, sexual torture, various murders and other mayhem, occult practices and underage soft-core fashion modelling could be so inspiring. But it is, and very much so. I want to be the heroine of this book though I wouldn't want to go through what she has to in order to attain her legendary status. Way more than your average teen adventure story, as serious things about love, belief and family sparkle throughout. My 4 stars reflects that the heroine might be a little too amazing. And this is apparently just the start of an epic saga. On the hunt for volume 2! Move over Sabrina, Kristen Anne Smythe has arrived.”

So says a certified buyer on Amazon about volume 1 of the Kristen-Seraphim Saga, an eleven volume 5500 page contemporary fantasy sci-fi epic which deconstructs and then utterly destroys the metaphysical traditions of Western consciousness. Along the way, some fifty thousand people are murdered, God tells the main heroine that He in fact killed Himself, whole planets are self-annihilated and our shared culture faces up to the essence of its most challenging conflict: who speaks the truth?

“Forgetting the Dreamtime is Book 1 of the Kristen-Seraphim Saga and opens with a teen protagonist rebelling against her evangelical parents' many rules. Kristen's stubbornness and mutinous attitude actually serves her well in the scenario that evolves to place her at odds not just with her parents, but against a threat to everything she loves. Forgetting the Dreamtime is a young adult coming of age story that holds complex situations, language, and relationships between Kristen, her parents, and her inner voice. While adolescent correction is one of the guiding purposes to her parents' lives, Kristen is a rebel who can't be controlled. Nothing is beyond her grasp, whether it be a best friend/lesbian relationship, a defiant attitude towards religious oppression, or forward progress in a new domestic relationship with Mike. When Mike discovers the truth about her age, he's hit with a combination of horror and admiration that creates further conflict, while a "meet the parents" dinner is replete with religious back-and-forth jockeying that will spark a smile in readers who may find familiar the counterstrikes and innuendos of family struggles at the dinner table. Spiced by Kristen's observations of impossible things around her and larger questions of an evolving battle between good and evil, the story marches into unusual territory and becomes something much more than the journeys of a rebellious, spunky teen. Mature teens to new adult readers will find Forgetting the Dreamtime difficult to easily peg. The combination of quest saga, coming of age story, fantasy elements, and the reality of complex family and love relationships will not only appeal on a broader level than the usual teen read, but injects questions and perspectives that lead readers to think about Kristen's directions and choices. It should be cautioned that racy language and situations are embedded in this candid, striking story. The author doesn't overuse these elements (they are all key to building story line and characters), but they do elevate the story to audiences who can handle a story of evolving sexuality and spiritual inspection. Readers seeking a multifaceted tale that is intriguing, involving, and filled with confrontation and evolution will delight in Forgetting the Dreamtime, a chronicle that is racy, lively, and hard to put down.”

And this from Mid-West Book Reviews, who go on to review the next two volumes of the saga as well. And although the reviewer misunderstands the nature of the conflict - indeed, ‘good and evil’ are surpassed and mated to one another in Nietzschean fashion; a true ‘marriage of light and dark’ - it is amusing to note how they are challenged by the hybrid character of the narrative and its various settings. Well, so what are we to do with this novel wisdom? We didn’t kill God after all, He did it Himself; ‘the ugly’. Good and evil are actually siblings, made manifest in Kristen; ‘the good’, and her dark sister Seraphim; ‘the bad’.

Replete with violent action that makes a Clint Eastwood western pale into a pastel sunset, the opener of Kristen-Seraphim has elicited other comments as well, if ad hoc: “It’s quite dark, I don’t think I can continue.” (14 year old female who managed chapter 1). “Very shocking; the best horror novel I’ve ever read.” (17 year old male who did ‘peg’ it, if completely adrift). “I really can’t read something like this right now given my life.” (17 year old female who admitted reading only the first scene). “This is unique and goes far beyond any other fantasy or sci-fi series out there, and I am heavily into both genres and know them well. Nothing touches it, nothing is even close.” (16 year old transgendered person who read the first three volumes). “I love it. The pure verve of adolescent mayhem is so refreshing for someone my age. Makes you think, too.” (66 year old female who read the first six volumes). “Not my thing at all. Brutal. But well written. I’m just not into fantasy, no matter how real it is.” (40 year old female who -nonetheless - read the first five volumes)

And so on. When I look at the list of banned or censored books, so oft reproduced in these decadent days of ours, I just laugh. Their tame, tepid, even vapid quality suggests that perhaps there might be less lost than the intrepid freedom fighter, arming herself against the apparent neo-fascists, might imagine. Maybe a lot less. In the meanwhile, Kristen-Seraphim sails on unmolested. Perhaps its too radical to even be recognizable. Perhaps its simply, and even vacantly, ‘ahead of its time’. Or perhaps it has no time at all, having vanquished everything else we pretend to hold dear to ourselves and our society; the State, the school, the church, morality, even ethics as it has been known. Marriage, the family, property both public and private alike, genders of all sorts, and good manners to boot. The fetish of the past and that of the supposed future, the addiction to technology and the faith in the machine messiah, religion and belief, humanity’s parochial condition, God and the Devil estranged siblings, once antique brothers now contemporary sisters, and the stunning revelation that love is in fact a value neutral thing; ‘many-splendored’ yes, but entirely bereft of conscience.

Speaking of being ‘woke’, there’s actually a lot more to it. So if you’re looking for a real adventure, one that you’re already hurtling along with unwittingly, and the whole world likewise, look no further.

G.V. Loewen is the author of over 55 books in ethics, education, aesthetics, health and social theory as well as fiction. he was professor of the interdisciplinary human sciences for over two decades.