Ersatz Nation by Tim Kenyon Subject: Science Fiction Publisher: Big Engine (UK) Edition Our Price inc. p&p Status first edition trade paperback, 247pp, ISBN 1903468078, 2002 UK only: £11.49 in stock

I would rate Ersatz Nation as a successful example of thoughtful (and thought-provoking) science fiction. For a first novel it is an impressive achievement Nick Austin, New English Library

Patrick Dolan has been assigned to abduct people from Earth into the Unation, a totalitarian yet strangely familiar world lying parallel to present-day Earth. After twelve years of loyal service to Mother Necessity, the entity that is the Unation's supreme ruler, Dolan is tempted by the freedoms and liberties shared by Earth's people. Even though on Earth he has become a kidnapper, and eventually a murderer, he feels more at home there than in the "paradise" of the Unation. Then one day Mother Necessity requires him to bring back three particular individuals – three very different children whose common point is that they have all killed someone.

Selmar Rayburne is a hollow shell of a man, the son of a former rebel against Mother who has paid for his ancestry with a ten-year lack of promotion. His twenty-year marriage is the only thing disintegrating faster than his desire to work harder for Mother. Until he is unaccountably promoted – the same day that his wife disappears with one of the Unation's founders. Selmar will do whatever it takes to win Sheila back, even if it means defying Mother.

Now forces are at work that can end Mother's rule, or perpetuate it forever. Dolan and Selmar find that they must not only confront their own humanity, but also the frightening realisation of Earth's manipulated past and the Unation's endangered but inevitable future. Their stories intertwine in a gripping narrative that not only provides adventure and great reading, but explores themes of illusion versus reality and the limits of freedom. Ersatz Nation is squarely in the tradition of that vital strand of science fiction that actually reflects the contemporary world and its problems in a fresh and satirical way.

The author
Tim Kenyon is a writer, editor, and publisher, making his living in theUnited States on the seacoast of New Hampshire. He is currently at work on his second novel as well as a teleplay for a new science fiction television series. In his spare time, Tim also runs Clockhouse Press, a publishing company for his alma mater, Goddard College.