Introducing Mutual Ascent: A Personal Dissent

Every author hopes to make an impact with their work. Writers of dystopian science fiction, such as myself, hope that their work will serve as a prescient warning to humanity about the possible consequences awaiting them should they ignore cause and effect or disregard history.

The Hope of Being Wrong

If an author of dystopian science fiction succeeds, their writings become something future generations find almost comical, at least some works. It will feel strange to them that such a thing was ever thought possible or even probable. Yet often times dystopian ideas arise from ominous trends the author observed during their lifetime.

While most authors don’t want their writing to be ridiculed or scorned, I write dystopian science fiction hoping that this work will provoke a response that helps lead to an awareness of an issue threatening humanity and the eventual solution to it, thus ensuring the dystopia stays fiction.

My debut novel, Mutual Ascent, does not paint a flattering picture of society. It’s a cold world where men and women have become increasingly disconnected from one another, elites use technology to rule their lives, classism is reinforced by the laws which govern society, and religion is effectively banned and forced out of the public sphere. To speak publicly about religion or to share it with others is punishable by death.

A Rallying Cry for Our Mutual Ascent

This is where I see humanity heading, but I hope my words will paint such a vivid picture of the reality of what such a world will look like that people will be motivated to Dissent against it, as the series title suggests.

Though dark, this novel should not be understood as a condemnation of the human race. If I held no hope that humanity’s better side could overcome the other side despite the odds increasingly stacked against it, I would not have bothered to write it at all. There would be no point in warning people if the outcome were inevitable.

In fact, I write in large part to combat fatalism. Mine is merely another flawed perspective that my pen records, but I never graduated from pessimist to fatalist.

It is my intention that this book be a harbinger to a rallying cry for those who, like me, wish to issue their own personal Dissent against such a future. This book is a starting point for our Mutual Ascent.

Join the Dissenters Community

Those who wish to join me are encouraged to sign up for my mailing list at https://phillipwpool/mutual-ascent so they can be notified when the book is ready for release. Those who do sign up will be receiving teasers, sample chapters, and guides to join me in becoming an active participant in shaping humanity’s future so that we don’t have to live out a future where a person’s worth is measured only by the score on a test, or their level of productivity, or their ability to encourage others to purchase what is being produced instead of what’s in their hearts.