“Red Sky at Morning: Nil Desperandum: Part I”

2020 Irvine, Alex[ander Christian] (b. 1969). “Red Sky at Morning: Nil Desperandum: Part I.” Ignorance is Strength: The Dystopia Triptych 1. Ed. John Joseph Adams, Hugh Howey, and Christine Yant (New York/London: Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press, 2020), 197-207. Followed by “Print the Legend: Nil Desperandum: Part II.” Burn the Ashes: The Dystopia Triptych 2. Ed. John Joseph Adams, Hugh Howey, and Christine Yant (New York/London: Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press, 2020), 191-206. Followed by “Blackberries: Nil Desperandum: Part III.” Or Else the Light: The Dystopia Triptych 3. Ed. John Joseph Adams, Hugh Howey, and Christine Yant (New York/London: Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press, 2020), 209-18. PSt

Dystopia in three parts that begins in a climate change dystopia in Downeast Maine. Fires fill the air with smoke. No power. Massive flooding. The protagonist is a woman raising her granddaughter. In the second part that granddaughter is trying to survive alone in her grandmother’s house in an area that has been taken over by vigilantes who kill all “foreigners,” but particular Blacks, ethnic minorities, and anyone gender nonconforming. The woman is part of an underground railroad hiding fugitives. In the third part, the last of those fugitives visits the remains of the burned-out house where the woman was killed trying to save her, a killing that started a revolt against vigilantes.