Paul Di Filippo describes Ben Parzybok’s new novel, Sherwood Nation: “The book is obviously as headline-friendly as the Ferguson riots, inequality debates, Occupy protests and climate change reports; but there’s also a Joseph Conrad-Grahame Greene-Shakespeare style concern with the nature of power, the roles that are thrust upon us, and the limits of friendship and love.”
David writes, “Ben Parzybok joined me on the Between The Covers podcast to talk about the near-future drought-stricken nation within a city he created with Sherwood Nation, about how well or poorly democracies hold-up in times of crisis, and about how it feels to have a fantastical premise become a true reality in the course of writing a book.”
In drought-stricken Portland, Oregon, a Robin Hood-esque water thief is caught on camera redistributing an illegal truckload of water to those in need. Nicknamed Maid Marian—real name: Renee, a twenty-something barista and eternal part-time college student—she is an instant folk hero. Renee rides her swelling popularity and the public’s disgust at how the city has abandoned its people, raises an army . . . and secedes a quarter of the city. Sherwood Nation is the story of the rise and fall of a micronation within a city. It is a love story, a war story, a grand social experiment, a treatise on hacking and remaking government, on freedom and necessity, on individualism and community.
Talking Warlords and Water Rations with Ben Parzybok
(Thanks, David!)