“People had been expecting the world to end for so long that no one really noticed when it did”

Jamie Mollart is the author of The Zoo (an Amazon Rising Star) and Kings of a Dead World (an Amazon bestseller). He’s a member of Nottingham Writers Studio and the Climate Fiction Writers League, and mentors new authors.

A regular guest on the Litopia podcast, he’s also written for Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook and The Bookseller, and appeared on BBC radio. He runs an award-winning advertising agency. His debut film, The Unlock, is in post-production, and his screenplay for The Zoo has won multiple awards. His third novel, Like Son, is complete, with a fourth in progress.

“A challenging dystopia for our time.’ Aliya Whiteley’s words on the back cover of Mollart’s novel piqued my interest. Picking the book off the shelf, after the bright green spine caught my eye, I didn’t recognise the name, the title, or even recall how I had a acquired it, but Whiteley’s words hinted to me that I would probably like it… so I climbed into the pages to find out more.

Immediately we are introduced to Ben, an 82-year-old man who is waking up from The Sleep. Initially the narrative is a little disorientating, and it feels like you have been plunged into the story part way through. Which is clearly intentional, and this quickly becomes apparent. Ben and his wife Rose have survived the end of the world as we know it and exist in the government mandated Sleep project, I say ‘exist’ because it isn’t what any of us would call living, and is exactly as grim as it sounds. The world is running out of resources, and there simply isn’t enough to go around, those in charge club together and decide the answer is Drug Induced Sleep. Everyone will be required to sleep for 3 months, then have a one-month awake period. This sleep state is NOT a stasis or hyper-sleep state that we see in other Science Fiction (which might include stunted aging, slowing or stopping of bodily functions, and even extending life-spans), The Sleep is simply a drug induced sleep during which one still seems to heal, age, grow finger nails, grow hair, sweat and perform various other ordinary functions whilst hooked up to life support. The Sleep means that ordinary people living in the cities will sleep for three fourths of their life (not including ordinary sleep), and we are introduced to Ben and this broken world at the end of a three-month stint.

Rip Van thanks me for my commitment to The Sleep and I dutifully, robotically say, ‘you’re welcome.’

Hilariously, The Sleep’s mascot appears to be an old wise man with a long wispy beard called Rip Van, immediately hinting that the world continues-on whilst people Sleep, much like the world within Washington Irving’s 1819 short story. This obvious nod towards Irving’s story prepares the reader for a narrative riddled with revolution and the significant changes experienced that revolution and political unrest bring.  Ben’s wife Rose is suffering from Dementia or Alzheimer’s, and Ben is struggling to juggle all the necessary chores, Rose’s needs, his own, and Rose’s condition with no social care or medical help available. Additionally, he is wrecked with guilt over something that happened before The Sleep began, and he is desperate to confess to Rose, but he fears it is too late. 

“There’s so little left of you in your still beautiful eyes.”

Additional to Ben’s narrative, we are also offered the narrative of one of the few humans who does not have to commit to The Sleep, Peruzzi. Peruzzi is the cities Janitor. The Janitor appears to be the man-in-charge, or the man-behind-the-curtain. He watches the city and it’s inhabitants through monitors and sensors, seeking out unrest and disturbances – and should any arise, he put’s them to sleep. Whilst inhabitants Sleep, Peruzzi utilises all his skills to trade resources with other Janitors all other world, to earn creds (money) for his Sleepers in the city. All the creds he earns are distributed evenly between all inhabitants. Peruzzi and his fellow Janitors appear to believe they at the chosen few, the most important few, to watch over The Sleepers, and ultimately be in charge. 

“Look at us. We’re fucking kings!” he shouts. “Kings of a dead world.”

As the story proceeds, and things inevitably become extremely chaotic and dark, with terrifyingly realistic consequences, we gradually learn more about how this world came to be, and those who were trying to prevent it. 

Ben and Rose were part of the NSF – natural selection front, who followed an eccentric leader who: ‘was opposing the idea that we were children and the government knew best. It was simple but powerful. We were adults and should be allowed to make our own choices, even if those choices were wrong.’  The NSF were fighting against the ideas the government were throwing around to combat the resources issue (euthanizing the elderly, murderers and anyone who was terminally ill etc.) As things became more desperate and the government began to act, the NFS wrote a manifesto, shot up a bank, and got the word out to the many:

They will make us look like criminals or lunatics, they will claim we are terrorists and villains. That is the not the case. We were peaceful demonstrators against a genuine wrong. It was the authorities who took up arms against us and we represent you, so they in turn took up arms against all of you.

As Mollart paints the bleak and gloomy picture of this possible future, one is reminded of other narratives that provoke emotive responses. Ben and Rose’s relationship is told to us through a written journal / letter, similar to Noah and Allie’s narrative within “The Notebook,” the 2004 film based on the 1996 Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name. The grim and decaying British landscape described echoes of P.D. James’ Children of Men, in which no more children are being conceived or born, so whilst the population ages and dies, so does the world around them. The realism sewn into this dystopian version of the world conjure up scenes from Hugh Howie’s ‘Wool’ Trilogy (or, Apple’s ‘Silo’ series), of a community who endures a poisoned world, by living in giant vaults underground (called Silo’s). 

Kings of a Dead World feels unique due to Mollart’s vibrance and style, but also feels familiar due to the recognisable themes throughout. Having said that, the narrative and storyline is anything but generic or commonplace, with a twist I genuinely didn’t see coming. Mollart’s novel has expert world-building, an unusual momentum, and a bunch of immoral and slightly unhinged humans trapped in a world that no one would want to reside in.

Kings of a Dead World is available now, you can order your copy on Bookshop.org