Knocking on Heaven’s Door
By Sharman Apt Russell. Yucca/Skyhorse Publishing: New York, 2016.
Knocking on Heaven’s Door is an eco science fiction set in a Paleoterrific future.
In the 23rd century, humans live in utopia, hunting and gathering in tribal bands, reunited with old (cloned) friends like the mammoth and saber-toothed cat, connected by solar-powered laptops, buoyed by the belief in a panpsychic universe in which consciousness pervades matter. A 150 years after the supervirus that killed off most of humanity, our return to a Paleoterrific lifestyle seems to be our last, greatest achievement. But in this new Garden of Eden, one man and one woman—as well as a smarter-than-average dire-wolf–are faced with a decision that could literally transform the planet. Again. Will we repeat the cycle of curiosity and hubris? Or is our destiny even stranger than that?
“An intriguing and compelling tale of humanity struggling to recover its indigenous allegiance to Earth and Earth Law despite the genie of physical science having well and truly escaped from the bottle.” —Freya Matthews, author of For Love of Matter: a Contemporary Panpsychism
“A voice keenly in tune with the discourses of science, ecology, rhetoric, and spirituality… Russell’s vision of tomorrow imagines sobering consequences – and pathways to possible solutions – to the crises we face today. –Michael R. Page, author of Frederik Pohl and The Literary Imagination from Erasmus Darwin to H.G. Wells: Science, Evolution, and Ecology
“Russell’s intelligence and imagination shine. Knocking on Heaven’s Door explores the boundaries of what is possible in science, at the same time deeply reflecting on our place in a world we share with so many other beings.” –Eric C. Otto, author of Green Speculations: Science Fiction and Transformative Environmentalism
“Like Ursula K. Le Guin and Kim Stanley Robinson, Sharman Apt Russell tells stories of human reorientation within a radically reanimated world… an urgent story that immerses the reader in the agonizing entanglements and wonders of being.” —Gib Prettyman, Pennsylvania State University, Associate Editor, Resources for American Literary Study
“Sharman Apt Russell’s vibrant new novel will enthrall readers with its vision of a future in which animism, panpsychism and hard science come together to show us how the forces shaping consciousness and the universe are one and the same.” —Imre Szeman, co-author of After Globalization
Sharman Apt Russell is a longtime professor at Western New Mexico University and Antioch University in L.A. She is the award-winning author of numerous essays, short stories, and books, including Hunger and An Obsession with Butterflies. Additionally, she was the recipient of the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, the New Mexico Zia Award, and the Rockefeller Fellowship. She lives in Silver City, New Mexico.
