Yes! I have NOT forgotten about the New Author Feature Series! It’s back and I have several left to do! For those of you who are curious, last week marked the beginning of my second semester in grad school. Add to that all the work I’ve put in getting The New Authors Fellowship blog up and running, work, and my life as a full-time Dad and husband… and well, I’ve been pretty busy. But things are settling down now, so here we go again!
I was quiet pleased and intrigued to see a novel like System City in the Marcher Lord Press Premise Contest. To me it stood out as a future utopian-wanna-be type though definitively Christian novel, along the lines of Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World. Add to that a nice healthy dose of William Gibson style cyberpunk implant technology… and well, I don’t think Christian fiction has ever seen anything like this. Suffice it to say, I enjoyed all the material presented for this book, and would like to have seen more.
What inspired such a story? Well, author Colin Moore says:
“System City was partly inspired by Orwell’s 1984 and Lois Lowry’s The Giver. I wanted to envision my own future dystopia, which might reflect the increasing influence of technology on modern society. Ultimately, this comes down to a sort of battle between faith and secularization.”
“Let me explain… no, there is too much. Let me sum up.” (10 cool points to the person who can name that movie quote.) System City is an Orwell/Asimov/Dekker book. Or if you prefer, a Huxley/Gibson/Peretti book. Got the picture now? Good. Let’s all give Colin Moore our prayers and our support as he seeks to perfect this manuscript and find a publisher. System City was a 2009 Marcher Lord Press Premise Contest Finalist, finishing in the top ten of forty-nine entries.
Colin Moore currently studies Industrial Psychology and plans to pursue a career in human resources. Although System City is his first finished novel, he has attempted three other novels since childhood. One of these is about a young boy who gets lost in a fantastic, dreamlike world, along the lines of Alice in Wonderland or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
You can plug in with him here… http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/System-City/238962417452?ref=nf
And now, here’s a little taste of what you can look forward to when System City finally secures a publisher.
The City is sterile: no dirt, no violence, no God.
The System runs the City flawlessly. The buildings are white, towering, smooth and seamless. People live in utter certainty, unable to grasp death, hatred or God. However, one young woman makes an error; Corna somehow falls asleep outside of her designated sleeping compartment. She discovers dreaming, and although the dreams alarm her, she schemes to dream again in search of ideas she can feel, but cannot understand. The dreams lead her to the Forest, where vegetation looms behind indomitable glass walls. If only she could get past the glass, where a world of sweat, fear and love awaits…
The New Authors Fellowship 
“The Princess Bride!” she cried.
Thank you for my 10 cool points..:)
I was deeply intriqued by “System City” in the premise contest–loved it from the beginning along with “I Am Ocilla” and “Dying for Dragons” and “Winter” and…and…golly, there were just so many good ones.
But System City stood out with a very srong storyline and I hope to see it published soon.
Love the cover, Keven. Is it your own design?
Just want to say thank you for this blog. I know how time consuming it can be. I enjoy keeping up with all the authors from the contest. It was a great experience.
Blessings on Winter. It sounds poignant and timely and I’m positive the Lord has something wonderful in store concerning this tale.
Julia
Actually it is my design. It’s for non-commercial use only because the building is a REAL building, believe it or not, in Dubai. I’m sure they have a copyright on the using the image of their design.