Gather the Kindred
Believing as I do that man in the distant future will be a far more perfect creature than he now is it is an intolerable thought that he and all other sentient beings are doomed to complete annihilation after such long-continued slow progress
-Charles Darwin
Some people believe the world is divided into socio-economic factions of “those-that-have” and “those-that-have-not” where the distribution of wealth is excessively uneven. The majority of the population is kept at bay encouraged not to pursue earthly happiness or a change in caste but instead to look forward to life after death. A variety of ideologies and cultures have thrived for thousands of years because of this fear of an esoteric god that watches judges and commands the masses promising paradise in the after-life. The rich get richer and more powerful while the poor serve an economic function and stay poor. This endless cycle creates the need for opiates like religious mythologies to maintain the status quo.
In David J. Graham’s novel Gather the Kindred “normal” human beings exist side-by-side with hominids superior beings that have evolved at a higher and faster level since man’s spawning. This elite group wants to topple the walls of ignorance oppression and bigotry. Their mission is to protect all mankind while preserving the earth’s eco-system through humanism and science.
Able to harness the full capacities of their minds the hominids possess telepathy telekinesis and other extra-sensory abilities. As if by predestination Graham’s protagonist Mathew Tremaine a reluctant messiah and the strongest telepath alive becomes the head of a super secret think tank made up of other talented and wealthy telepaths from all over the globe. Labeled as terrorists Tremaine’s group enters a metaphoric end-game with intelligence agencies combined under the leadership of Carl Enger Graham’s twenty-first century J. Edgar Hoover.
“Enger had little regard for eggheads” Graham writes. “Nor did he care for the nerdy name assigned to the group… ‘Paranormal Documentation’…might be construed as involvement in off-the-wall phenomena…when in fact its main function was basically the same as any other intelligence agency: covert reconnaissance of enemies of the state.”
Graham’s plot is as if Charlie McGee from Stephen King’s Firestarter and Danny Torrance from The Shining produced a bastard offspring who joined the X-Men with James Bond Al Gore and Noam Chomsky.
The author’s experience in journalism and public relations gives his writing a show-not-tell quality using fiction as a platform for political statements. His position on the environment and knowledge of science enhances his natural storytelling abilities.
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