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The Eden Proposition Query Letter
What happens next? What now? As you watch the Gulf of Mexico being destroyed because of our insatiable appetite for oil and the uncompromised greed of the corporations who supply us, don’t you think it’s time we asked these fundamental questions?
Is this an isolated incident, an unfortunate accident – or does it portend our future? Many thoughtful people believe we are on the cusp of collapse due to our unsustainable consumption habits and our unabated population growth. Oil will run out soon. Our climate is changing dramatically. What happens next? What now?
Almost as frustrating as watching the Gulf being smothered in oil is our personal inability to do a damn thing about it. Will using a cloth grocery bag help? Who do I send a contribution to? And if I see another TV ad extolling the virtues of wind energy to wean us off foreign oil, I’m going to scream. After 30 years of “alternative energy” bluster, wind energy now accounts for a mere 5% of our electricity production. And remember, we don’t even use oil to produce electricity!
If you pay close attention to what the real scientists and the thoughtful long term thinkers (the ones without agendas) are now saying about our future, you begin to feel that they have a sense of quiet desperation. What must be done - cannot be done. The current culture of human beings is not set up to respond to a crisis of this nature. The failed Copenhagen climate summit is a perfect example. And unfortunately, by the time our culture realizes it has no other choices – it will be way too late.
In my novel The Eden Proposition (115k words) it is the year 2026. An enigmatic septuagenarian billionaire (Duval Dixon) has spirited away eleven distinguished people to a hidden retreat in the remote Queen Charlotte Islands off Canada’s west coast in order to ask an absurd and frightening question: Is it now time to reboot the human race?
The eleven are held captive, completely isolated and subjected to Dixon’s seemingly bizarre games until the full nature of their task is revealed. They must decide Dixon’s primal question. The debate that Dixon engages them in is spellbinding, and will forever alter the way the reader thinks about the world.
But Dixon’s carefully formulated plans soon begin to unravel and finally spiral out of control. The survival of the human race hangs in the balance.
Apocalypse, Armageddon, collapse, doom and gloom – this is a popular genre these days with many books and movies being produced. It is arguably a growing component of our collective unconscious. But unfortunately, most of these books and movies are just plain dumb.
Three things separate The Eden Proposition from all of these other mediocre efforts:
1) It is a “thinking man’s” apocalyptic tale. The ideas explored are thought-provoking in the extreme and are clearly expressed without being dumbed down.
2) The overall premise, the science behind the biological agent that Dixon has created, and all of the scenes at the CDC, are so realistically portrayed that in the end the story becomes chillingly scary. One reviewer has called it “an autopsy of the inevitable”. No suspension of disbelief is ever required.
There has never been an apocalyptic tale with this degree of realism and plausibility. Many readers have stated, and are fearful, that this really might happen.
3) And yet it is - more than anything else - a page-turning rollercoaster can’t-put-it-down thrill ride. Readers routinely tell me that they finish it in just a few days staying up and reading well into the morning.
The Eden Proposition was self-published by Amazon.com as a result of placing in Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Awards and has won recent acclaim from The Eric Hoffer Awards (commercial fiction, where it placed #1 in the commercial thriller genre) and the Indie Book Awards (best first novel category).
Below is the exact text of the official judge’s review from the recent Writer’s Digest Independently Published book awards:
"Excellent! Excellent! I loved this book! There are many, many things you did exactly right. Characters are so well set-up, well thought-out. The plot is extremely intriguing, especially in a day and age where wonder about the viability of the human race. Each chapter reveals just enough about what's coming that I just couldn't put it down. Which brings me to chapter length: perfect! The shorter chapters very much drive what is happening - they punctuate the anxiety in the story, the sense of urgency. Scientifically, I have no idea if a prion exists, but I sure didn't care because your scientific explanations were enough for me! Well-done!"
The author of The Eden Proposition, Kurt Dahl, has been a published columnist (Sunday Seattle Times) with his column and internet forum 2020world. Recently, he has had many controversial essays (dealing with population and the sustainability issue) circulated, reprinted and widely read on the internet. The Eden Proposition is his first novel. He is currently working on the sequel.
This is an important book. Please take a serious look at it. If published and made widely available it will ignite an essential conversation about our future that is presently not happening. So put down your cloth grocery bag, read this book, and help it to become a best seller. It is something that you can do.
Thank you for your time and consideration, it is greatly appreciated!
Kurt Dahl
kurtdahl45@hotmail.com
206-660-9781
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