It was only a matter of time

While I was doing my Masters of Arts studies in military history I couldn’t help but be drawn to the Crusades era. Regardless of your individual religious convictions I found the attraction undeniable. Perhaps it was my own experiences in the Middle East that helped shape my ideas. I have walked between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, stood on the ziggarut of Ur, and seen Abraham’s gardens (supposedly). I spent months of my life Mosul with the 101st Airborne Division (in what was once the city of Nineveh). I been to the Khyber Pass. Walked lands that Alexander the Great once did.

This might seem impressive but I was getting shot at for a good portion of that time. What strikes me as most interesting is the way man has continued to use God’s name to justify killing. There is a line in an old Megadeth song that goes “killing for religion- something I don’t understand.” And I don’t. If everyone believes in God why do they feel the need to propagate violence?

There is no denying that we are a violent race. Always have been- always will be. Peace is the great lie we tell ourselves before going to sleep. But is God violent? If you believe the Old Testament, damned straight he was. It is this conundrum that I used to approach my latest series of books: The Sleeping Gods. Set in a distant galaxy where man struggles to maintain an empire wrought from the ashes of the gods, there is general unrest.

I’m not going to get into any spoilers but the main point of the story is a single question. Do we, as people, need God to exist in order to advance our species? And what would happen if the beings we worshipped as Gods were nothing more than an earlier race that had already found extinction?

Don’t get me wrong. This is a knock-down brawl spread across 700 worlds with plenty of political intrigue and military action. I value all of your opinions and would love to see what you think of a little (ok long, very long) diddy I call Dreams of Winter. Read on my friends.

http://www.amazon.com/Dreams-Winter-Sleeping-Gods-Tale-ebook/dp/B00V8N2VA/