Title: The Philodendrist Heresy (look for the next in the series, The Entropy Heresy)
Category: Science fiction
Publication: March 12, 2012
Author: Jed Brody
Cover artist: Linnea Paskow
This novel is out of print. The Philodendrist Heresy is one of our first titles to be acquired by our partner Stormbird Press. Please watch their site for ordering information.
Jed Brody wrote The Philodendrist Heresy as a call for the preservation and resurrection of the great forests of the earth. “Philodendrist” means “tree lover.”
In The Philodendrist Heresy, Danielle Gasket’s search for ancestral secrets is imperiled by warring factions that agree about nothing but that Danielle must die.
Danielle’s home is a dystopian city beneath the earth’s surface. People have lived underground for so long that knowledge of the surface is preserved only in dwindling communities of persecuted heretics. According to the heretics, a prophet called “the philodendrist” led people underground to repent for their violent conquest of the natural world.
Following a string of clues while eluding pursuit, Danielle races toward the long-forgotten path of ascension to sunlight, relying upon her wits and valor to make it through. Finally, her mercy toward her fiercest persecutor convinces him to help her ascend to the pure waters of the sunlit world.
Reviews
Welcome to the bizarre and chilling world of a subterranean future where all your needs have been anticipated and provided by society’s long dead planners . . . except freedom. You’ll cheer Brody’s plucky heroine on as she makes her break for a rumored heaven somewhere beyond her familiar hell – the very heaven we are now foolishly destroying, tree by tree.
–Stephen Wing, author of Free Ralph! An Evolutionary Fable
With her acerbic wit and unsettled intestines, Danielle Gasket may make an unlikely heroine. But her arduous journey, from techno-dystopia to a full embrace of the natural world, offers a necessary parable for our ecologically troubled times.”
–Kyle Kramer, organic farmer and author of A Time to Plant: Life Lessons in Work, Prayer, and Dirt
Author Jed Brody teaches physics at Emory University and has published short stories in Atlanta’s weekly newspaper Creative Loafing. He has also published ten peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals, including American Journal of Physics and Journal of Chemical Education.
Jed is donating all of his royalties to Sustainable Harvest International. See a great article on Jed’s vision for this book, from Emory University.
Other mentions: Jed on Sustainability Initiative, The Physics of a Philodendrist, Jed at Physics Today.
