EDEN FOUND

by Dustin Lawson

The Garden of Eden, a peaceful world formed from Creation, and Valdar, a harsh survival of the fittest world formed from evolution, have existed side by side with only a river separating them for earth’s entire 72 year existence. The two worlds have had no interaction because domed over Eden is Innocence Guard, an invisible protective energy field that keeps anything from leaving or entering the garden as long as Eden is innocent.


A half angel and half demon entity named Demjel sits in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil waiting to carry out his mission, which is to convince the first human sinner that their decision to eat forbidden fruit was a good choice. But in Eden’s 72 years neither Adam, Eve, nor any of their three hundred descendants have eaten forbidden fruit.


The story opens with Demjel performing his favorite hobby, restlessly mocking sinless Eden for how ignorant and boring it is. Then Eden’s newest couple, Ariel and Lena, consummates their relationship under the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, a practice that has always been done under the Tree of Life. That night, alone, one of them comes back to the tree and eats forbidden fruit, eliminating Eden’s sinlessness and destroying the protection of Innocence Guard.


Meanwhile, the most physically and mentally evolved creature in Valdar, a four armed flying self-aware beast named Sife, has been trying to find a way into Eden because he thinks the garden contains a higher level of evolution than what Valdar can provide for him. With Innocence Guard decimated he finally has his wish.


Will Valdar destroy Eden or will Adam find a way to restore Eden’s sinlessness, thus restoring Innocence Guard to full strength? Will Eve, feeling empowered by the knowledge of good and evil, thwart Adam’s goal of restoring Eden’s sinlessness? Will Demjel be able to show the first human sinner all the good that comes from having the knowledge of good and evil and in doing so convince the first human sinner that eating forbidden fruit was a good choice? Or will the first human sinner conclude that the evil of pain, death, and sin far outweigh the good of eating forbidden fruit? Why were these two worlds created side by side to begin with?

402 pages, Paperback

First published November 13, 2014

About the author

Dustin is from Ohio. Throughout high school and college he worked as a lion and tiger trainer at a big cat reservation and dreamt of becoming the next "Jungle" Jack Hannah. Instead, after college, Dustin spent a year traveling the world as the personal assistant to an author. During that year, he found his true calling as a writer. Dustin is a cancer survivor. Because of his history of cancer, the military rejected him 13 times over the span of five and a half years before finally letting him in. He is now a public affairs officer in the National Guard. Dustin also has a masters degree in Global Politics.