Revel In Fire

by Samson Okalow

In 2051, Thierry is a project manager who has self-exiled to an Arizona abandoned in the wake of nuclear disaster and climate change. There he spends more time grieving the freak death of his lover than on his assignment to decommission the bomb shelter buried in the forbidding Mount Errus. He’s puzzled by strange visions hinting at a special connection to Zachariah, a god living as an infamous visual artist who creates inexplicably affecting “sense art” and who unofficially leads a back-to-Africa movement.

When nuclear conflict breaks out, Thierry and three other survivors are thrown together inside the shelter with Zachariah’s opposite, a charismatic white supremacist who calls himself John. With the power to create sense art of his own, John’s steadily building work promises to destroy both Thierry and Zachariah, and manifest its genocidal intent for the planet in real life. A lyrical, psychedelic take on good versus evil, Revel In Fire is a meditation on the destruction caused by racism, the yearning among the African diaspora to escape it, and the inevitable consequences of the choices we make.

262 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 19, 2025

About the author

I'm a long-time journalist by profession and creative writer by passion. I'm the sort of person who mentally corrects incorrectly spelled storefront signage in his head as he walks down a street. Also, I appreciate a good croissant. And they're surprisingly hard to find.

You can read the first chapter of my dystopian speculative fiction novel, Revel In Fire (as well as watch some of my video noodlings) here: The Sinking Sun.