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Children of the Wasteland
464 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 28, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 5, 2026
Children of the Wasteland by Lucifer Vi’Matri is a bold and surreal queer fantasy horror novel with a very antagonistic protagonist and a brazenly fresh take on post-apocalyptic theme and setting. This is a complex and definitively transgressive story and is not for the easily upset or offended.
The tale is told by Lucifer, and as you can imagine, Lucifer pulls no punches in the telling. This dark and brutal story impactfully speaks to many real-life, real-world issues and does so in ways both thought-provoking and in-your-face blatant. It holds the human experience up to a funhouse mirror that distorts but doesn’t hide the ugliness or beauty.
Children of the Wasteland is a relentless, poignant, and powerful read, flowing with action, emotion, choices, and wicked twists that keep you guessing. Fans of transgressive fiction do not want to miss this one.
A Bibliophilia Templum review
https://bibliophiliatemplum.wordpress.com/2026/07/05/children-of-the-wasteland/
The tale is told by Lucifer, and as you can imagine, Lucifer pulls no punches in the telling. This dark and brutal story impactfully speaks to many real-life, real-world issues and does so in ways both thought-provoking and in-your-face blatant. It holds the human experience up to a funhouse mirror that distorts but doesn’t hide the ugliness or beauty.
Children of the Wasteland is a relentless, poignant, and powerful read, flowing with action, emotion, choices, and wicked twists that keep you guessing. Fans of transgressive fiction do not want to miss this one.
A Bibliophilia Templum review
https://bibliophiliatemplum.wordpress.com/2026/07/05/children-of-the-wasteland/
September 2, 2026
Children of the Wasteland by Lucifer is one of the novels that should probably come with trigger warnings because of, among other things, its unflinching portrayal of sexual assault against a child and an incestuous one at that. This sensitive subject, though, is dealt with in a nuanced manner.
Hugh Aaron is one of the best-written protagonists I have encountered in a while. He is a genius and is filled with hatred for humanity. The story is told mainly in two threads. One is about the events after the end of the world, where Hugh is the only survivor, now forced to deal with angels and gods. The other is a much more human version where we learn about his past, his childhood, his falling in love, his gender identity confusion, etc.
Perhaps because of these traumatic experiences, or perhaps because it was his very nature, Hugh comes across as manipulative, with psychopathic tendencies.
“Cowardice, that is my flaw… I am a coward. If I just kill her right now, she cannot bring me pain. This body I’m wearing is five years old. There is no way I can get in trouble for it… I probably wouldn’t even be suspected if I used the right weapon. If I were to shove a battery down her throat, they would automatically assume Sarah’s death was a product of her own stupidity. Of course, Sarah is not stupid enough to swallow a battery on purpose, but her intellect would only need to drop a teensy bit to make that a reality. Mother and Father are not exactly the best judges of intelligence.”
He also has a way of calling out the hypocrisy of others around him in long, eloquent monologues. For example, to his teacher:
“Your mind is akin to ash scattered in a cyclone. The fruit of knowledge was wasted on you. You’ve never had an original thought in your life.”
He genuinely believes that he could do a better job at creating the world than God. In this respect, and in some other respects, he is a little like Light Yagami from Death Note.
The author also does a wonderful job building an alternate mythology based on prevalent Christian and Abrahamic beliefs. Among the cast of characters is Lucifer himself — not to be confused with the author, who shares his name. Here is how Lucifer describes how he and his friend, Yahweh, went about creating new worlds:
“We set out to create a world of eternal peace. Life was to be filled with knowledge and an insatiable thirst to end ignorance, a healthy thirst for a human to have. I told him that wisdom breeds order… That was our goal for some time. However, certain knowledge can corrupt even the kindest of souls.”
The prose is decent most of the time and sparkles in many chapters:
“My mama told me, ‘Lial, honey, crime don’t pay nothing at all.’
I slapped that sweet slut across the mouth, and I said,
‘Mama, it does if you have big enough balls!’ I ran from the house singing of death and blood-soaked dolls.
Soaring through the sky like a matricidal angel never to fall.
Thinking to myself, ‘death finds all, even timid little Kiddy No Gall.’”
Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is not triggered by the themes and motifs.
Hugh Aaron is one of the best-written protagonists I have encountered in a while. He is a genius and is filled with hatred for humanity. The story is told mainly in two threads. One is about the events after the end of the world, where Hugh is the only survivor, now forced to deal with angels and gods. The other is a much more human version where we learn about his past, his childhood, his falling in love, his gender identity confusion, etc.
Perhaps because of these traumatic experiences, or perhaps because it was his very nature, Hugh comes across as manipulative, with psychopathic tendencies.
“Cowardice, that is my flaw… I am a coward. If I just kill her right now, she cannot bring me pain. This body I’m wearing is five years old. There is no way I can get in trouble for it… I probably wouldn’t even be suspected if I used the right weapon. If I were to shove a battery down her throat, they would automatically assume Sarah’s death was a product of her own stupidity. Of course, Sarah is not stupid enough to swallow a battery on purpose, but her intellect would only need to drop a teensy bit to make that a reality. Mother and Father are not exactly the best judges of intelligence.”
He also has a way of calling out the hypocrisy of others around him in long, eloquent monologues. For example, to his teacher:
“Your mind is akin to ash scattered in a cyclone. The fruit of knowledge was wasted on you. You’ve never had an original thought in your life.”
He genuinely believes that he could do a better job at creating the world than God. In this respect, and in some other respects, he is a little like Light Yagami from Death Note.
The author also does a wonderful job building an alternate mythology based on prevalent Christian and Abrahamic beliefs. Among the cast of characters is Lucifer himself — not to be confused with the author, who shares his name. Here is how Lucifer describes how he and his friend, Yahweh, went about creating new worlds:
“We set out to create a world of eternal peace. Life was to be filled with knowledge and an insatiable thirst to end ignorance, a healthy thirst for a human to have. I told him that wisdom breeds order… That was our goal for some time. However, certain knowledge can corrupt even the kindest of souls.”
The prose is decent most of the time and sparkles in many chapters:
“My mama told me, ‘Lial, honey, crime don’t pay nothing at all.’
I slapped that sweet slut across the mouth, and I said,
‘Mama, it does if you have big enough balls!’ I ran from the house singing of death and blood-soaked dolls.
Soaring through the sky like a matricidal angel never to fall.
Thinking to myself, ‘death finds all, even timid little Kiddy No Gall.’”
Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is not triggered by the themes and motifs.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews