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Birya!
Agoradzo challenges the status quo of socially accepted ethics in this apocalyptic novel of ferocity and faith.
In the none-to-distant future, the Birya Corporation bioengineers a hybrid creature that can digest anything remotely organic and produce quality meat with unprecedented speed. The beasts are set free when enterprising individuals think they can raise them for themselves.
When all hell breaks out, normal defensive measures prove ineffective in destroying the beasts that only grow with every attempt to destroy them. As the infrastructures of nations collapse, the clock ticks towards the end of civilization and possibly the complete destruction of complex life on the planet.
With the entire world in peril, the only place of safety is a massive space station still under construction in earth's orbit. In the frenzy for survival, few recognize the blight of the Birya as a divine judgment on a wayward world. Yet as the crisis increasingly drives people to cry out for help wherever it may be found, a diverse group of unlikely heroes begin to emerge. An urchin from the impoverished coastland of Mexico. A murderer serving a life sentence in a state penitentiary. A diehard video-gamer and a nature-loving aquaponist. In spite of their many weaknesses, each as a special gift that, if used properly, can take the fight back to the Birya. As the tension intensifies and every avenue of hope fades, is there any redeeming the prodigal planet, or is total destruction inevitable?
While the story is entirely fictional, Agoradzo, writing during his own incarceration, maintains a chilling realism as to the dark side of human nature and the long, obstacle-ridden road to its redemption. A dreamer, storyteller and avid reader of space exploration, he incorporates many physics concepts that he speculates may contribute one day to off-world colonization. His wife and children reside near the prison where he is serving his sentence.
In the none-to-distant future, the Birya Corporation bioengineers a hybrid creature that can digest anything remotely organic and produce quality meat with unprecedented speed. The beasts are set free when enterprising individuals think they can raise them for themselves.
When all hell breaks out, normal defensive measures prove ineffective in destroying the beasts that only grow with every attempt to destroy them. As the infrastructures of nations collapse, the clock ticks towards the end of civilization and possibly the complete destruction of complex life on the planet.
With the entire world in peril, the only place of safety is a massive space station still under construction in earth's orbit. In the frenzy for survival, few recognize the blight of the Birya as a divine judgment on a wayward world. Yet as the crisis increasingly drives people to cry out for help wherever it may be found, a diverse group of unlikely heroes begin to emerge. An urchin from the impoverished coastland of Mexico. A murderer serving a life sentence in a state penitentiary. A diehard video-gamer and a nature-loving aquaponist. In spite of their many weaknesses, each as a special gift that, if used properly, can take the fight back to the Birya. As the tension intensifies and every avenue of hope fades, is there any redeeming the prodigal planet, or is total destruction inevitable?
While the story is entirely fictional, Agoradzo, writing during his own incarceration, maintains a chilling realism as to the dark side of human nature and the long, obstacle-ridden road to its redemption. A dreamer, storyteller and avid reader of space exploration, he incorporates many physics concepts that he speculates may contribute one day to off-world colonization. His wife and children reside near the prison where he is serving his sentence.
746 pages, Paperback
Published November 22, 2017
About the author
Philip Young
83 books5 followersPhilip Young is considered to be the first serious Ernest Hemingway scholar; indeed his scholarship brought him into conflict with Hemingway himself. In his 1948 biography of Hemingway, written for his doctoral dissertation, Young argued that Hemingway’s writing was strongly affected by an injury Hemingway received in 1918, while serving in World War I. Hemingway strongly objected to this theory, quoting him as saying, “How would you like it if someone said that everything you’d done in your life was because of some trauma?” Hemingway fought to have the publication of Young’s biography stopped, but after exchanging correspondence with Young, Hemingway agreed to let the book be published.
Young was a Harvard graduate, Fulbright Scholar and a fellow of the Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies. He taught at New York University and Kansas State University before joining the Penn State faculty in 1959. He was named Evan Pugh Professor of English at Penn State in 1981. He remained a professor of American literature at the Pennsylvania State University until his death in 1991 at the age of 73.
Young was a Harvard graduate, Fulbright Scholar and a fellow of the Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies. He taught at New York University and Kansas State University before joining the Penn State faculty in 1959. He was named Evan Pugh Professor of English at Penn State in 1981. He remained a professor of American literature at the Pennsylvania State University until his death in 1991 at the age of 73.
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