Date of Award

2013

Thesis Type

Rollins Access Only

Degree Name

Master of Liberal Studies

Advisor(s)

Alan Nordstrom

Second Advisor

Philip Deaver

Abstract

The New Dawn Trilogy is a non-linear, asymmetrical triplet of post-apocalyptic and anthropological science fiction stories. The first, “New Dawn,” details the adventures of a 15-year-old girl making her way in a post-apocalyptic world by working as a scav, or scavenger, for a small community of survivors on the Virginia – North Carolina line, just north of the Great Dismal Swamp. One day she discovers an old abandoned freighter run aground on the James River. She searches the derelict ship and finds something that changes everything: an ancient African temple, disassembled stone block by stone block and loaded into the cargo hold. The second story, “Return of the Uk-Duk,” is actually a prequel to the first, but must be read second. It is a translation of an eleven-thousand-year-old scroll documenting the arrival of a team of scientists and technicians from a planet in the Betelgeuse system of the Constellation Orion. They have come to mentor and nurture humans crossing the newly-formed Bering Land Bridge into the Americas. The third tale, “From Dusk to Dawn,” is the shortest of the three; it serves as a bridge between the end of “Return of the Uk-Duk” and the beginning of “New Dawn.” The trilogy is written under the nom de plume Wickett d’Orion. The accompanying essay discusses the vast amount of multi-disciplinary research conducted in order to make the story as scientifically sound as possible.

TrilogyEssay.pdf (307 kB)
The Making of “New Dawn,” “Return of the Uk-Duk,” & “From Dusk to Dawn”

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