Blog Archives
WHEN IS LOVE A COMMODITY?
At Liverpool University in the 1960s, males and females are rated for pairing off by their looks and wealth. Martin Knox satirises love as a commodity exchangeable for money. When student Tom realises that he needs money he hasn’t got to pair off with Vicki, the university girl he wants, he takes a payment from another student and relinquishes her until the end of the year, when his own prospects will be better. But Vicki overturns the scheme and he has to go alone to a good job with a large oil company in Canada.
The couple stay in touch, even when he marries a Canadian and has children. Although he is faithful, he still yearns for Vicki and wants to be with her in England.
Their relationship continues to develop while he is flying between meetings in his position of Chief Executive Officer. Vicki is active opposing unethical corporate behaviour and she clashes with Tom when his company’s oil is taken from a famine-stricken African country. Tom tries to bypass the corrupt government. In Canada, he confronts the government’s mismanagement of oil resources.
The story reveals how a large corporation deals with ethical dilemmas and how they affect an oil exporting country. Tom and Vicki are united in their intention to relieve the famine. The story is fast moving, with the couple involved in various aspects of corporate decision making in Canada and the UK. Will they at last become partners?
Short of Love is available from Amazon https://tinyurl.com/55auwemv Reviews and excerpts are available on the blog: martinknox.com
INDIGENOUS LEADERSHIP OF SECULAR AUSTRALIA
The Grass is Always Browner is an epic speculative fiction novel by Martin Knox.
Australia 250 years in the future has a democratically elected government led by the Yabras, an indigenous dynasty with a gene for sharing.
Abajoe, 21, lives with family members in an empty apartment building in Meanjin, the almost deserted state capital city, evacuated after famine and flooded by rise in sea level. He grows food hydroponically and experiments with hybrid meat animals, half rabbit and half possum, to discover limits to population growth by dynamic modelling under harsh Australian conditions, with grass always browned by drought. His findings influence immigration policy and relations with Bhakaria, a crowded neighbouring sectarian nation, with large population and territorial ambitions. The epic story follows his life and loves as Prime Minister in a culturally divided nation, surviving by insurrection and forging a new future for all the people learning from sectarian conflict in history.
Australia is small in population and needs a unified response to external threats.
Martin Knox lives in Australia and has authored seven novels on various topics. This book has a manifesto for a new Australia under scientific government. It extrapolates recent trends and learns from famous leaders, such as Nelson Mandela.
Book available on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/yc5mzmm8
For reviews and other writing see author blog: martinknox.com
WHEN NEIGHBOURS COME TO STAY
250 years in the future, Australia’s small densely populated neighbouring country Bhakaria could cast envious eyes on large and sparsely populated Australia. Martin Knox has written a speculative fiction novel The Grass Is Always Browner.
Immigration is discouraged by Australia’s harsh climate and by strict border controls. Nevertheless, workers enter and a religion Yamism grows, with a majority of Australians becoming followers.
The nation has suffered severe droughts and famines, dispersing city populations for self-sufficiency. Low-lying areas are flooded by rising sea levels.
The story follows the epic rise of the Yabras, an indigenous family who become a dynasty ruling democratically with science.
Will Prime Minister Abajoe be able to limit immigration, end religious conflict, prevent civil war and maintain peaceful relations with Bhakaria? Siti, a feisty Bhakarian woman activist, becomes his partner.
The story continues through 50 years, with dystopian realism and rearrangement of the institutional furniture to accommodate future Australian society, trending now.
Abajoe leads his people to avert conflict, copying strategies that worked for historic statesmen: Chiang Kaishek, Mandela, Ghandi, De Valera and Parnell. Will he be able to create lasting peace?
The book is 462 pages of relevant content, delivered with page turning at a brisk pace.
Available: Amazon. See reviews: martinknox.com
AUSTRALIAN DISTANT FUTURE
ETHNICITY
The Grass is Always Browner is a fiction story by Martin Knox, author. Australia 250 years in the future is governed by an Indigenous dynasty, within a kinder and more scientific version of the current Westminster system of democracy. Youthful Abajoe is renowned for sharing his resources with others and eventually becomes Prime Minister. The story extrapolates trends from the early 21st century.
POPULATION
The protagonist Abajoe and Paula, his friend, experiment with cross-bred rossits, part rabbit and part possum, to discover the dynamics of human reproduction in adjacent territories where food and water supply are variable. The purpose is to identify, from experiments with the rossit model, human population limits in the distant future.
IMMIGRATION
Australia is secular whereas populous Bhakaria is a sectarian state with their religion Yamenism. The neighbours compete for living space and share resources with immigration and trade.
CONFLICT
The religious divide is a source of epic political conflict and civil war. Abajoe walks with his people on a long march of civil disobedience. He survives 15 years of imprisonment and torture, but returns to public life as an Elder, with his wife Siti as Prime Minister bringing peace.
The story balances possible realities of disasters and conflict. The novel extrapolates trends from the early 21st century. It is ecumenical, apolitical and concerned with practical problems. The solutions are relevant today on a continent beset by uncertainties.
Available on Amazon: The Grass Is Always Browner By Martin Knox
Reviews: martinknox.com
