Colorado author Benjamin Dancer wrote a "a hard-shooting kick of a thriller" to raise awareness about the rapid growth of the human population. "Disguising a heart of pure poetry," the novel Patriarch Run has been described as "a literary meditation clutching a straight razor behind its back."
That straight razor is the truth. "It is my intention," said Benjamin, "to use the platform of my thriller to promote real-world solutions to overpopulation: voluntary initiatives that help empower women and men to plan their families."
Population Media Center (PMC), an international leader in entertainment-education, knows that for media outreach to be effective, a story must be a thrill for the audience -otherwise, it won't work. That's the approach Benjamin took with Patriarch Run. The story is "bold, beautifully written, and surprising page-by-page."
Benjamin's eco-thriller is "a gripping exploration of our gendered culture and the poignant moments entailed in coming of age." It has been endorsed by a number of leaders in the sustainability movement, including Bill Ryerson, the President of PMC, Paul Ehrlich, and Alan Weisman. You can read those endorsements and learn more about Patriarch Run at Benjamin's website.
How do you leverage an "unsparing" thriller to raise awareness about the most important issue of our time? Benjamin answers that question with an impressive list of outreach activities:
- Benjamin is currently engaged in a media tour in which he will use the platform of his book to direct attention to sustainability issues, namely the unintended effects of population growth.
- Benjamin is also partnering with journalist Alan Weisman and filmmaker Dave Gardner of GrowthBusters in the first episode of a webinar series about the human population.
- Journalist Tedd Koppel's recent book Lights Out has opened the door for Benjamin to connect the issue of population growth to national security by revealing just how vulnerable America is. The bad guy in Patriarch Run intends to cripple the country by taking down the power grid. A threat that had no teeth until the country's growing population outstripped the land's "pre-electrical" carrying capacity. Prominent national security experts have endorsed Patriarch Run's realistic portrayal of this threat.
- Ethicist Travis Rieder, recently profiled on NPR, and Benjamin will be discussing the ethics of population based on Jack's world view. Jack is a character in Patriarch Run.
- Benjamin is also directing readers to a rich set of resources about these issues in the Discussion Guide at his website.
About Patriarch Run
Nine years ago, Jack Erikson was deployed to China to protect the United States from a cyberattack. Now, suffering from a drug-induced amnesia, he is unable to recognize his own son. What Jack knows for sure is that an elite group of operators is determined to kill him. What he does not yet remember is that he controls a cyber-weapon powerful enough to return human civilization to the Stone Age. If Jack lives long enough to piece together his mission and his identity, he will be forced to choose between the fate of humankind and that of his own family.
Readers of Cormac McCarthy and Peter Heller will appreciate both the suspense and the Western setting. In his thrilling literary debut, Benjamin Dancer also explores the timeless themes of fatherhood, sustainability and the fraying fabric of global stability.
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Benjamin Dancer, author of Patriarch Run. |