When I first started writing The Neskan Chronicles about five years ago, the big YA dystopian boom was mostly over and out of fashion. But Adan’s story was one I felt compelled to tell, because in many ways, it felt like the story I was already living.
I’ve lived my whole life in an internet-connected, digital surveillance state where our lives are tracked, our information is sold (or stolen, and then sold,) and our narratives are constantly being shaped for us by powerful, unseen forces. Themes of state control, misinformation, and the quiet erosion of personal freedom aren’t science fiction. They’re the troubled waters we ford every day. And exploring all this in the low-tech, paper-and-pistons world of Neska allowed me to boil a lot of these concepts down to their essential essence. To show a naked dystopia without all the sparkles and glamor.
On its surface, Adan’s story mirrors the classic hero’s journey. He’s an average boy with a mysterious past and a unique ability that anoints him as a kind of “chosen one.” But that familiar framework was always just the scaffolding to build the real story I wanted to tell. Because this series is about more than one special boy destined to save the world.
It’s about exploring two types of power. There’s the seduction of power for power’s sake–the top-down, iron-fisted, cult of personality control wielded by characters who see people as pawns in a grand, strategic game. It’s a cold, isolating, and ultimately brittle kind of strength.
But I’m much more interested in another kind of power—the power of community. It’s a messy and complicated strength, but it’s also deeply resilient, forged not in a command structure, but in the fierce loyalty of a found family. It’s the unwavering bond with a childhood friend who knows you better than you know yourself. It’s the quiet, steady guidance from a mentor who becomes the father figure you never had. It’s found in the challenging friendships with brilliant peers that push you to be better and see the world differently.
And at the very heart of that community is love. In The Neskan Chronicles, it’s the deeply profound platonic love for a best friend who’s celebrated with you at your best, and supported you at your worst. It’s the romantic love between two young men that becomes the anchor in the storm, a source of profound strength, vulnerability, and the ultimate reason to fight for a better world. It’s that power, built from love, trust, and the unwavering decision to protect each other no matter the cost, that’s the only true force capable of standing up to the iron fist of a tyrant.
The reason I created this dark, oppressive world was to show how powerful, essential, and beautiful things like love, friendship, and trust truly are, especially when they’re most at risk. To enter the darkness, not to linger, but to get a better look at the shape of the light that pushes back.