The fifteenth book in the Doc Talos series will be releasing in June, and between now and June 15th, Annihilation can be pre-ordered at a significant discount.
The book revisits and channels concepts from the classic Doc Savage pulp story The Annihilist, but beyond the foundational theme of Doc’s “crime college” — the institution he maintains for the rehabilitation of criminals — Annihilation strives to be far more than a pulp yarn.
The setting is the late 1960’s, early 1970’s, and it tells the story of the first patient that James “Doc” Talos, Jr. gives the choice of undergoing his treatment or declining it. His motivations for this are complex: the criminal in his charge, Faith Carnahan, is the daughter of a brutal gun moll James himself killed in the 1920’s. He sees in her a chance for a kind of redemption far more personal than a life devoted to the grand abstract of “righting wrongs”.
From her perspective, Faith does not see this as either an opportunity or a gift in her life. She has committed a horrific crime, and fully expected — even desired — to pay for that in a way she feels appropriate within a society she rejects and condemns. Strong-willed, deeply perceptive, driven…Faith has made her life-choices based on a belief that she lives in a world on the precipice of annihilation. The concept of a new beginning for her — particularly one which will be achieved through the surgical erasing of her memory — is all but beyond her comprehension.
The backdrop for this story is a period in time when the cultural mores of right and wrong were being challenged in every aspect of society. Annihilation reflects this, immersing itself in upheavals of the time that included radical movements, crime, cults, music, comix, and more.
James, with his heartfelt belief that people are essentially good and decent, and Faith, whose belief is that they are cruel and vicious, struggle to find ground where they can understand one another…and a choice can be made between the polar extremes of redemption and destruction.
ANNIHILATION, by R. Paul Sardanas, with full color painted illustrations by Iason Ragnar Bellerophon, 149 pages, 6 x 9 deluxe paperback. Includes the short photostory Faith: Crime College Dark Angel from a 2014 independent film.
Adult content — for mature audiences only.
After June 15th, this book will retail for $30 plus shipping, but for this pre-order period, is available for $20 plus shipping. If you would like to pre-order Annihilation, or have questions regarding it, please send an email to: taloschronicle@gmail.com.
Excerpts for review are also available on request. And please check out the other 14 Doc Talos books, as well as Omnibus and Collected Art editions, in our bookstore.
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