DARK LIBERATION
AN INTRODUCTION
PHILIP MATTHEWS
Dedicated to
Marie Hunter
Joseph O’Byrne
And my brother
Robert Matthews
whose support made this
project possible.
© Philip Matthews 2010
DARK LIBERATION is a cycle of 16 novels written over a period of forty years, from 1970 to 2010. The fundamental theme of the cycle – which only became clear as the novels were written – is that the key to the future of mankind lies within each individual, and not in some external salvator, be it religious or technological.
While this broad thematic stream runs through the cycle, the individual novels themselves are intended to stand alone – there is no requirement to read the works in sequence or even to read any more than those novels that take a reader’s interest. Obviously, though, some understanding of the main themes, and of the arrangement of the cycle in a series of subcycles, will help most readers increase their appreciation of whichever novels they read. For this reason, it would be worthwhile reading this short Introduction to the Dark Liberation cycle and the novels that comprise it.
Plan of the whole cycle
With the sudden completion of the trilogy, NOTHING DARKER THAN THE LIGHT, in late 1983, I was at a loss as to what to do next. Before I knew it, however, I was sorting out the bundle of stories I had written from the late sixties up to September 1975, when I began studying at Trinity College, Dublin. The name of the character came first – he appeared in some of the stories. I sorted the stories chronologically and – presto – I had the life of Richard Butler running from about five years of age up to his late thirties in sixteen episodes. These episodes divided quite easily into four sets of four episodes each, the sets covering successively Childhood, The Group, The Social, and The Individual. Placing the Individual last was a peculiar thing to do, but it was to be the secret motivating power of the entire cycle of novels.
With only the trilogy written and the material for a fourth novel to hand, I nonetheless projected the structure of sixteen novels mirroring in subtle ways the structure of the pending work, soon to be entitled THE FOURTH MAN.
The cycle of DARK LIBERATION can be arrayed in this way:
First Subcycle: The Mystery of Life
Nothing Darker Than the Light
The White City
The Land of Fire
The Field of Peace
The Blue Record
Second Subcycle: The Mystery of Love
The Kingswood Black Books
The Fourth Man
Lupita
Crow Station
Solomon’s Dream
Third Subcycle: The Lessons of Love
The Prince
Anon
The Testament of Eve
OR
Fourth Subcycle: The Sacred Marriage
The Eagle flies on Friday
Angel of Truth
Restoration
Reflection
INTRODUCTIONS and SUMMARIES
What follows now is a series of Introductions and Summaries of the novels and the cycles that they are divided into.
NOTHING DARKER THAN THE LIGHT – Introduction
This was to be a sci-fi fantasy work. I had tried to ‘write a novel’ (about an old man) and had produced a shapeless mess. So, liking science fiction very much – the last refuge of the true romantic (those who understand that human beings are ultimately responsible for their own lives) – I thought a genre novel of this kind was within my powers.
THE WHITE CITY is this little genre novel and at first I was nicely in control and full of confidence. Then the characters began to take over and set about telling another story, one that I came to realise would extend beyond the rather comfortable world I was in the process of creating. I think it is a virtue to let characters go free, but what they had in mind in 1974 was way beyond my capacities at the time. A period of preparation was needed – as detailed elsewhere – then off they went, each coping in his or her own way with the utter destruction of their world, through THE LAND OF FIRE and THE FIELD OF PEACE, the remaining novels of the trilogy.
One consolation, at least, of imaginary characters is that they never leave you. If you read far enough into the whole cycle you will encounter at least one of the characters from this trilogy – who turns up just when he is needed to provide a vital service for another of my characters.
THE WHITE CITY – Introduction
This is the first novel I completed. Woke up one morning in October 1974, after a walking tour from Stonehenge to Glastonbury – nonstop rain – seeing Korkungal staring with disbelief at the White City. The story told itself, very patient with my usual caution. But it was my care not to exceed my ability that was instrumental in giving the work its abiding freshness: a simple tale told simply.
THE WHITE CITY – Summary
An old priest and his aging warrior guard approach an outpost of a great empire. The priest is bringing bad news to a friend of his youth, an imperial priest. The news is not welcome and the bearer is accordingly punished. The old warrior? A tribal hero is no match for the armoured champions of a city of iron and stone.
Yet a destiny is created here.
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