Dominion: Ascension
What happens when a great war breaks out, and the chemical weapons used in the war leave men infertile and cognitively impaired? The women take over, and the post-apocalyptic Dominion is born.
In D.A. Murray’s debut novel, Dominion: Ascension, the women are in control; they are the policymakers, law enforcers, captains of industry, spiritual leaders, preservers of history, language, and currency, and still the givers of life.
And the men, well, they serve a purpose… they are limited to public works, domestic servitude, and pleasure giving. When males reach the age of twelve, they undergo a cognitive test called Illegis to determine their placement within a caste system, one of which is Breeders.
This small segment of the male population is the most revered. The Breeders reside in The Colony, a place where controlled reproduction and scientific advancements of Dominion occur.
I’m going to be honest, when I saw the synopsis of Dominion, I hurried to begin the book. The notion that if women ran the world, it would be a better place has always been tossed around. But in Dominion, we get to see it played out.
D.A. Murray hails from California. She studied Economics and Japanese at the University of California, Los Angeles. And she began writing her debut novel during COVID. When she’s not writing, she has a full career working in tech.
Throughout the story, I questioned whether women would lead people differently. But once you throw power in the mix, that changes things. And people show you just how far they are willing to go to protect and maintain their power.
In this episode, Murray and I talked about how she came up with a storyline that, while dystopian, felt relevant to the times we are in now. How the use of tech and new words made me feel like I was in the future, but kept me in the present.
And what it was like to build a new world with new laws, rules, and policies, while also reminding readers of what once was.
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