The Epone epoch

The Epone epoch is a fantasy novel exploring the nature of humanity, theology and the moral consciousness of right and wrong that sentience burdens us with: guilt.
It begins with a group of mercenaries whose country of Fal-Lusan has been infected with domesticated grass and a future of starvation by Queganog terrorists, and follows their nation’s search for a new homeland across a diverse world of difference.
On the way they encounter wars, strange new drugs and natural phenomena, a multitude of magic and mystery, deep psychological traumas, and an orgy of sexual exploration as their individual stories unfold and conclude along side the main plot:

A set of playful twins whose love for a whore make her consider motherhood
A father and son relationship that ends in bereavement and suicide
A tribal self-harmer that loses his mind
A mage whose devotion to power has left him socially inept and outwardly hostile
A Banished soul that returns to destroy but finds love instead in a barren prostitute
A child-abused pervert with the brain of a genius
A warrior with permanent hunger
A phobic drug-addicted leader and his collection of phobia-bottles and personal nightmares
An arthritic swordsman with a fondness for young girls
A fat man that wants to be a thin man
And an absolute evil bastard with no notion of guilt.

The story’s main focus explores the different sides of god - the Light and the Shadow -, as they fight for dominance of the planet’s souls, the answer to the Epone (the fifth religious alternative) and the collapse of order, the reincarnation system, and hope.
Mixed in with the irony of life and the fall of conscience is the rise of the Demigods and their shallow tenets, the Creator and His family of immortal children - Destiny, Fate and Providence -, a host of natural wonders including Morning Dawn, Moon and Mother Nature, and the sad tale of an angel whose wish for eternal heaven turns out to be a terminal hell.

The Epone epoch’s style:

I became tired of reading fantasy books as every one I opened followed the same path - evil vanquished by heroic good for a happy ever after. They were usually beautifully constructed, painting an alien world of originality in my head, but always tame, old-fashioned and predictable in storyline. I don’t want to know what’s round the next page before I get there. I want surprise. I DEMAND IT. And I want to know how a character dies, the real blood and guts of it, not the fact that they have died. And when people have sex, I want to feel the penetration…
Why authors stop describing when the action becomes a little gruesome or pornographic confuses me. That’s why I’m reading a book, to experience things I’ll never be able to experience in reality.
My proofreaders all reported that the Epone epoch’s ending was a huge surprise to them. In fact, throughout the entire story, they were encouraged to read on by a plot that twisted their imagination. As a reader I look for that in a novel, I want to be amazed and unsettled, so I wrote the Epone epoch to make people like me happy.

The book is not traditional for its genre but is needed in a genre that has become run-of-the-mill. The writing is colourfully poetic and provocative, emotionally fuelled with extreme violence and sexual perversion, and strong, both in language and in meaning - I make no apology for my realism.

But there is also another side to the Epone epoch, a more tender and caring side that portrays love, devotion and ultimate sacrifice, because life isn’t always severe and hardcore.

And what is the Epone?