The Revivalist

America as we know it is no more.

Forty years ago, a military experiment in nanotechnology ran amok, wiping out most of North America and rendering it an uninhabitable plain of silvery goo. To set one foot in that silent tide is to suffer immediate disassembly into one’s constituent molecules. But against all odds, the town of Wellington, Nevada, has held off the threat, thanks mostly to the presence of Carl McFarland, one of the scientists responsible for the disaster. Now an old man, Carl is largely ignored by the townspeople of Wellington, with the exception of his avid student Orrin Pritchard.

But when a wagon train appears on the horizon, somehow crossing the silver tide without harm, all that will change. What miracles do these strangers bring? What news from the world beyond? And how is it that their charismatic leader, Pastor Smith, can raise the dead with the touch of his hand? Is Carl once again the only person standing between Wellington and a great tide of evil—or is he himself now the town’s greatest threat?

Perry Slaughter first achieved notoriety in the mid-1980s with slender works of samizdat genre fiction hailed as “utterly bereft of any moral center.” More recently his short stories have appeared in Electric Velocipede and elsewhere. Mr. Slaughter divides his time between the northeastern United States and a yacht plying international waters. His passions include vinyl records, scotch whisky, and high-seas piracy. His exact whereabouts at any given time are unknown.

Sinister Regard is proud to have undertaken a project to reissue some of his early novellas and short fiction in new print and electronic editions. For more information, visit www.perryslaughter.com.