Ten years after the invaders arrived, the scant traces of humanity still live every second of their lives in absolute terror. Forced from their cities into ragged communes on the edges of the world, they cling to existence by the weight of their micro-decisions, one careless move or false breath away from certain death. Some believe they're the lucky ones, others believe they're cursed. But something in the sky is changing, and seeds of hope now grow amongst the carnage and devastation. Will they live to see the dawning of a new day? Or will they be too few and too broken for it to matter? AFTER follows the journey of a lonely motorcycle messenger who delivers weather-beaten notes to survivors scattered across a cracked and fissured western United States, a world both devastating and somehow beautiful. Her road takes her over vast landscapes, into the hands of humans capable of unspeakable evil, and through a hell worse than all of it - the guilt and grief slowly eating away at her. Early Reviews: "With beautifully elegant prose, masterful world building and an unflinching and uncompromised vision, Drew Starling successfully whips this grief laden story into a frenzy of unbridled, visionary brilliance, where all its elements coalesce to make 'After' an exceptional piece of human centred, grief-riddled, dystopian brilliance." Ross Jeffery, Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of 'I Died Too, But They Haven't Buried Me Yet' and 'The Devil's Pocketbook'"Somewhat familiar but unsentimental speculative fiction that's wire-taut and emotionally rich. In Starling's post-apocalyptic novel with SF elements, a nameless messenger carries communications between survivor settlements in a dangerous American West.... Along the way, the author gets across a sense of fear of what lies around every corner and reveals the visible and invisible scars of the traumatized." Kirkus Reviews
