Jonah Westrich
Set in a dystopian future, book one of the EMPATHY trilogy draws frightening parallels with the imperiled U.S. in 2019: a president under fire, a press under siege, and a secretive organization under investigation.
Imminent Dawn (NineStar Press, 377 pages), by Madison resident Ryan Campbell writing as r.r. campbell, is a dialogue-heavy techno-thriller that revolves around a research compound where human subjects receive an internet-access brain implant in an attempt to allow them to communicate with each other via wireless networks. Nicknamed EMPATHY — an acronym for “Electronic Mechanism Purposed for the Achievement of a Truly Hybrid Yield” — the experimental digital device’s success rate is plummeting, as patients become increasingly susceptible to seizures and even death.
Art school dropout Chandra willingly becomes a test patient in order to communicate with her wife, Kyra, who lies comatose after a bicycling accident for which Chandra blames herself.
Twisted government conspiracies and an investigative journalist hungry for fame increase the intrigue.
Imminent Dawn is a complex yet surprisingly accessible piece of science fiction that has drawn early comparisons to Black Mirror and Game of Thrones. It’s packed with characters who aren’t quite developed enough to trust completely — a strategy that pays off and keeps readers guessing. The book debuted at No. 1 in Amazon.com’s LGBT Science Fiction category, but there is little beyond Chandra’s tamely portrayed relationship with Kyra that should keep Imminent Dawn from a wider mainstream audience.
While the book’s ending brings a sense of closure, a teaser for Mourning Dove — book two of the EMPATHY saga and inserted at the end of Imminent Dawn — suggests r.r. campbell is far from finished.
The author graduated from the UW-Madison in 2012 with a degree in linguistics, and this is his first foray into sci-fi after publishing Accounting for It All in 2018, a contemporary novel about a porn star turned accountant. He also is a writing coach and founder of The Writescast Network, a podcast collective for writers, by writers. Additionally, he will be a speaker at UW-Madison’s 30th Annual Writers’ Institute in April.
The author will officially launch Imminent Dawn at the Goodman Community Center on Feb. 22 from 6-8 p.m.
