Asha-Land

A METAPHYSICAL PICARESQUE ADVENTURE INTO THE GEOMANTIC MYSTERIES OF THE EARTH WITH ANGELIC ACCOMPANIMENT In 2095, three Light grid engineers undertake a world restoration tour of the esoteric energy body of the planet to fine-tune an upgrade that started in 2020. Their "fixer-upper" itinerary takes them to England, Montenegro, South Africa, Ethiopia, Colombia, Armenia, Pakistan, South Korea, Finland-14 stops in all. The Earth has been birthing a landscape of Light and Truth out of itself since 2020, but it needs some professional tweaking and housecleaning to complete its transformation. Some "parties" vigorously oppose this upgrade and have to be dealt with; others heartily support it. It's been like that since the beginning of the Earth. Lars Jaanusson, a Boston book editor, narrates the fieldwork in a manner that is both whimsical and serious. "The tour was an immersion in mythopoesis. You find you're living and working inside the world's myths when you do this work. Much is at stake, but you have to stay light-hearted on the job," he says. Lars and his two companions, Beatrice Goldoni from Italy and Bogdan Hazurov from Bulgaria, enjoy the technical assistance of two angelic orders. The Ofanim, jokey and amiable while brandishing huge swords of Light, and the Serafim, doing business as the fierce Valkyries of legend who take no prisoners among the enemies of the Earth. The planet's upgrade, just finishing up in 2095, was scheduled at its inception, in fact, as early as its design phase. Many of its problems and enemies go back to that beginning too. Not everyone was in favor of a world with this much Light and Truth and so elegant a geometric design or "grid" in Light. That's why much of the narrative recounts what it took to pull out the deep, resistant, dark-minded roots that have disturbed the Earth and humans for millennia. It's an altogether different take on the Apocalypse.