A close friend and long-time writing collaborator Geoffrey Pierce has published Manna City, a riveting drama set in a post-apocalyptic future with a central character like no other: Nista is nine-months pregnant when she’s wrested from her home and must cross the hostile wastelands to reach Manna, the last city in a shattered world.
Geoff and I met at college many moons ago and have worked on a variety of writing projects over the years, with Manna City dominating our creative collaborations. First a screenplay called Books from Purgatory, then a graphic novel, Geoff finally took the project over to pen its novel form. And I couldn’t be happier with the result.
Manna City, in its novel incarnation, promises to be the first of many books set in the “Manna Universe.” That universe is inhabited by terrifically nightmarish creatures, outlaws, marginalized desert denizens and a technical elite purportedly living in the utopic world of Manna, a city surrounded by an immense and impenetrable wall.
Geoff’s novel has landed at the perfect time. While dramatizing a potentially dark future through Nista’s journey, the story highlights the issues of contemporary society without choosing sides. Good people can harbor dangerous secrets. Bad people can be redeemed. Love and companionship can be found in the darkest places.
Manna City is a compelling road-trip story through a fascinating and unsparing world. I hope you give it a look.
