Recently a reader contacted me about several points in my novel CREATURA, particularly those about the character of Ulex and the rleigion he professed to follow. I thought it raised several interesting points, so here's the messages associated with it, reproduces with HitchhikerDolphin's permission. If anyone would like to give their own thoughts about the book or the topic in general, feel free to comment.

Some spoilers for CREATURA, though!

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original post by HitchhikerDolphin (@hitchhikerdolphin):

Mr. Paul Lucas, I read your novel a long time ago.
I am extremely bothered by this...Church of The Six Billion Martyrs that played a role later on near the end.

I felt disgusted as I saw Ulex Baker, a big strong Ursoid who had his whole life ahead of him, was reduced to a meak and mild religious sheep/chump who couldn't do a damn thing for himself - not to mention he was lovesick as fuck over Rakshanna.

Whoever Ulex was working for, these conspirators were not stupid enough to go to all that trouble to find the last humans, just so they could drop to their stomachs and lurch all over the floor. They had some serious plans for them and I can only think of one thing, control. It's not enough for the conspirators to control the religion, they want to control God, the 'creators'.

I know for a fact that this religion that the Homo Creatura have been following for 300 years or so, didn't fall out of the sky and was written with lightning from the heavens, no, this religion was created by a mortal Creatura or Creaturas who eats, drinks, sleeps, shits, fucks, bleeds, and dies like everyone else.

When Dr. Leonine saw Ulex and his followers shoot themselves, he was all like, "What the fuck is this? I don't know anything about this. I never asked to be worshipped as a god, and neither did the last of my people."

Control the religion, control the world. These unknown and powerful friends of Ulex's have the entire world in their back pockets by controlling the one thing people don't want to lose, their faith. Ulex believed this religion enriched his life and made him feel invincible. But instead, all it did was poison his mind and made him out of fucking butter. Ulex deserved so much better.

So, I want to know who runs this religion, (Cardinal, Bishop, Pope?) who these friends of Ulex's are, and will they be stopped? And I hope this ridiculous Church also gets abolished, because all it has done is create a body count.

Will you write a future project about a Creatura hero who fights to uncover the conspirators and put an end to this stupid mumbo-jumbo the Creatura call a religion? I would buy and read it if you did.

Good day to you,
- Dolphin

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Sorry for taking a bit long to get back to you.

But yeah, Ulex and the Church of the Six Billion Martyrs was among other things meant as a criticism on real life religious organizations and their cultish followers. The same is true about them today as 25 years ago when I first wrote the book. Ulex is NOT a unique case limited to his fictional world. If you look around the world today you'll see a lot like him, especially (and unfortunately) at large in US politics at all levels.

I'm sorry if the character upset you, but in a way I'm also glad if you were disgusted by Ulex. He is supposed to be ultimately unlikable. I was hoping he and his motivations were understandable, but that's very different from making him sympathetic, Just because you (hopefully) understood where he was coming from did not mean you were supposed to support anything that he did. Now granted back then my writing skills were even more imperfect than they are now, and I might not have pulled off everything I hoped to with him, but I think he served the story well enough as an antagonist.

The critters behind the Church of the Six Billion Martyrs are the same kind of people behind a lot of the toxic evangelicals and other fanatical/violent cults in the real world; people with wealth and means who hide behind anonymity and influence and supposed legitimacy. In the book, I like to think I gave a hint that with the world reduced to so many fewer people and fewer resources, their reach would be much more limited as well and they would eventually be stymied or deposed. But just like in the real world, that would be a long, ongoing process and there was never meant to be an easy solution for Ulex's conspiracy.

I unfortunately always intended CREATURA to be a lone self-contained story. I never really had any follow-ups planned for it. I had something to say with the book and I said it. But I do like to think that the Creatura (and very eventually the survivors in the mountain) built a better world than we have from the ruins of the old one.

I actually think this is an interesting subject that other people might want to weigh in on. Would you mind if I posted your message and my response as a journal entry here and elsewhere? I can leave your username off if you'd rather remain anonymous.


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original post by HitchhikerDolphin (@hitchhikerdolphin):

Yes, you can post the message as a journal entry. And you can include my name.

By the way, I'm not upset or offended by Ulex, it's just that... I hate it when such gullible people are easily manipulated and that all that grief Shanna and her friends suffered from, was caused by a guy who was all bark and no bite. And if you ask me, Frostbite demonstrated himself to be a much more effective leader than Ulex was. That wolf practically pushed his employer into a corner with his stubby tail between his legs.

Just like Shanna didn't forgive Ulex, In Star Wars, I don't forgive Darth Vader, even after he saved Luke from Emperor Palpatine. If Anakin had gotten away with it, he would have gone on to destroy dozens of planets and murder billions of innocent people just for the crime of standing in the way of Anakin's unbridled rage. One act of goodness doesn't absolve Anakin of his unforgivable crimes.

I guess sometimes I get a bit too involved with a story.