Eyestandia

What would happen if the descendants of the last survivors from Earth, looking for sanctuary, finally reach another civilised planet?

Lynn Shroll was inspired to write a satirical novel in 2008, just before the financial crash. The subsequent events supplied her with a huge amount of rich material. “Indeed, my writing took on a new purpose and direction when I read that a certain CEO of a hugely influential bank in America ‘was the kind of man who liked to play golf by himself’, while encouraging teams of his bankers to take on ever greater risk for profit, which led to the eventual collapse of the bank,” she explains.

This fictional satire follows the inhabitants of Eyestandia, who have been studying the Earth’s civilisation from radio waves they have been receiving. The ‘other people’ of this new utopian-like world have a naïve understanding of the modern workings of our planet, asking questions about our society, in particular about the deference which is paid to all things money-related, and what is meant by the word equality.

Using a ‘what if?’ scenario to imagine a civilised society on a different planet, Lynn amuses and entertains her readers by comparing a completely different set of ideals to our own with, she warns, “a few dark chewy bits necessary to the plot.”

“The behaviour of these high-powered bankers, coupled with the regular reporting of some sleazy politicians and their expense accounts, gave me the inspiration to write this story. My novel is pure fiction, but I hope it catches the zeitgeist of these times,” Lynn comments on her reasons for writing this social, economic and political fantasy.