u/_TSDefren_

Hi dystopians - I posted here a couple of weeks ago looking for beta readers for my 175k word manuscript, Gospels of the Usurper. The handful of folks who raised their hand have been super helpful and I am hoping for a few additional volunteers.

It's the 37th century--fifteen hundred years after the tech oligarchs and their political cronies used nanotech-boosted soldiers to conquer a world already reeling from pandemic.

Ruling as seemingly immortal overlords, their now-ancient tech powered by humanity's blood tithe, the overlords have gotten too comfortable in the crumble of their respective kingdoms.

Enter blood scientist Elodie Moreau. Her fierce curiosity overpowers her long-term habits of complicity and leads to discoveries of the overlords' horrifying secret plots... and of the weaknesses that might finally bring them down.

Whether you read 7 words, 7 chapters, or the whole bloody thing, I'd love your feedback. DM me if interested!

Ruined 37th century Paris. Swordplay and nanotech. Blood tithes and holograms. Who's game to enter a new, grimdark dystopia? I'm seeking a few new beta readers for ...

(drumroll, but only because it's self-promo Wednesday...)

Gospels of the Usurper.

Here's a quick blurb:

"Through blood, damnation flows eternal."

Elodie Moreau, High Priestess of the Bone Palace, has recited the words since childhood — over blood tithe queues, over breeding dormitories, over the bowed backs of her own people. Fifteen centuries ago, plague-broken civilizations knelt to the old world's oligarchs and called their nanotech bloodmagick. Every litany since has been written to confirm their immortal rule.

Whether Elodie believes is a question she's careful never to ask. Her outward devotion is flawless. Her real religion lives in a false-bottom drawer of stolen texts and forbidden science. She is exactly the kind of heretic her masters flay — exactly the kind of mind the oldest of them has been waiting to recruit.

Now the architect of mankind's enslavement has summoned her to Paris, and he intends to hide nothing. After all, those who grasp the design have always bowed to it.

But the road to Paris runs through wilds the empire no longer rules, and Elodie rides in the company of the regime's legendary caravan master — a man too lucky to die, paid by his masters with the blood of his own neighbors, and quietly sick of both.

What Elodie learns out there can't be unlearned. And what she learns in Paris can't be allowed. The masters watched every mind. They never once thought to watch the road.

If you enjoy Gene Wolfe and Margaret Atwood, this one's for you. It's ~170K words but there's no pressure to finish or line edit. Just looking to learn more about the reader experience. DNFs are as valuable as someone who loves it. Please shoot me a dm if you're interested. Happy to share excerpts too.

Edit: content warning. The violence (including sexual violence and non-con) is not explicit but the world is bleak and unflinching.

GOSPELS OF THE USURPER is what happens when Conan meets Kafka — anthropological horror mantled in dystopian epic fantasy. Ruined 37th century Paris. Swordplay and nanotech. Blood tithes and holograms.

The immortal tech oligarchs who decided freedom was a mistake spent a thousand years proving it. Elodie Moreau achieved high rank in their regime’s blood-science clergy — complicit in forced breeding programs and the nanotech arts — but the more her masters reveal, the more determined she grows to burn it all down.

(The ideological DNA is real. TIME, March 2026: “What We Must Understand About the Dark Enlightenment Movement”)

An early draft was shared with a former president of the Horror Writers Association, who called it “fresh and compelling” with “exceptional world-building” and “complex political intrigue reminiscent of the best elements of George R.R. Martin’s work.” (They had plenty of structural notes too, which are baked into this version — I’m not looking for line edits here. I'm mostly including this bit to reassure prospective readers that the admittedly daunting word count will be worth the commitment.)

Complete at 180K and fully realized. But it’s a dark world — the right beta readers won’t flinch from violence (including non-con), body horror, and moral ambiguity without resolution. Not explicit or gratuitous. Unflinching.

I’m seeking three beta readers ready to bury themselves like a tick into this bleakness. Overall impressions, places you felt confused or bored, places you decided not to finish — all of it welcome. 

DM me. And thanks!!