The Black Crescent: Religion, Tragedy, and Arcologies in Science Fantasy
D.C. Wynters is the author of The Black Crescent, a YA science fantasy with military elements. It’s an action-filled story which also explores themes of social inequality, authoritarianism, and faith. It was my pleasure to invite him to this interview where we discuss (in my humble opinion) some of the novel’s most interesting elements: its setting and portrayal of tragedy and religion.
This is a fairly long interview packed with spoilers, but if you’re a fan of “thoughtful” SFF, you might want to stick around!
Orange: To kick us off, describe The Black Crescent in one sentence.
D.C. Wynters: The Black Crescent is Ender's Game meets Romeo and Juliet with zombies. In a lot of ways, The Black Crescent is my diatribe against fake-out deaths in media. I wanted death in media to more reflect how it is in our lived experience: final. I also wanted to write a tragedy, so I killed off half the cast and none of them come back.
O: What made you want to write a tragedy?
D: I really like tragedies (Revenge of the Sith and Rogue One are my two favorite Star Wars movies), so I wanted to write one too.
I love the anticipation of things going wrong followed by the catharsis you feel after everything has fallen apart and you look around to see who's still standing.
O: What was the most tragic part of the story for you?
D: I think Esther's death and Cade's speech at Delkan's funeral are the two most tragic moments for me.
O: What was it about those two scenes in particular?
D: Esther's death was really tragic to me because I tried to let the reader see that Esther has a lot of potential and that potential is cut short by a combination of Delkan's ambition and the oppression of the regime. Cade's speech stands out to me because Cade goes from someone who is very reserved to someone who is willing to be vulnerable with Delkan, only for that relationship to be destroyed.
Joshua's death was also pretty tragic because it shows Delkan's complicity in destroying the version of himself that would have made better choices and saved many lives.
O: I can definitely see that. Joshua's death upset me the most because like you said, he had so much potential to save lives and do good for the world—and I don't think he knew why he died.
D: That's a good point. He knew that he was tinkering in something that was highly regulated, but the Inquisitors and Delkan thought that what he was really doing was infecting the people around him. That disconnect makes it even more sad.
It also sets up a personal tragedy around Ithaca. I set her up as pretty strict, but with Joshua's (and Esther's) death, you see how she has this soft side. And then she can't do anything with it because she dies too.
O: I think you make it clear that much of the tragedy in TBC results from Delkan's choice to prioritize his ambitions over his relationships and values like compassion. Yet, one of the things I appreciated most about his character is that I could always understand where he was coming from. He is a young individual raised in an authoritarian regime, who has watched an insidious bio agent kill thousands of people and infiltrate what is essentially his own friend group. How much accountability can we place on Delkan as an individual versus the system and the circumstances he found himself in?
D: Yes! And that feeds into the themes that I wanted to use to organize the story. Ambition isn't just an individual choice, it also has to do with the environment.
O: On the topic of the environment, what inspired the Arcology? I believe you mentioned on your Instagram that this was sort of the seed that grew into TBC. Is that accurate?
D: Yep! I first heard about arcologies through a documentary program called NOVA Science Now and that sort of set the wheels turning.
O: Could you briefly explain what an "Arcology" is?
D: Yeah, an arcology is a hypothetical city that is super-dense and self-contained. All the food is produced and consumed, and all waste goes back into the system.
O: I see there are a few "planned" arcologies at the moment. Have you had a chance to visit or even live in one?
D: Nope! I really only travel for work and that's pretty infrequent
This past year has been the most I've ever traveled for work. Once for telescope training and once for a conference.
O: Did any of your astrophysics knowledge come into play with TBC?
D: Not this book specifically. ;)
O: I’ll need to ask about other books later. So what really got you interested in arcologies for TBC?
D: I think it was the cool factor. I'm a sucker for good urban planning and there's something that appeals to me about a giant urban terrarium.
O: So how did we go from arcologies to zombies and Romeo and Juliet?
D: If I remember (you have to keep in mind I started drafting this story a decade ago), the idea for the Varul was an intrusion on this self-containing ecosystem. I originally didn't think of it as a zombie virus, but then I look[ed] back at what I wrote and went, "Hey!"
As far as Romeo and Juliety is concerned: I'm not super sure. I think it unfolded as I was setting up the theme for the story. I wanted Delkan to get what he wanted but fail the thematic test, while I wanted Ziara to pass the thematic test but ultimately lose what she wanted. The idea of a romantic relationship there felt like a good way to add tension as well as fit the genre conventions.
O: I liked the concept of experiencing the zombie apocalypse from the perspective of the character who gets infected and hides it. I must admit, there were times I was extremely frustrated with Ziara just because of the sheer amount of damage "she" was able to cause as a result of the Varul infection.
D: I hope that was the "good" kind of frustration.
O: Does emotional damage count?
D: Absolutely!
O: How much control did Ziara have over her actions even when she was under the influence of the Varul? We've already discussed Delkan's dangerous ambition, but what about Ziara's desperation to survive? The Varul made her do terrible things from infecting her mother, Wynn, the senior officers, to even setting explosives inside the water treatment facility. What should we make of this?
D: Ziara did not have much real control when under the influence of the Varul. While the Varul could not take over her body completely for the more involved operations, it didn't leave her much of a choice otherwise. It isn't until she learns to empty herself through devotion to the Plan that she can subvert the Varul to her own ends.
O: I know from our previous discussions that faith plays an important role in the conception of TBC, and there's an obvious connection to the White Sun and their Plan which promises a better world and freedom from Avintus.
However, when Ziara first joins the White Sun, it feels like a choice she makes out of desperation to control the Varul. What makes her faith in the Plan different from Delkan's or Joshua's faith in the promises of Avintus?
D: Oh I love this question! Ziara has to make a choice to believe in the Plan, where Delkan and Joshua never have to. It's a decision that is made for them by the society that they grow up with. So Ziara has to consciously struggle while Delkan and Joshua do not. Joshua is interesting though because his faith in Avintus would have been shaken if Esther and Ziara ever had the opportunity to prove that Avintus was using the Varul for his own ends. I didn't have that happen because I wanted to show that there were good people on both sides of the conflict between the Arcology and the Society.
O: I went into TBC knowing a little about its religious themes, but I wonder if that ended up coloring my perception of the story. For example, what makes the White Sun a religious order instead of a political faction?
D: That's a great question, especially since the goal of the Society is, in many ways, a political / ecological one. I would say that it is a religious order because it employs many of the things that religion does. It has a book of scripture that contains a mythology of the past. That's not to say it isn't true, rather it's to say that the history is sacred and is transmitted in sacred times and sacred spaces. There is a moral component to the Plan which I largely omitted from the story to keep the length under control. And the point of the Society is for its members to experience the kind of self-emptying that accompanies religion. Politics, in my estimation, is not really about self-emptying, so I wouldn't classify the Society as a political faction.
O: Thanks for that explanation! I believe an important part of the plan was eventual departure from the Arcology, so it sounds like there's a whole world outside what we've seen in TBC. What's on the other side?
D: Yes! And you get to see a snippet of that in Spark
Mostly wilderness. The War of the Immortals has left their world largely uninhabited except for the seven arcologies ruled by the archon lords. However, "Spark" shows us a community of members of the Society who are scraping out an existence in this wilderness and hiding from the Arcologies in the meantime.
Although D.C. Wynters does not have fleshed-out plans for a sequel, he hopes to explore other stories within the world of The Black Crescent. Some of these ideas include a trilogy around Delkan/Capricus and a spin-off series which takes place after Delkan’s story ends. He is also working on other projects within the SFF genre.
If you are interested in learning more about D.C. Wynter and his projects, you can connect with him here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dcwynters/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/dcwynters
Website/Newsletter Signup: www.dcwynters.com
Remember, don’t let the zombies bite. :)