Bats of the Republic

The full-color featherproof edition of the illuminated novel Bats of the Republic features hand-drawn maps and natural history illustrations, subversive pamphlets and science-fictional diagrams, and even a nineteenth-century novel-within-a-novel, all designed by the author, with a new introduction. In 1843, fragile naturalist Zadock Thomas must leave his beloved in Chicago to deliver a secret letter to an infamous general on the front lines of the war over Texas. The fate of the volatile republic, along with Zadock’s future, depends on his mission. When a cloud of bats leads him off the trail, he happens upon something impossible... Three hundred years later, the world has collapsed and the remnants of humanity cling to a strange society of paranoia. Zeke Thomas has inherited a sealed envelope from his grandfather, an esteemed senator. When that letter goes missing, Zeke engages a fomenting rebellion that could free him—if it doesn’t destroy his relationship, his family legacy, and the entire republic first. As their stories overlap and history itself begins to unravel, a war in time erupts between a lost civilization, a forgotten future, and the chaos of the wild. Bats of the Republic is a masterful novel of adventure and science fiction, of elliptical history and dystopian struggle, and, at its riveting core, of love.

ZACHARY THOMAS DODSON is the author of the illuminated novel Bats of the Republic, the hybrid typo/graphic novel boring boring boring boring boring boring boring, and is the former publisher at featherproof books. He co-founded the Visual Narrative Lab in Wellington, New Zealand, and runs a secret studio called Interactive Tragedy, Limited. He authored the game Sub-Verge along with a companion novella, and is currently at work on KUU, a graphic cosmogony. A selection of similar experiments can be seen at zachdodson.com.