SciFi and More from Duane Simolke

My science fiction novel Degranon offers hope in the face of terrorism, oppression, and all threats to freedom. The book's preface follows.

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This book is for all people who dare to be themselves.

Thanks to the many people who gave me feedback on the drafts of this novel over the years and encouraged me to eventually finish it. I would go for months or even years at a time without looking at the manuscript, but my mind often wandered to the distant worlds I had created. It took living my own life for more years before I could fully explore the lives of these characters; it also took rejection from several publishers to push me into just writing the novel as I really wanted to write it. I hope you enjoy the final results as much as I have treasured constantly returning to this project.

Just a few days after I finished Degranon, I saw the results of real-life fanatics attacking a real-life city in my country, and destroying a popular landmark, which I once visited. I made only minor changes after the September 11 attacks: changes such as punctuation, clarification, or removing wordiness. Some people will find parts of this novel disturbing or offensive, but I refuse to water down the very self-expression that oppressors fear.

Though I wrote this novel as entertainment and focused on making it exciting, I hope it will also provoke people to think for themselves, rather than blindly following those who claim to know the way for them, and rather than fearing those who want to control or terrorize them. So I repeat the dedication that I wrote for this book years ago.

This book is for all people who dare to be themselves.


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Degranon is a science fiction novel that involves time travel, diversity, overpopulation, civil wars, and one family’s struggle to remain a family. Welcome to the planet Valchondria, where speech and actions face constant scrutiny, the future offers no progress, and most people can no longer see in color. Those who want change will not only confront the rigid maintainers of tradition but also become involved with Gazer, a violent religious fanatic from a war-torn planet called “Degranon.”