Four Winds Press
The Voyage of the UnderGod
By Kirby Smith
Fiction/Satire
August 2014
200 pages, $14.95 USD
Trade Paper Original and Ebook
ISBN: 978-1-940423-02-9 (print), 978-1-940423-03-6 (ebook)
A political satire about a charismatic right-winger’s reality-TV tall ship sailing voyage around Cape Horn
In a reality-TV show a 19th-century tall ship sails the south Atlantic, doubling back to Rio de Janeiro then down the coast to the deadly Cape Horn. Its celebrity captain is Luther Dorsey, a presidential contender with a back-story combining elements of Reagan, Limbaugh, and George W. The Voyage of the UnderGod is Luther’s last grasp for the greatness he thinks he deserves.
The tone is mock heroic: the voyage and its dangers told with deadly seriousness until a final turn around the Cape, where the sea exacts its toll. But there is no lesson learned here about pride coming before a fall: the UnderGod survives and, topsails filled with the warm breezes of the dying seas, sails on into the blue.
A seriocomic political satire reminiscent of Jonathan Swift that will appeal to followers of The Nation, The Onion, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report.
Kirby Smith’s literary imagination came to its full flower during a 20-year career as a government bureaucrat. He lives with his wife Teresa and two finches in Oakland, CA. Kirby and Teresa both get seasick.
