A murder of crows, a clowder of cats… a collaboration of quislings? In Scum of the Earth, author Alexander C. Kane takes a hard look at the sort of person who works for the invader, and in this Big Idea, explains why these turncoats were the perfect subject for his tale.
ALEXANDER C. KANE:
I want to know about the bootlickers, enablers, opportunists, and toadies. Sauron’s personal assistant. Darth Vader’s helmet buffer. Peter MacNicol in Ghostbusters II. I am fascinated by the collaborators. Not the big, bad villains with their death rays, dark magic, or chaos machines out to conquer the universe with their brilliant but ultimately flawed plans. The people who should know better, but choose profit and comfort over humanity.
I look at people who give their service and loyalty to a corrupt system and I want to know why.
I knew I wanted to write an alien invasion story, but I didn’t want to focus on the heroes valiantly fighting to free humanity from tyranny. I wanted to write the story primarily from the perspective of those who were helping the invaders, those who had hitched their proverbial horse to the alien wagon. Space-wagon.
That was the idea of my new book, Scum of the Earth. It is a story of three people who go to work for the Merg, an alien race that traveled across the universe to conquer Earth. These people wake up every morning, look at themselves in the mirror and say, “Well, what can you do?” And they soon meet a group of freedom fighters who know exactly what they can do…
Scum of the Earth: Audible|Amazon
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Source: The Big Idea: Alexander C. Kane
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