The Tragedy of King Leere, Goatherd of the la Sals

Like those three dimensional objects that look entirely different depending on the angle from which you view them, this novel presents a number of faces. From one direction you will see a conventional adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear set in the American West. However, if you view the book a few steps to the north, you will see a novel that is more Margaret Atwood than Shakespeare: a post-climate-change-catastrophe tale about a transgenic-goat rancher named Leere, the self-styled King of the La Sals Mountain Range in Utah. And from another angle still, the novel becomes a meditation on ecology, land, place, and consciousness! And like most of the really great adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, there are transgenic porcupines and semi-sentient BattleDredge attack robots. Funny, tragic, and timely, King Leere explores futures that may materialize sooner than we think.

PRAISE FOR KING LEERE

Readers will instantly be won over by this wildly creative blend of stunning speculation, terrifying warning, and fraught relationships. —PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY STARRED REVIEW

"Is there room in a King Lear adaptation for battle droids? How about singing gene-modified porcupines and a demon narrator? Enter Peck’s post-apocalyptic world populated by a land baron, his fractious progeny, and his herd of transgenic skin goats. In this futuristic dystopia, the real tragedy is that in a world warped by climate change, most of the characters are still fueled by consumerist greed, except for Delia and her lover, Ellie. But we all know what happens to the good guys. Or do we? Brilliant, imaginative, and wildly entertaining, Peck’s adaptation of Shakespeare will appeal to hardcore bardolaters and those who wouldn’t be caught dead in a theatre. This book is clever, funny, deeply thoughtful, and ambitious. A riot of a read."—Dayna Kidd Patterson, Co-editor of Dove Song: Heavenly Mother in Mormon Poetry

“'I always speak the truth, even if I must lie to do so.' Thus speaks Steven Peck’s omniscient narrator Asmodeus. And he tells a hell of a story. King Leere is set in the near future in Utah mountains ravaged by climate change (the “koch catastrophe”) and populated by Shakespearean Mormons, human-skinned goats, and battlebots. Asmodeus has been reading Nietzsche and Kierkegaard while adjusting to physical reality in Castle Valley, Utah. He’s a savvy narrator who buries an encomium on a mule’s hoof in a footnote so as not to impede the flow of his fantastic, apocalyptic, and exquisitely romantic narrative. Peck writes with scientific precision and poetic bravura (Leere himself speaks in blank verse!) and his marvelous cautionary tale leaves a reader richer on both counts."—Scott Abbott, Professor of Integrated Studies, Philosophy and Humanities Utah Valley University

"I read the action-packed and oft-humorous Tragedy of King Leere with a deep recognition, not because of my familiarity with Shakespeare’s King Lear, but because of my familiarity with the La Sal Mountains."—Mary O'Brien