Lichtenberg

In a frozen and hopeless future, Raidon City stands, the last bastion of civilisation in an otherwise barbaric world. The city's elite soldiers, the Corps, keep its inhabitants safe, hunting the treacherous Ramasites scattered around the barren wastes who seek to bring the city to its knees. To the Corps, these outsiders are vermin, nothing more than animals to be slaughtered on sight - and they delight in this sport. To the citizens of Raidon, the Corps are their heroes, the offspring of noble lines sacrificing all to protect their beloved home.

At least, this is how it seems.

Fiercest among the corpsmen is Riven, whose prowess in battle is matched only by the intellect he evinces in the ritual games of their order. But Riven will learn of cracks in the propaganda of the city-state; of long-kept secrets festering in the darkness; and of rumours of a coming Ramasite invasion that conflict with the reality he sees beyond the walls.

Questioning his own morals and introduced to truths that challenge a lifetime of indoctrination, Riven must tackle an eternal question at the risk of Raidon's demise...

How can an intelligent man be so easily fooled?

Tom O'Connell lives in County Galway in Ireland. He holds degrees in English and law from the University of Galway, and won the Dr. H.H. Stewart and Peel prizes for English composition in 2018. The brief legal stint that followed couldn't deter him from a lifelong love of writing, and he is currently studying for his MA in English, turning in papers rather than briefs.

This has required a litany of odd jobs to support himself, from jeweller to gym receptionist, but the thrill of creating written works sustains him most of all - and he feels he is doing justice, if not to the legal world, then to his five-year-old self, who was wont to hijack school lessons with handwritten stories brought from home.

Lichtenberg is his debut novel, a dystopian tale that draws on his academic background in exploring themes of language: its ability to distort perception, influence will, and create ideology. He similarly weaves his legal experience into the story, lending realism to his worldbuilding and the social structure of Lichtenberg's unforgiving world. The novel was selected as one of the twelve winners (from 700) of the Irish Writers Centre's Novel Fair 2023.

Tom is planning on pursuing a PhD in contemporary dystopian literature following the completion of his MA.