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When Chase Bolling tells people he writes science fiction, it often raises eyebrows.
He isn’t surprised. Bolling, 33, of Bridgeport, is Black and indigenous (his maternal ancestors were born in the Choctaw nation in Mississippi) and is aware that he is not what most people picture when they think of the stereotypical sci-fi geek. “They’re not used to somebody of my ethnic background writing sci-fi, let alone being a fan of sci-fi,” he says.
But Bolling independently published his science-fiction novel “The Road of Resistance” at the beginning of the year, and the book is getting a reissue this month, under the independent urban publisher Wahida Clark Presents Publishing.
The book — the first in
Bolling’s “The Vanguard” series — is published under the company’s imprint Sci-Fi Fantasy for the Culture, of which Bolling was also recently named managing editor. “The Road of Resistance” is set in a dystopian United States in which all modern weapons have been eradicated.
“The Road of Resistance” is split into two parts, both of which came out on Nov. 17. The second book of “The Vanguard” was also released the same day and Bolling has two more books that are scheduled for release next year.
Though Bolling says the books’ characters travel to a variety of places throughout the course of the series, “The Road of Resistance” is set largely in Bridgeport. Bolling says he always wanted to start the series in his city because “I feel like Bridgeport is one of the most unique places in the country. feel like nowhere else has the unique grit and character of Bridgeport.”
Bolling says he’s always loved science fiction and fantasy, and the genre played a huge role in shaping him. “I wanted to be a genetic scientist when I was 7 years old because of Spider-Man,” he says. “I thought that was so cool.”
With its elaborately constructed fantasy worlds, science fiction also created an escape, Bolling says. And an escape is what he needed in 2018, when he began writing “The Road of Resistance.” At that time, Bolling says, his mother was ill with breast cancer, and the man he considered his surrogate father was dying of lung cancer.
“The real world wasn’t working out so well, so I created one of my own,” Bolling explains.
He finished the book around Thanksgiving 2018, and still hadn’t found a home for it in February 2019 when he was in a serious car accident. After the crash, he found himself in need of a project, so he began working on the second volume of “The Vanguard.”
“As I was at home recovering, my wife said, ‘You can’t just sit at home and think. You’ve got to do something,’ ” Bolling says.
Though writing and reading science fiction has provided Bolling with an escape, he says it also gives a platform to write about contemporary issues — including racism and violence — in a palatable way. He says many science-fiction writers find a way to talk about race “but nobody gets their feathers ruffled, because you’re taking it out of the realm of reality.”
He says his books can serve as a commentary on what’s going on in the present, particularly surrounding police violence and the Black Lives Matter movement. In fact, Bolling says, some people he knows have accused him of being too prescient.
“All of my friends who read ‘Road of Resistance’ yelled at me and said I wrote everything into existence,” Bolling says.
Bolling says through his books and his new role as managing editor of Sci-Fi Fantasy for the Culture, he wants to change the way people think about science fiction, and about the people who read and write it. He says one of the biggest influences on him was the writer Charles Saunders, a pioneer in the so-called “sword and soul” genre, which blends sci-fi and fantasy with African traditions and culture.
Saunders died in May, and Bolling says his death leaves a huge gap in the genre. “We desperately need stories and new heroes,” he says.