THE ALCHEMISTS OF KUSH
by Minister Faust
Published: April 11th, 2017
trade paperback -
ISBN 978-1-63023-085-2
Amazon | B & N
ebook -
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Two Sudanese "lost boys." Both fathers murdered during civil war. Both mothers forced into exile where the only law was violence. To survive, the boys became ruthless loners and child soldiers, until they found mystic mentors who transformed them into their true destinies.
One: known to the streets as the Supreme Raptor; the other: known to the Greeks as Horus, son of Osiris. Separated by seven thousand years, and yet connected by immortal truth.
Born in fire. Baptized in blood. Brutalized by the wicked. Sworn to transform the world and themselves. They are the Alchemists of Kush.
PRAISE
"It was only a matter of time before the hip hop culture would invade the literary world. With The Alchemists of Kush, Minister Faust is leading the invasion. His novel is possibly the first hip hop epic. Hip hop has a short attention span on most occasions. The Alchemists of Kush gives it gravitas."
—Ishmael Reed, author of Mumbo Jumbo
"Minister Faust's first two books broke new ground in the SF field. His latest, The Alchemists of Kush, not only breaks new ground; with the story-telling skills of a modern jali, the Minister creates new vistas of history, mythology, erudition, uplift, tragedy, triumph, and contemporary community activism. Once you start the first page of this book, you won't be able to put it down until you've finished the last one."
—Charles R. Saunders, author of Imaro
"A hell of a story. A hell of a book. A hell of a style. A frenetic novel and voice—very enjoyable. Minister Faust knows how to write about male relationships, brotherhoods, and getting into the hearts of men, and about boys turning into men. The Alchemists of Kush is a triumph, not just for Minister Faust, but for Edmonton and the community of Kush."
—Wayne Arthurson, author of Fall From Grace
"In The Alchemists of Kush, Minister Faust risks telling stories that threaten the empire-builders, that encourage us all to become agents of action. Such a novel demands a truthful response. I've been thinking we need prayers for right now. Advertising jingles and gangsta rhymes split our souls, jangle our spirits a thousand times a day. Minister Faust is a technician of the sacred, getting the geometry, the dance of our humanity into his words. Buy The Alchemists of Kush for yourself and a friend. Read it and then give it away. Give it away a lot."
—Andrea Hairston, author of Redwood and Wildfire and winner of the James Tiptree, Jr Award
"The Alchemists of Kush is more than a story; it's a philosophical elixir of Kemetic (Egyptian) folklore, African traditions, urban Sufism, hip hop culture, and Five Percenter pedagogy designed to transmute the challenges of colonialism, assimilation, juvenile delinquency, and moral decay into a universal solvent. Through an array of colourful characters facing unique struggles towards advancing a common cause, Minister Faust boldly takes his readers on an alchemical journey of Self Knowledge, Self Determination, and Community Action, a transformative terrain of true & living 'gold'!"
—Saladin Quanaah Allah, author of Tales of an Urban Sufi
"The Alchemists of Kush blew my expectations clean out of the water. The importance of faith has been fresh in my mind recently. And as the novel is, at its heart, about a spiritual awakening, it felt perfectly timed that I discovered it when I did. The twin stories and characters had me drawn in immediately, and it didn't hurt that there was ample name dropping of favorite musical artists (Gil Scott-Heron among them) and comic book characters (Static and King Peacock). The characters are rich, their battles hard fought and heartbreaking. And the resulting a affirmation of love, community, pride, responsibility, and family makes this the caliber of book I would love to see as required reading . . . Highly recommended."
—Nathan Crowder, author of Cobalt City Blues
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Minister Faust is a writer. When he was 17 he wrote and directed his first play, the science fiction drama The Undiscovered Country, in Montreal. He has written and performed sketch comedy for The 11:02 Show and Gordon's Big Bald Head at the Edmonton International Fringe Festival, and video game content for BioWare and Maxis.
In addition to having written advertising copy, he's an award-winning print journalist who's published scores of articles for publications including The Globe and Mail, i09, Greg Tate's Coon Bidness, and Adventure Rocketship. He's an award-winning radio journalist who hosted Africentric Radio (originally The Terrordome), Canada's then longest-running Africentric current affairs programme (1991 - 2012).
As a radio and print journalist, Minister Faust went as far as the 1995 Million Man March in Washington, DC and to the Ain-al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon to collect stories and hear directly from people living and making history. He also worked in television, including as a judge on two seasons of the ground-breaking reality show The 3-Day Novel Contest, and co-hosted and associate-produced the final season of the live national daily HelpTV. He's taught print journalism to youth writers, and radio interview technique to community broadcasters.
As a member of E-Town's anti-fascist movement in 1990, Minister Faust and other youth marched on a Nazi skinhead gang house, the hub at that time for a series of violent assaults. Confronted there by skinheads with guns, Minister Faust held them back with nothing but the power of his words. Thus began a speaking career that has taken him across Canada and before crowds in the tens of thousands for workers, multiculturalism, and peace. He also teaches public speaking and delivered the TEDx presentation "The Cure for Death By Small-Talk" which has been watched by almost three quarters of a million people.
Having taught English Literature in E-Town junior high and high schools for a decade, Minister Faust later worked as a mentor and trainer for the Keshotu Leadership Academy, an Africentric organisation whose manual he wrote. He's also taught creative writing for Alberta's YouthWrite, at Clarion West in Seattle, and Shared Worlds in Spartanburg, South Carolina; presented at the Science Fiction Research Association Conference in Detroit, at Georgia Tech and at California State University at Los Angeles Eagle Con on Africentric science fiction and fantasy, and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Writing Another Future conference on eschatology in Parliament-Funkadelic. He was the writer in residence at for the English and Film Studies Department of the University of Alberta (2014-2015).
Minister Faust currently hosts the podcast MF GALAXY on pop culture, politics, Africentricity, and writers on the craft and business of writing. His many guests have included Wayne Arthurson (Fall from Gracee), Molefi Kete Asante (Afrocentricity), Martin Bernal (Black Athena), Chuck D., (Fear of a Black Planet), Ernest Dickerson (Juice), Tananarive Due (My Soul to Keep), Maria Dunn (Piece by Piece), Brandon Easton (Agent Carter), Karl Evanzz (The Judas Factor: The Plot to Kill Malcolm X), Antony Q. Farrell (The Office), Sylvia Feketekuty (Mass Effect 3), Tom Fontana (Oz), Rick Green (Four on the Floor), Andrea Hairston (Will Do Magic for Small Change), Faith Erin Hicks (The Nameless City), Nalo Hopkinson (Brown Girl in the Ring), Reginald Hudlin (Black Panther), N.K. Jemisin (The Killing Moon), Joy Lusco Kecken (Homicide), Michael Parenti (The Assassination of Julius Caesar), Eden Robinson (Monkey Beach), Gil Scott-Heron (Winter in America), Charles Saunders (Imaro), Robert J. Sawyer (Quantum Night), David Simon (The Wire), Jay Turner (Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel), Kenneth T. Williams (Thunderstick), and. Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese). The show provides subscribers-only bonus content featuring craft and business advice by famous, successful writers in every field.
A maverick novelist determined to push the frontiers, Minister Faust is the author of the critically acclaimed The Coyote Kings, Book One: Space-Age Bachelor Pad, and the Kindred Award-winning Shrinking the Heroes. He refers to his sub-genre of writing as Imhotep-Hop—an Africentric literature that draws from myriad ancient African civilizations, explores present realities, and imagines a future in which people struggle not only for justice, but for the stars.
He lives in Edmonton with his wife and daughters.