Southwest Minnesota State University’s very own English professor, Dr. James Zarzana, presented his first novel in a four-part series, penned “The Marsco Saga”, with two reading events, held at the Marshall Public Library and SMSU, respectively.

In the first of many fall readings for SMSU, Dr. Zarzana shared with us two excerpts from his new novel, “The Marsco Dissident”.

Marsco, a long-ruling corporation that has had control over the Earth for twenty-five years, uses science and technology to govern the world.

This control, though it has kept peace for many years, starts to be questioned by many, including the novel’s main characters.

This novel tells the story of Walter Miller, a successful engineer who has worked many years with Marsco, but who tires of the oppressiveness of this corporation’s power and seeks to have control over his own life.

His daughter, Tessa, remains loyal to the company, though she struggles with how she feels internally about Marsco’s power, somewhat putting her at odds with her father. Meanwhile, Anthony Grizotti, nicknamed Zot, falls out of love with Tessa due to her loyalty to Marsco and struggles to find a way out of the company’s control.

Zarzana also explained the significance of finger discs, where only associates of Marsco are allowed to have them in order to run the computers, of PRIMs, the lowest order of society, and more.

This is the first of four novels that Zarzana has created for this saga. The second novel, “The Marsco Triumphant”, is set to be released sometime around December.

“The Marsco Dissident” is available on Amazon through the Amazon Kindle for $5.99 and for download to a computer.