User:Jeremygbyrne/Alchemy (novel)

Alchemy is a 2019 alternate history novel by Sylvia La Some. An early manuscript of the novel and its prequel inspired an animated motion picture which was released some six years before the first book. Alchemy recieved a Sidewise Award (Long Form) in 2020. (The third book in the Cycle, Astrology, is a prequel to the opening diad, set in the 1930s.)

Plot

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{{spoiler}} Four years on, Standingstone’s mission has become the defense of the planet itself. As her polarized world tilts on the brink of nuclear war, reclusive owner-director Marilyn is forced to begin personally piloting the investigation through an ever-expanding web of modern intrigue and ancient conspiracy. As evidence emerges of an apocalyptic project with a rapidly-approaching deadline, Marilyn’s dedication is turning to dangerous obsession, Maddie and Wulf’s firey relationship is becoming a threat to the organization and someone within the company is working against them.

In a 2012 slipping rapidly towards biblical Armageddon, Alchemy follows the group as they uncover the hidden battlegrounds of a conflict far older than civilization and a secret at the very heart of human nature.

Book of Revelation

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The book opens with Marilyn's serendipitous purchase, through her Art Auction business, of a bundle of manuscripts, commentaries and ephemera which "proves" that the Book of Revelation is a 6th Century forgery, based on a different book entirely, mentioned by anti-Gnostic Irenaeus in 185 (of which the Apocalypse_of_Pseudo-Methodius is a variation). (The documents discuss the politics of its inclusion into canon, along with that of the non-synpotic, unusual and "High Christological" Gospel of John — which was promoted by the "disappearance" of the original Gospel of John, known as the Q document — to replace the Apocalypse of Peter and the further the ends of an unnamed organisation with specific, long-term aims. (See also Fifth_Monarchy_Men.)

Marilyn's December 2011 journey to Iraq (to discuss her discoveries with a Mandaean professor of history) and India (to discuss the Thomasian parts of the discovery) almost results in her replacement as CEO of Standingstone by its board.

Notes

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  • Dating the Bible re. no scripture older than 200BC; Josephus on Jesus discusses clear forgery of evidence for Jesus
  • All the schisms in the early churches were about getting people to agree to believe impossible things.
  • Golden Dawn document expounding an astrological interpretation for biblical eschatology
  • Gnosticism and the New Testament
  • Codex Vaticanus is missing its last quarter, including Revelation
  • Constantine's 50 bibles forced canon to be settled
  • The "copyright statement" at the end of Revelation is a dead giveaway for the fit-up
A Nestorian connection?
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Possibility
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Marilyn's find includes evidence that the Muratorian fragment, which purports to be a 7th Century translation of a 2nd Century original, and Athaneus's canon, which appends Revelation quite dubiously (having earlier rejected it), are 6th Century forgeries, and several other examples of this kind of forgery (previously unknown) are included.

Eschatology and 2012

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La Some's alternate history includes the Omega Point-like notion that the 2012 "event" involves a large number of simultaneous social changes, peaking trends and unique events: a simultaneity-spike. Some of the components of that event are:

  • Feminisation of World Politics: by December 2012, following the election of Elizabeth Montgomery to the US Presidency, the majority of members of the Security Council, and more than 40% of the members of the General Assembly, have female heads of State.
  • Emergence of AI from the pool and the georgebox project, culminating in the pseudo-empathic "awakening" of Seven
  • Attempted assassination of Pres. Bush by a New Zealander
  • Marriage of William V and activation of the ley-line grid (following a plan millions of years in execution)
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Timeline

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  • 04 February 2011: William V returns to public life with Parkinson interview

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