Bolton author publishes first dystopian novel

By Zachary Roman

At 26 years old, Samantha Filice has already published four books. 

The first three books were fantasy novels and they formed a trilogy. Her latest, Caged by Steel & Gems, is a standalone novel set in a dystopian future after the “final world war.”

In the world Filice has created for her book, most of the world is in ruins from nuclear warfare, and humans from all over the world live in a giant walled area, “The Americas.” A council of political leaders from around the world was put together to try and solve the resulting unrest; eventually, a “vaccine” was created for what the council advertised as a health aid.

Filice said she had this idea long before the COVID-19 pandemic began, and was hesitant to publish her book since she didn't want people to get the wrong idea.

“As COVID started happening, and then they introduced a vaccine, I was just like, ‘Oh my gosh, what am I supposed to do with this book?'... my brother and his girlfriend earlier this year, [they said] ‘No, now's the time to publish it. You shouldn't be scared to publish it',” said Filice.

She said in “The Americas”, there's a north and a south kingdom, each ruled by a queen. The novel is told through the perspectives of twin sister heirs who are fighting for the north throne. One heir is in support of the council, while the other thinks the council is wrong and gets involved with a rebellion that's against it.

Felice said she's been writing since Grade 7, when she fell in love with the Twilight series and read it 22 times. Her mom forced her to get some new books and that was Filice's gateway into the world of fantasy reading and writing. When Filice went to high school, she already knew she wanted to be a writer and picked her courses accordingly. 

After that, she went to university and specialized in contemporary communications information technology and majored in professional writing at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

Felice said writing her book was a good exercise in world-building and that her experience writing and reading fantasy helped her tackle that challenge in the new post-apocalyptic world she created.

She also enjoyed how some of the political intrigue in her book had some relation to the real world — that was something test readers of Caged by Steel & Gems told her.

“Hearing people's responses to it kind of got me really excited, because it was my first time writing dystopian and hearing it being related to the Divergent and Selection series', I was just very flattered,” said Filice.

She said another revelation she had while writing is that she writes about sisters a lot, as she's the youngest of four children — she has two older sisters and an older brother.

“I'm so close with my siblings… I value family,” said Filice.

Copies of Filice's self-published book will be available at Forster's Book Garden in Bolton, and are also available for purchase online on Amazon.