The Delilah Virus—a plague whose victims spout confusing last words before dying—has wiped out every biological male on the planet. All except one: Fletcher Sinclair, a stereotypical gamer nerd surviving on daydreams and energy drinks. As it turns out, being the literal last man on Earth does make him extremely interesting to all sorts of women…but not always for the best reasons.
Fletcher’s journey is divided into five parts, each titled by the identity he wears, adopts for himself, or finds himself saddled with. The bulk of Erik Dargitz’s THE ODYSSEY OF FLETCHER sees him in the care of a group of doctors from La Jolla, eager to discover why he was spared. Though he’s sterile—meaning repopulation is off the table—they’re convinced they can isolate whatever kept him off Delilah’s hit list. As Fletcher begins to find purpose, friendship, and maybe even love (in the form of feminist philosopher Jordan), the allure of power sinks in. He realizes his importance to the world, and intends to revel in it. But that’s just the beginning of his odyssey. Fletcher’s actions and choices—along with the violence and madness of the outside world—will find him mixed up with other, less savory groups. Cults of cheerful sister-wives and a militant uprising await him, each with their own lessons about what it means to be a man in the world. By the end, Fletcher Sinclair will have to maintain his grounding and recover his sense of self for the human race to stand a chance. The women Fletcher meets along his journey are multifaceted, none colored solely by their gender. There are women who are desperate for love and families, women who are violent and cruel, women who delight in sexually-charged jokes as a path to friendship, women who hate all men for no reason, and women who are cautious of men for good reason. The kindest women can be the toughest, and the cruelest can be the funniest.
At its heart, THE ODYSSEY OF FLETCHER has a very earnest message, and one that deserves to be heard. Occasionally, like its hero, the message can get a bit lost and muddled—but it’s worth hanging on to the end and seeing Fletcher through his various metamorphoses. Even if there has been something of a bumper crop of pandemic narratives, this is one that focuses less on the plague itself and more on the humanity and sense of purpose each of us can find in troubled times.
In THE ODYSSEY OF FLETCHER, Erik Dargitz tells a solid story of identity, morality, and personal growth for the last man on Earth.
~Kara Dennison for IndieReader