Two years and two weeks ago, on April 6, 2017, BCC Press began with a single book: Steven Peck’s Science the Key to Theology. Today, we are proud to announce the publication of our 21st book, also by Steven Peck: The Tragedy of King Leere, the Goatherd of the La Sals.
In a certain (very metaphorical) sense, BCC Press is now a Steve Peck sandwich. We have a varied and tantalizing selection of fiction, poetry, drama, and memoir, and Steve is the artisan bread that holds it all together and gives it a shape. Science the Key to Theology is a serious work of philosophical nonfiction with the potential to change the way that Latter-day Saints see the universe. King Leere, on the other hand, is a post-modern, post-climate-change, post-American novel set in Southern Utah among people who used to be Mormons.
In some ways, King Leere is a straightforward, post-apocalyptic version of Shakespeare’s King Lear, complete with all of the things you would expect from someone who really understands the Bard–things like transgenic porcupines and semi-sentient attack robots. But it is also a theological meditation framed by the meditations of a daemon (not the same thing as a demon, but maybe a very distant cousin) and a sharp warning to the world about the consequences of environmental degradation.
And it has already won more praise than anything that BCC Press has ever published, in the form of a STARRED REVIEW IN PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY. For those who don’t know how the book industry works–well, we don’t really know either. But a starred review is a big freaking deal. Major books by really famous writers don’t always get them, and established publishers change their marketing plans when they get one.
And we got one. Steve got one. And listen to what they said:
Peck builds a fascinating world of technological solutions to global warming alongside Leere’s free verse monologues, an omniscient daemon narrator, and KENT’s paeans to King James English. Readers will instantly be won over by this wildly creative blend of stunning speculation, terrifying warning, and fraught relationships.
Add to this an afterword by the world-famous ecologist Mary O’Brien and endorsements by Scott Abbott, Brooke Williams, Vanja Polić, and Dayna Kidd Patterson–famous and important humans all–and you get a book that you definitely want to buy and we are profoundly proud to publish.
By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog 
Sounds promising. I just did a rabbit hole search of the author and came across this verbiage. “‘…perhaps Mormondom’s best living writer,’ says Michael Austin.” So who else is the running for Mormondom’s best living writer other than Br. Peck?
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If I were making a list of fiction-writers only, I could include Jennifer Quist, James Goldberg, Angela Hallstrom, Karen Rosenbaum, Tim Wirkus, Levi Peterson, and Todd Robert Peterson on a shortlist.
a rare case of an editor writing as brilliantly as his author
by the way: my son Ben is talking about the science of climate change tonight in Provo at Writ & Vision, where Steve will read from this wonderful novel
You had me at “complete with all of the things you would expect from someone who really understands the Bard–things like transgenic porcupines and semi-sentient attack robots.”
First fiction book I’ve bought in years. I’m excited!