Survival as Democracy Dies is a peek into a potential near future. As in The Handmaid’s Tale a U.S. dictator has assumed power and suppressed basic freedoms.

This is a tale based on current political and climactic trends continuing on their current trajectory. But it is also a tale full of humour and fanciful exaggeration.

Arctic ice has melted causing a rise in sea level around the globe. Coastal areas have been submerged and habitable land shrunken. The northern arctic has become tropical as it was in the early paleogene period. Previously extinct animal remains have been exposed and genetically recreated including wooly mammoths, giant apes (gigantopithecus ) and pterodactyls.

President for Life Batschitte has ordered the invasion of Canada. Six disparate characters have united with the common cause of escaping north from the invaders. They include Eagle Eye, a First Nations Micmac hunter/trapper, Chip, an accident victim whose microchip brain surgery has endowed her with unusual digital abilities, Tiny a hybrid gorilla/human genetically created as an organ donor, Pops a retired college professor who assisted Tiny in his escape from a science centre, Muzak a unicycle riding street performer, and Tammy, a zoo animal handler who has saved Eightball, a donkey, and Daphne, a tame wolf from the abattoir.