When flying jellyfish rise out of the ocean and maraud through Qualicum Beach, Canada’s “oldest” town, they set off a media circus that makes the sleepy retirement community an unlikely darling of every news organization and disaster fan on the planet. But as the jellies’ astonishing reproductive capacities and indiscriminate appetites become dangerously apparent—and the world beyond “God’s Waiting Room” begins to feel the flyers’ gelatinous power—panic sets in.
Stranded in Qualicum Beach by the growing global crisis, an incongruous team—a feisty eco-gardener, a randy admiral, a flirtatious spy, and a jellyfish-loving marine biologist—come together to uncover the secret behind the jellyfish invasion before the jellies replace humanity at the top of the global food chain.
In this fast-moving sci-fi satire of corporate greed, media claptrap, institutional stupidity, small-town politics, and the age-old urge to turn a profit regardless of consequences, the four unlikely detectives navigate an increasingly chaotic and deadly environment in search of answers.
Can humanity learn to live with creatures that eat everything and reproduce by the millions?
Brian Wilford worked as a print journalist in Canada for thirty-five years before retiring to a small town not very far from Qualicum Beach. He has been deeply concerned about climate and environmental issues for many years, especially our failure to take seriously the degradation of the planet that is increasingly evident.
Recently he became fascinated by the threat to oceans and fisheries as jellyfish take advantage of pollution and warming waters to overwhelm other species. Since humour often cuts through political noise, Wilford harnesses it to full effect in Rise of the Jellies, his first novel.
ISBN: 9781038322371
Format: Hardback
Pages: 342
Publisher: FriesenPress
Published: February 13, 2025
Canadian Read