{"product_id":"the-watchman-protocol-9798231450633","title":"The Watchman Protocol","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Watchman Protocol is an oneiric trip to an allegorical alternate universe filled with signs and prophecies. With an examination of the sacred, hierarchies, and death, the language is poetic and the similes heroic. Existential angst abounds as we follow archetypal characters in a stronghold of the mind. Replete with intrigue and vivid plotting, this narrative gives a new dimension to the word \"imaginative.\"\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLarissa Shmailo, editor, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Writing Resilience Anthology--\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"In the outlandish world of R.W. Spryszak's The Watchman Protocol, all holy books are man- made; amputations aren't a matter of medical judgment, but are required by law; and central characters are identified not by their given names, but by their official functions (e.g., the titular Watchman, the Seer, and the Courier). The author presents us with a sinister parallel world that at times comes across as futuristic (\"half the world was in a heroin stupor\") and at times medieval (\"But he was mistaken, having forgotten about the red candles in the confessional upstairs\"). A hint of anxiety runs through Spryszak's sentences as they propel the characters toward fates that seem to have been predetermined by the human Masters (Why are these particular men the Masters? Because that's just who they are). The society described in The Watchman Protocol makes the society in Fritz Lang's Metropolis look almost like a gated community.\"\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJoel Allegretti, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eauthor of Our Dolphin and editor of Rabbit Ears: TV Poems\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBrutal and yet somehow evocative of our strangest human compulsion for love, Spryszak once again tears at and shreds conventional notions of narrative plot, and intimate characterizations, and, in its deeper-than-dark premise, leaves us ambiguously leaning into a certain historical nostalgia for the mystery of circus performers, and the non-conformist art of the 17th-century burlesque, when mockery and ridicule were once the true oxygen of socio-political satire. A necessary dark tale for the darkness of our time.\" \" 'The Watchman Protocol' is bewitching, as if dug up from some middling-earth of the Dark Ages, primal\u003cstrong\u003e, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAmantine Brodeur. Butterfly in a Hurricane (Ice Floe Press)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=AUTH-11145066\"\u003eRw Spryszak\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Sulfur Editions\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/28\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 210\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.63lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.48d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798231450633\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC Categories:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-FIC\"\u003eFiction\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-FIC000000\"\u003eGeneral\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis title is not returnable\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sulfur Editions","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48459557896429,"sku":"9798231450633","price":26.67,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0550\/8097\/6621\/files\/img_1b4e46d6-bfc7-4170-af37-d198aa3bcfac.jpg?v=1753641029","url":"https:\/\/sureshotbooks.com\/products\/the-watchman-protocol-9798231450633","provider":"SureShot Books Publishing LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}