This week's instalment of the Threshold Bookcast takes place in Hasania, the so-called artificial state governed by Omar Malaki.

As the chapter begins, we find Richard Ramsay, the legendary Conservative leader, entertaining himself around the estate of his wealthy hosts, while he waits to meet the patriarch of the dynasty.

« The veteran statesman had never interested himself in the process by which artificial islands were brought into existence, or rather, not more than superficially anyhow. His agenda was usually too crowded for him to take the time and learn about the details of such realizations. He preferred to focus elsewhere, content to simply know that the enterprises were achievable. After all, particulars were the concerns of the specialists, the engineers, architects, ecologists, builders, and whoever else were involved in the operations. Yet, as he strolled around the area, surrounded by the astonishingly diverse variety of floras that had been selected to complement the extravagantly landscaped terrain, he had to admit that the creation was bordering on the miraculous. If he had visited the paradisiacal place just a few years earlier, of all this amazing collection of beautiful objects, not a single item, not even the smallest grain of sand, none of it would have been there to be seen. The vista would have comprised only the sky, the thin distant coastline, and, as if one had travelled to a desert of water, the undulating dunes of the ocean. »

The experienced politician eventually joins the influential Middle Westerner at a nearby pond, where they will hold a crucial conversation.

The fifteenth episode of The Threshold Series, « Tempus Fugit, » follows below. I wish you all an enjoyable reading !