THE WASPS AND THE LOCUSTS is an allegorical Christian fiction novel influenced by the anthropomorphic dramas of Richard Adam’s Watership Down, George Orwell’s Animal Farm and the classic metaphorical delivery of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. This tale is inspired from the Old Testament Book of Joel and its visions of spiritual judgment and redemption in the metaphor of a locust invasion sent by God. This story shows themes of forgiveness, perseverance, and faith by interweaving Christian symbolism with the phenomenon of nature and insects.A lone, homeless northern paper wasp queen named Amanda traverses the Farm, a polluted and drought-ravaged valley owned and mismanaged by the Man. Fleeing a sandstorm and a disturbing past, she finds unlikely sanctuary in the nest of grey wasps, an invasive species from a distant land. While struggling to adapt to a new culture and social hierarchy, she is warned by a raven of an impending locust invasion sent by God the Father to destroy the Farm. Told to prepare the wasp colony, which is faced with internecine conflict and absorbed in disingenuous, perfunctory Goddess worship, she faces hardship that challenges her commitment to the Father as well as her survival.When a dubious alliance is formed between her adoptive wasp family and the hornets, Amanda realizes something is gravely wrong, but what exactly is afoot? And when she realizes that hordes of destructive locusts are coming, bringing pestilence and starvation with them, will her nestmates believe her and act accordingly, or will civilization as Amanda knows it come to an end? In addition, she ponders a mysterious entity that holds a clue to the redemption of Creation after the locust attack.Tell your sons about it, and let your sons tell their sons, and their sons the next generation. What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; and what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; and what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten.—Joel 1:3–4 (NASB)