Marty Essen

Doctor Refurb Marty Essen

An unconventional, satirical, controversial, time travel comedy!




What if you could reach back in time to deport the world's worst environmental villains to a depository planet before their greed condemns Earth to an ecological apocalypse? What if each time you did so, an alien instantly extracted a body part and replaced it with a refurbished one? Would you still do it?




With little choice but to cooperate, Dr. Stefan Westin (aka Doctor Refurb) and vet tech Tara Kramer endure multiple body part extractions for the sake of Earth. Then, with the help of Rodney, a full-time planetary consultant from another galaxy, they must finish the job by traveling back in time to capture Ralph, a rebellious alien who has been jumping from person to person doing evil in the name of Christianity since biblical times. But Ralph could be anywhere-from leading the Spanish Inquisition, to instigating the Salem witch hangings, to abusing indigenous children at residential schools in Canada, to occupying an abusive missionary in Brazil. Only by capturing Ralph can Stefan and Tara annul the unholy marriage between conservative Christianity and the worst environmental villains. Adding to the difficulty of their task is that they must succeed before expending their time travel budget. Should they fail, Rodney's supervisor won't wait for the ecological apocalypse to happen-she'll order Earth recycled immediately!




Heartrending yet hilarious, Doctor Refurb is influenced by actual historical events and confronts the serious subjects of climate change, far-right politics, and child abuse committed by Christian authorities.




Doctor Refurb is intended for open-minded readers and was published to coincide with Banned Books Week 2022. Read it before it becomes the most frequently banned book of 2033! (We're time travelers; we checked.)
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