Covenants of Blood & Salt & Honey: A Review of “The Desert Prophet” by Camilla Stark
Title: The Desert Prophet
Author and illustrator: Camilla Stark
Publisher : Camilla Stark Art
Genre: Graphic Novel
Publication date : September 5, 2025
Print length : 180 pages
Reviewed by Henrik Sorensen
…each strange little skeleton you meet in the wilderness is a child of the Desert God and you might, through your preaching, save just one of them.
The first time I saw the draft for The Desert Prophet was in 2019, when Camilla sent a rough pdf for me to peruse and share my thoughts. It was immediately obvious to me that I was looking at something unique and special. I have been following the project ever since and it is with absolute joy that I finally received my own copy of the final published version in the mail today, a work of art and literature that transcends genres and belief systems and swirls together into what is a remarkably simple, remarkably complex, and remarkably human story about how each of us reacts to the end of the world.
I don’t know when I became a pessimist or if I’m still becoming a pessimist, but I’m afraid to say that at some point in my life I did weave a little chrysalis of cynicism around my caterpillar psyche and have, probably, over the last few years, begun to poke my wet insectoid antennae out into the cool air of the world around me and to take those first trepidatious steps as a fully formed butterfly of despair. The world is ending. I think that’s clear. Sure, the world has ended before and will probably end again in the future but it’s definitely ending now, as we speak. The world has always been ending. It’s been a doomed project from the start.
In The Desert Prophet the world is ending because of greed and consumption and climate change. So is ours. And more. Take your pick. If you don’t agree that one particular thing is bringing about the end of humanity, I am certain you can find a different one that’s more to your liking. I suppose there’s probably never been a point in human history when that wasn’t basically true. Wars, plagues, mutually assured destruction, and so forth. Okay, so what?
The temptation of the so-called righteous (whether or not they really are) during the world’s perpetual ending is first to preach, I think, and then, when they are inevitably rejected (because no one wants the world to end but nobody wants to change), to throw down your tablets or staff or sit under the shade of your vine and say, “Fine, go to Hell and see if I care.” I’m not particularly righteous but have occasional aspirations in that direction and the temptation to simply give into despair and wrap yourself in the warm, weighted blanket of apathy is ever-present. You want a better world for your children and everyone else says they want that too and yet collectively we always seem to just make things worse or if we somehow make things better we find some way of poisoning society with our surplus. The Desert Prophet is a story written by someone who understands and has felt the pull to dust off their feet and withdraw from the world as it proceeds on its heedless way to Hell and then made the decision to reject that pull.
But it takes effort. It takes realization. It takes enough love to douse the flames of frustration at the world around you. It takes learning lessons from every good and bad character we meet in our own desert wanderings. It takes realizing that when you reject humankind, you are rejecting yourself because you are a part of that human family and you don’t get to make the decision not to be (and if you do, you are dislocating yourself from your place in the Universe). Camus once said, “He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.” We should aspire, then, to be holy fools. It’s easier to reject. It’s easier to walk away. It’s easier to pretend you’ve done all you can do and you no longer owe these people anything. But, “…what about those you could have saved had you continued preaching?”
The Desert Prophet is an incredibly beautiful work of art, with images that evoke a lonely night in the Great Basin spent sitting by a campfire and watching the fluid shadows draw strange figures against the canyon walls. You will meet characters, fair and foul, that you will fall in love with on nearly every page. You will put yourself in the Desert Prophet’s skeletal shoes and take each step of her journey with her, peering at the night through the empty sockets of her skull. You will meet the Desert God face-to-face and you will need to answer their questions. Then you will close the book and you will make the conscious decision to pick up your staff, walk back out of the desert, and keep preaching, because each strange little skeleton you meet in the wilderness is a child of the Desert God and you might, through your preaching, save just one of them.
You can purchase The Desert Prophet on Amazon or at https://www.desertprophet.com/