Our War by Craig DiLouie - Book Tour + Giveaway
Our War
by Craig DiLouie
Genre: Dystopian Thriller
A prescient and gripping novel of a second American civil war, and the children caught in the conflict, forced to fight.
Our children are our soldiers.
After his impeachment, the president of the United States refuses to leave office, and the country erupts into a fractured and violent war. Orphaned by the fighting and looking for a home, 10-year-old Hannah Miller joins a citizen militia in a besieged Indianapolis.
In the Free Women militia, Hannah finds a makeshift family. They'll teach her how to survive. They'll give her hope. And they'll show her how to use a gun.
Hannah's older brother, Alex, is a soldier, too. But he's loyal to other side, and has found his place in a militant group of fighters who see themselves as the last bastion of their America. By following their orders, Alex will soon make the ultimate decision behind the trigger.
On the battlefields of America, Hannah and Alex will risk everything for their country, but in the end, they'll fight for the only cause that truly matters - each other.
Anatomy
of Civil War
By Craig DiLouie
Craig
DiLouie is an author of speculative fiction. His most recent novel, Our War, was published by Orbit in August 2019.
Learn more at CraigDiLouie.com.
Recent events have prompted more
than one reader to tell me my dystopian novel Our War (Orbit, August 2019), about a second American civil war, is
quickly becoming nonfiction. A 2018 Rasmussen poll found that nearly a third of
Americans believed a civil war was likely to happen in the United States in the
next five years. While I personally believe civil strife (defined as 25+ deaths
per year) is far more likely than civil war (defined as 1,000+ combatant deaths
per year), the scenario depicted in Our
War, which is precipitated by the impeachment of a president who refuses to
step down, is certainly plausible.
In this novel, just as in
reality, American politics has become so polarized and tribalized that it
gained conditions that have precipitated coups and civil wars in other
countries: entrenched polarization, distrust of public institutions, violence
achieving legitimacy as a way of solving problems, lack of political
leadership, and divisive press coverage.
The war’s first catalyst is the
president’s impeachment by the House. As in reality, right-wing commentators,
militias, and even politicians warn of civil war if the Congress were to remove
him. Meanwhile, thousands of people camp at the National Mall in an “Occupy the
Mall” protest demanding the president resign, though the country is evenly
split on whether he should be removed, and one-third unequivocally support him.
After the Senate convicts the president, he refuses to leave office, triggering
a Constitutional crisis. Snipers fire into the crowds at the Mall, resulting in
a massacre aired on live television and a nationwide panic.
Experts have estimated that as many as 60,000 armed
right-wing militia members are operating in the United States. They stage a
national armed protest that snowballs into a revolution. In their view, they
are fulfilling the intent of the Founding Fathers who said if the government
became broken, the citizenry had a right to overthrow and replace it. While
their initial goal is to protect the president against a perceived soft coup by
the Deep State, eventually they aim for a Constitutional Convention that will
completely rewrite the American system.
Even with swelling recruitment in the first days of
the civil war, they don’t have the numbers or resources to control the entire
country, but they do have enough to roll into a small town, make changes to its
government, and keep going to the next. The Three Percenters militia is to an
extent based on this concept, that only a small percentage of Americans is
necessary to successfully overthrow the government, inspired by a belief that
only three percent of Americans fought and won the American Revolution.
The government, meanwhile, dithers in response to
this rapid, diffuse threat to national security. While there are some 650,000
police in the United States, many would be sympathetic or even actively join
the militia side, and the majority of the rest are in cities, where the militias
are indeed stopped from going further. As for the powerful U.S. military, they
would find it very difficult to respond. A recent Military Times survey found that nearly four out of five
active-duty service members see the military as being more politically
polarized. One out of three service members is registered Republican, with the
officer corps tending to be more conservative, and one out of five is
registered Democrat, with the rank and file tending to be more liberal. Add to
this the fact that though impeached, the president remains the commander in
chief of the nation’s armed forces.
The military faces a tough
choice. They could remove the president with a coup, attempt to restore order
by force and risk open warfare against Americans, or safeguard life and vital
infrastructure while the president and Congress, which has relocated to New
York, begin talks to achieve a political solution. They decide on the latter,
leaving the war’s factions to fight it out among themselves.
Civil war ensues. Eventually, the
battle lines would form not between states but largely between rural (sparse
population density and predominantly conservative) and urban (high population
density and predominantly liberal). For example, Indianapolis, where Our War takes place a year after the war
started, is a deep "blue" city in a sea of "red." In the
early days of civil strife, gunmen in ski masks attempted to cordon off
sections of the city, but failed in the face of massive crowds taking to the
streets demanding unity and peace. After a bomb goes off in Mile Square,
followed by days of house to house fighting between police and gunmen
(including rogue police officers), the city government finally secures the city
only to find it surrounded by right-wing militias who regard it as the grand
prize. This is very similar to Sarajevo's experience in the 1990s.
During the siege, various
organizations inside Indianapolis form their own militias, some out of simple
self defense, others to achieve their own political goals as the Left becomes
similarly armed and increasingly radicalized. The police department becomes the
government army operated by a centrist coalition, while Leftist and other
civilian militias defend their turf. While the presidential side has better
training and weaponry, the Congressional side has greater numbers. As the war
goes on, refugees, failing infrastructure, shortages, and even atrocities and
child soldiers become common.
The executive branch and Congress
meet for peace talks in Ottawa, but the president holds out, hoping for
successes on the battlefield that will result in more concessions. For the
presidential side, the stakes are far more than whether the president stays in
office or gains immunity from prosecution if he leaves. He and his backers are
aiming for a Constitutional Convention that will rewrite the Constitution, with
demands including zero restrictions on gun ownership, a national ID card,
elimination of the income tax, a balanced budget requirement, English as the
national language, and more. The Congressional side, led by centrists, mainly
wants to remove the president and resume the same system as before the war,
resulting in internal conflicts with the Left, which has its own demands, such
as publicly funded elections, elimination of billionaires, healthcare as a
right, and more. Meanwhile, reeling from the economic shock of America
tottering on the brink of collapse, the rest of the world suffers its own wave
of populist movements and wars. Various countries send aid to the United
States, while some supply arms to one or even both sides of the conflict.
Our War poses
the above as a possible scenario for a second American civil war, resulting
from entrenched polarization and gridlock as the kindling, a Constitutional
crisis as the spark, and a small but well-funded and coordinated militia
movement attempting to overthrow the government.
This polarization, entrenched by
competing media, results in Americans with common problems having entirely
different narratives about why those problems exist and how to solve them, even
different sets of facts. Meanwhile, gridlock has made government ineffective
and destroyed trust in public institutions; the American political system,
designed to promote unity, means one party cannot get much done without either the
White House along with a Congressional super-majority, or the parties being
civil and compromising.
I’d like to say the solution is
to simply listen more to the “other side,” or some such platitude we often hear
as the answer to these problems, but the truth is I believe there is simply too
much money and power invested in the polarization for it to stop without more
systemic change. Just as it attempts to be nonpartisan, Our War does no preaching, being a story designed to entertain
while at the same time, as a dystopian novel, provide a warning. It is up to
the reader to reflect on the themes and discuss solutions on their own. What I
can say is I naturally hope a civil war never occurs in America, as in many
civil wars, everybody fights, and nobody wins. Enough to
say Our War is speculative fiction,
however much it's starting to resemble reality; let's hope it stays that way.
Craig DiLouie is an acclaimed American-Canadian author. Formerly a magazine editor and advertising executive, he also works as a journalist and educator covering the North American lighting industry. Craig is a member of the Imaginative Fiction Writers Association, International Thriller Writers and Horror Writers Association. He currently lives in Calgary, Canada with his two wonderful children.
Craig DiLouie is an author of popular thriller, apocalyptic/horror, and sci-fi/fantasy fiction.
In hundreds of reviews, Craig’s novels have been praised for their strong characters, action, and gritty realism. Each book promises an exciting experience with people you’ll care about in a world that feels real.
At https://craigdilouie.com/, you can find all of Craig’s major works, interviews, and hundreds of interesting blog posts. Be sure to sign up for Craig’s mailing list so you can stay tuned on new releases.
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1 Comments
I like the cover
ReplyDeletePlease try not to spam posts with the same comments over and over again. Authors like seeing thoughtful comments about their books, not the same old, "I like the cover" or "sounds good" comments. While that is nice, putting some real thought and effort in is appreciated. Thank you.