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OUR WAR Available Available for Just $2.99 in June

June 1, 2020 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

The Kindle eBook version of OUR WAR, my dystopian novel about a near-future second American Civil War, is now available for just $2.99 during the month of June as part of a Kindle Monthly Deal promotion. I hope you’ll check it out!

You can get it here.

Filed Under: Apocalyptic, Books, Our War, The Blog

OUR WAR Out in Paperback!

February 4, 2020 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

OUR WAR, my dystopian novel about a second American civil war, is now out in paperback! Get it at your local bookstore or library.

“This gritty, horrifying tale of hate … sprinkled with moments of love, will leave readers with haunting memories.” – Publisher’s Weekly

“Presenting a dark alternate reality that touches the seams of current events and a possible future, DiLouie offers an uncompromising view of … patriotism in conflict.” – Library Journal

“DiLouie brings depth to his dark vision of America.” – Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog, listing Our War as one of the best releases of August 2019

“Harrowing dystopia.” – Kirkus Reviews, listing Our War as one of the best speculative fiction reads of August 2019

“Craig DiLouie’s prose is eloquent, deeply compelling, and poses a possibility that alerts us to protect our world against such possibilities as depicted in this imaginative story. It touches many chords of recognition, and that is yet another trait of a brilliant writer. Highly recommended.” – San Francisco Review of Books

“This may be one of the most important books you’ll read this year. I say that without an ounce of hyperbole… A heart-breaking, terrifying novel which—I desperately hope—will only be a warning, and not someday viewed as prophetic… Highly recommended.” – Cemetery Dance

“Our War is a book that I just can’t recommend enough. It’s about love & hate & hope & despair. It’s like some fucked-up funhouse mirror version of America…but a version that is entirely too plausible at this point. This book is gorgeous, haunting, and it feels like an absolutely vital work of fiction right now.” – GrimDark Dad

“Never has a dystopian future been so well written and delivered such a powerful social commentary on our modern society, no matter what end of the political spectrum you find yourself falling on. A fascinating and almost painful read that I highly recommend.” – ScienceFiction.com

“Part epic war story, part cautionary tale, Our War is brutal, unflinching, and mesmerizing. DiLouie once again delivers an emotional body-slam of a book, one that’ll leave you shaken to your core.” — Peter Clines, author of Dead Moon

“Our War went well beyond anything I might have foreseen, hitting me with unexpected strength: there is such a heart-wrenching quality to the story being told here, that I too often felt breathless with the chilling impact of it all.” – Space & Sorcery

“Once again, DiLouie has managed to distill one of humanity’s greatest conflicts into a masterpiece of literature.” – The Fantasy Inn

“An instant classic that will join the ranks of dystopian futures that at times feel all too real.” – New York Times Bestselling Author Nicholas Sansbury Smith

“Where to even start describing this powerful and upsetting book? It feels all too real, as an increasingly factionalized and radicalized America is plunged into a brutal civil war… It’s scarily easy to imagine these events evolving from where we stand today… The writing here is raw and shocking and immediate, and makes for a completely gripping read.” – Bookshelf Fantasies

“A terrifyingly believable tale that recreates the landscape of a war-torn Somalia in the city streets of America. DiLouie captures the individual tragedy of people fighting a war that destroys the very things they are trying to save.” — David Walton, author of Three Laws Lethal

“This book forces you to dive into the uncomfortability of what was, what is, and what may be. It makes you confront these problems head on by throwing you into a cautionary tale that feels all too real… It’s about survival in the face of tragedy; it’s about hope when it feels like there is no hope left… This story is brutally intense, thought-provoking, deeply profound, and incredibly important.” – Grimdragon

“An unflinching look at what happens when politics fail and war truly comes home, powered by the narrative shock of truth-telling.” – Christopher Brown, Campbell and World Fantasy Award-nominated author of Tropic of Kansas

“Our War is a deeply moving merger of dystopian and war fiction, compelling in its realistic depiction of urban warfare.” – Inspired Chaos

“One of the most emotionally charged books I’ve read… The tale could be our future in the United States.” – The Reading Desk

“Intense, thought-provoking, and a compelling read.” – Forever Lost in Literature

“Our War further solidifies that Craig DiLouie is not only one of the best fantasists working today, he’s one of the best writers out there, period. This novel is harrowing and heartfelt, upsetting and, most of all, utterly compelling … far and away my favorite novel of 2019.” – Bracken MacLeod, Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author of Stranded

“DiLouie does a fantastic job of immediately grabbing the reader’s attention and holding it throughout, tearing at heartstrings and digging into the nitty-gritty of emotional connection with his characters and the messed up world they find themselves in.” – Fan Fi Addict: A Bookish Blog

“The best thing about Our War is that it explores how much of our posturing and auto-mythology of toughness can result in nothing more than the pain and suffering of the people we love the most.” – Swamp

“Five stars… A provocative thriller which hits very close to home.” – Top Shelf Reviews

“The story was just so interesting, so real to what could so easily happen. It kept you hooked from the very beginning.” – LFBooks Blog

“A gut-clenching tale of brutality, loyalties, and the destruction of the values they are fighting to save… Mr. DiLouie has created an eye-opening tale with some wicked sharp edges.” – Tome Tender

“I fully enjoyed this look into the possibility of another American Civil War.” – Paul’s Picks

“…one of my favorite songs, John McCutcheon’s exceptionally moving ‘Christmas in the Trenches.’ Its last line is, ‘on each end of the rifle, we’re the same.’ That truth is also the truth of Our War.” – Learning Strategies

“This novel was phenomenal… The character building and world building were amazing… a great read! I would definitely recommend it!” – The Book Dragon

“A roller coaster ride of emotions … Our War reminds readers what we as human beings take for granted every day and that we need to appreciate everything we have because, within a moment, it can all be taken away.” – Rollout Reviews

“Our War is one of the best books I’ve read in years! It’s dark, realistic, and very intense.” – The Raven Podcast

“DiLouie’s pacing is perfect, and it was very hard to put this book aside when I was forced to. The tension is palpable, the characters leap off the page, and I was terrified for each and every one of them… Readers who are looking for an emotional and complex story need look no further. This dystopia hits close to home.” – Books, Bones & Buffy

Filed Under: Apocalyptic, Books, Our War, Politics, The Blog

OUR WAR eBook Sale!

November 25, 2019 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

I’m happy to announce that OUR WAR was chosen for Hachette’s 2019 Books Not to Miss promotion. From now until December 8, 2019, the eBook editions of OUR WAR are available for just $2.99. Now is the time to get your copy if you haven’t read this book!

Get it here at Amazon.

Check out OUR WAR and the other books in the promotion also at Nook, Apple, Kobo, and Google.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ll leave a review!

Filed Under: Apocalyptic, Books, Our War, Politics, The Blog

What a Real Civil War Might Look Like in America

October 1, 2019 by Craig DiLouie

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 came with automatic rifles 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.

Filed Under: Apocalyptic, Books, CRAIG'S WORK, Our War, Politics, The Blog

My Interview with Sample Chapter Podcast

September 17, 2019 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

The excellent Sample Chapter podcast recently interviewed me about OUR WAR. In this interview, I talk about my fiction, creative process, and the inspiration behind OUR WAR, before reading a sample chapter. Check it out here:

Filed Under: Apocalyptic, Books, Interviews with Craig, Our War, Politics, The Blog

San Francisco Review of Books Reviews OUR WAR

August 26, 2019 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

The San Francisco Review of Books recently reviewed OUR WAR, writing, “Craig DiLouie’s prose is eloquent, deeply compelling, and poses a possibility that alerts us to protect our world against such possibilities as depicted in this imaginative story. It touches many chords of recognition, and that is yet another trait of a brilliant writer. Highly recommended.”

Thank you for reading OUR WAR!

Check out the complete review here.

Filed Under: Apocalyptic, Books, CRAIG'S WORK, Our War, Politics, The Blog

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