Author of sci-fi/fantasy, horror and adventure/thriller fiction

ARMOR #3: FORTRESS EUROPE Released Today

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The third episode of ARMOR, my new WW2 tank warfare series, is now available to read in Kindle and paperback!

In ARMOR #3: FORTRESS EUROPE, the Allies have captured Sicily and invaded Italy, and are now ready to assault Hitler’s Atlantic Wall in France.

Landing on D-Day, five veterans of armored warfare brave the horrors of Omaha Beach only to find themselves caught in the deathtraps of the Norman bocage. In the desperate assault against Fortress Europe, they will no longer fight for victory but simple survival against an entrenched, determined enemy—and an even greater enemy in their midst.

Get it here!

The complete ARMOR series consists of five episodes and is releasing between February and May. Check out the complete series here. The omnibus and audiobook drop in June.

ARMOR #1 Released Today!

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The first episode of ARMOR, my new WW2 tank warfare series, is now available to read in Kindle and paperback! ARMOR #1: THE BATTLE OF NORTH AFRICA takes you into the fight against Rommel in North Africa in 1942, which ended in the disastrous Battle of Kasserine Pass.

In this episode, we meet the flawed, contentious, and tough American men who crew Boomer, a Sherman tank, as they land in Algeria believing they are liberating the French only to find themselves fighting against them. Once the gunfire stops and the French are again an ally, Boomer joins a vast army slogging across the muddy Atlas Mountains to go head to head with Field Marshal Rommel, the Desert Fox himself, who teaches them a harsh lesson in the realities of armored warfare.

Fast-paced, action-packed, and authentically portraying armored combat, ARMOR puts you in the loud, smelly, dangerous, and very powerful war machine that was the Sherman tank.

Get it now here! And be sure to check out the rest of the series, which is available for pre-order. ARMOR #2: THE FIGHT FOR SICILY releases February 28.

“An instant classic of World War II historical fiction … brilliantly written, populated with realistic and entirely human characters who stay with you long after finishing the last page, and searingly, unflinchingly open about the realities of combat during World War II as experienced by the crew of an M4 Sherman medium tank.” – The Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reviewer

OUR WAR Out in Paperback!

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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

UZUMAKI by Junji Ito

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Junji Ito’s manga UZUMAKI is a weird and wild horror story about a Japanese town plagued by the “spiral curse,” which begins to spread until it threatens to devour everything. I absolutely loved the art, original story, and haunting strangeness of it.

The manga is a collection of series of interconnected stories about Kirie Goshima, a teenage girl whose boyfriend, Shuichi Saito, believes their town is haunted by uzumaki, the spiral and mesmerizing secret shape of the world. Time after time, she sees people become obsessed or infected by spirals. As the incidents mount, the spirals grow until becoming a whirlpool threatening to consume everything.

In some ways, the story reminded me of PI, a 1998 film about a man who discovers a number that is one of the names of God and drives him to the brink of madness. UZUMAKI has the same level of originality and strangeness, though it takes its concept much farther, straight to an unflinching, very satisfying finish.

If you like graphic novels/manga and horror (or anything just plain weird), check out UZUMAKI. It’s a lot of fun.

ARMOR Series Debuts

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From Craig DiLouie, the bestselling author of the CRASH DIVE WW2 submarine adventure series, ARMOR is a new WW2 series that chronicles the journey of a tank crew through the Second World War, from North Africa to Berlin. Action-packed, authentic, and filled with flawed but tough men of the Greatest Generation, ARMOR drops the reader into the horror, brotherhood, and triumph of armored warfare.

Readers will fight alongside the crew as they go head to head with Tigers at Kasserine Pass (ARMOR #1: THE BATTLE OF NORTH AFRICA, February 7), race to Palermo in Sicily (ARMOR #2: THE FIGHT FOR SICILY, February 28), land during the horrific first assault wave at Omaha Beach on D-Day (ARMOR #3: FORTRESS EUROPE, March 27), survive Hitler’s last blitzkrieg in the Battle of the Bulge (ARMOR #4: THE BULGE, April 24), and batter their way into the heart of Nazi Germany, where the war ends, and they can now go home (ARMOR #5: REICH’S FALL, May 22).

All the while, the reader will live with the crew in the cramped, noisy, and vulnerable fighting machine that was the American Sherman tank, alternately criticized as “deathtraps” and praised as the “tank that won the war.” With appeal to tank, history, and action buffs, ARMOR pays equal attention to the Sherman tank as the men who fought in it. An enormous amount of research went into providing rich detail about the history, locales, and armored warfare. Thematically, these stories explore how men come together (or don’t) in combat, the things they do to stay sane and endure the horrors of war, how men must learn to survive the peace after surviving war, and why the Greatest Generation put their lives on the line to defeat the Nazis. While fought for the noblest cause, WW2 was also history’s most brutal conflict, the cost of which was staggering, with another cost paid by many of the veterans for the rest of their lives.

The books are available in eBook and trade paperback exclusively through Amazon.com. The omnibus will release June 26 along with the audiobook, narrated by Garrett Michael Brown. The covers, which imitate propaganda posters of the period, were designed by Eloise J. Knapp.

Click here to check it out. Thanks for reading!

FIRST ARMOR REVIEW!

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While ARMOR is historical military fiction and not sci-fi/fantasy, the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reviewer enjoyed my previous work and decided to take on ARMOR, calling it an “instant classic of World War II historical fiction.”

The Reviewer added: “It is brilliantly written, populated with realistic and entirely human characters who stay with you long after finishing the last page, and is searingly, unflinchingly open about the realities of combat during World War II as experienced by the crew of an M4 Sherman medium tank. It takes the best elements of the dime store genre and blends it seamlessly with DiLouie’s inherent skill as a writer and his phenomenal imagination … a timely and welcome reminder of just what the Allies were fighting against, and what it was like to be a part of the spear tip of the American advance during the turning of the tide against the Axis regimes.”

Thank you, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reviewer!

Click here to check out the complete review.