Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY Reviews OUR WAR

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Publisher’s Weekly recently reviewed Our War, coming out from Orbit August 20, writing, “This gritty, horrifying tale of hate … sprinkled with moments of love, will leave readers with haunting memories.”

The complete review is here.

Other reviews of Our War so far:

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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 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

LIBRARY JOURNAL Reviews OUR WAR

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Library Journal recently reviewed Our War, my new dystopian thriller coming out from Orbit August 20, writing, “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.”

Thank you, LIBRARY JOURNAL!

My New Deal with Orbit

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On August 20, 2019, Orbit will publish my political thriller, OUR WAR, about a journalist and UN worker who uncover the use of child soldiers during a second American civil war. Today, I’m very excited to announce Orbit will also publish my new psychological thriller with horror elements, tentatively titled THE SACRIFICE, in 2020.

In this novel, three people who survived their childhood in an apocalyptic cult reunite to confront their past and the entity that appeared the night the cult destroyed itself. THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE and IT meet the Jonestown massacre in this psychological thriller about memory, trauma, belonging, and faith.

Publishing about 60 titles each year, Orbit U.S. is the sci-fi/fantasy imprint at Hachette Book Group U.S.A., with authors including M.R. Carey, Joe Abercrombie and Iain M. Banks. Plans for THE SACRIFICE are still preliminary, but the intent right now is to publish it likely in the fall of 2020.

Very exciting for me, it still feels like a dream. I’m very fortunate to be able to work with a quality company like Orbit.

OUR WAR Coming in 2019

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I’m very happy to announce that my next major release is coming from Orbit in August 2019. In this novel, a brother and sister become child soldiers fighting on opposite sides of a second American civil war. The novel is about their struggle and the lives of the people they come into contact with. It’s prescient and powerful. I hope you’ll check it out!

Here’s a description:

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.

BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION (2015)

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black panthers

BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION (2015) is the first documentary to take a deep look at one of the most influential Black political movements of the Twentieth Century–the Black Panther Party. The film is based on archival footage and interviews with 50 people, including former members, FBI informants, police officers, and others. Watching it, I was amazed at what they achieved, the opportunities they wasted, and the level of government oppression directed at them.

The Black Panther Party formed in California in response to de facto segregation and police brutality. Citing open carry laws, they began arming themselves and shadowing police officers and otherwise patrolling neighborhoods. In response, the State of California and then Governor Ronald Reagan passed legislation to make open carry illegal, with support of the NRA. When Black Panthers showed up in Sacramento during debate on the bill with weapons to make a point, many people were amazed at their audacity, and a national then international movement was born.

From the beginning, the Black Panthers held to a 10-point manifesto. They wanted economic opportunity, decent housing, education, jobs, freedom, a jury by their peers, the release of prisoners, exemption from the draft, and justice. They started child nutrition and other welfare programs in their communities. Their look–black leather jackets, sunglasses, berets, and a gun–influenced fashion, became a Black Power symbol, and helped drive the “Black is beautiful” movement. Despite the male urban guerilla image, the majority of members were women.

The party’s political activity quickly drew the attention of Herbert Hoover, the authoritarian director of the FBI, who focused COINTELPRO activities on destroying the party. Party leaders were subjected to constant harassment, arrest, surveillance, informants, and misinformation designed to create rifts in the leadership. While the open, head-on repression was brutal, it was the more subtle tactics such as sowing dissension that destroyed the party in the end, along with poor leadership in lack of direction. Some of Hoover’s paranoia was earned–the BPP constantly postured and openly called for armed revolution against the United States government. Hoover was particularly paranoid about a “black messiah” figure who would unite Blacks with liberal Whites and start a major political movement, which led to the police assassination of Fred Hampton. The FBI’s tactics were straight up police state stuff, brutal and un-Constitutional.

In the end, the viewer is left to decide if the party served its ideals or got sidetracked in posturing, but either way, it is certain that the Black Panther Party had a profound effect on a new political and cultural awakening for African-Americans in the ’60s.

OCCUPIED (2015)

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occupied

In OCCUPIED (2015), a Norwegian TV series now available on Netflix (created by bestselling author Jo Nesbø), Russia undertakes an “iron hand in a silk glove” (soft in appearance but ruthless in reality) invasion of Norway, resulting in an amazing political thriller that had me on the edge of my seat.

Several years in the future, turmoil in the Middle East reduces oil production. The United States achieves energy independence and withdraws from its commitments there as well as NATO. In Norway, a green party, headed by Prime Minister Jesper Berg, ceases all oil and gas production after a hurricane devastates the country and causes a movement to halt climate change. The country is switching to a thorium-based energy source and hopes Europe will do the same. Desperate for energy and unable to switch in time, the European Union gives Russia the green light to seize Norway’s oilfields in the North Sea and impose other demands on the country. (No wonder this show upset the Kremlin.)

In this turmoil, we follow a number of engaging characters. Jesper Berg, the prime minister, tries to collaborate with the Russians to get them to leave, compromising his government and its platform in the process. One layer of the show is the politics inside the government and Berg trying to outsmart the Europeans and the Russians in a diplomatic cat and mouse game. Djupvik, one of his bodyguards, rises to become an important player in both Norwegian and Russian intelligence, producing another layer that functions as a spy thriller. Thomas Eriksen, a journalist, takes on Berg, the Russians, and the growing Free Norway underground, while his wife’s flagging restaurant revives due to patronage by Russian officials, marking her as a collaborator. Then we have the Free Norway underground, which grows steadily in popularity until it’s functioning as a full-fledged terrorist movement.

In each episode, these characters are increasingly put through the wringer as the occupation challenges their principles, puts them into no-win situations, and steadily raises the stakes as the first season nails a riveting climax. A lot of the time, you’re not even sure who’s a hero or villain in all this, who is trustworthy to whom, and if what they’re saying is true. The result is an intense story that operates simultaneously as a political, international, spy, and police thriller, with frequent unexpected surprises. The main premise may seem a stretch, but everything that happens is realistic, the characters in particular are endearing and realistic, even the minor ones, and the pacing and dialogue are terrific. Highly recommended, and I’ll be keeping my eye out for season 2, which has already aired in Norway and other countries.

(On a side note, the show is spoken in Norwegian with a little English and Russian. The Norwegian language is wonderful, and so are the people, all of them attractive and living in what seems to be an orderly, clean, and caring society. Unintentionally, the show acted as a tourism commercial for me, I’d love to visit some day. The only really odd note for me is the song that opens each show. The lyrics are great if you tune in, but the tone is really off.)