Omar El Akkad gets it right. A slight trend toward the World War Z style story but American War builds upon this idea with its own personal flair. A fictional future, a what if? A second Civil War fueled by division over the end of fossil fuels, quarantine zones and a biblical plague to top things off.
I love books like this because they reference modern trends and their certain destruction while writing matter-of-fact as if all of it has happened and been documented so completely.
You could say “If this happens, I don’t really want to live,” but inside the post-apocalypse are tiny traces of what makes us human, regardless of how bad things get. Get it, read it.
Comments 4
Omar is a great writer – writes (or at least used to) for the Globe and Mail in Canada and covered technology beat if I remember correctly.
Author
Alex,
I loved this book. It’s so unbelievable and yet still plausible, maybe.
I’ll check it out. My only hesitation is that for a while now I’ve felt like it’s the first time in my life I’ve thought that extensive domestic political violence is possible here. That’s not to discount the experiences of people in minority communities, who have long warned about political violence, but I’m talking further along the spectrum towards civil war. Obviously I hope that never happens.
Author
Scott,
In the words of Hunter S. Thompson, “War is good business,” so your feeling is right on. There are A LOT, upwards of 40-million, angry people out there. Anti-many things, anti-many people and bent for a fight. It could happen. I’m hoping it never does but at least now it feels like we need to have a plan in case it does. Like an earthquake.