REVIEWER’S NOTE: This review contains reveals plot twists, although I doubt that will take away any reader’s enjoyment of the novel.
America’s Last Days has a highly interesting premise that I find wholly plausible. In times of increasingly bitter partisanship in Washington, the only thing that keeps us from being embroiled in a second civil war is the fact that we’re soft. If the power ever does go out, all bets are off. That’s what kept me engrossed in this book. It really could happen. All it would take is a dedicated core group of motivated, intelligent insiders.
Author Douglas MacKinnon loses points for uninspiring character development and dialog. His characters feel like they might be based on real people, but they speak in ways I cannot imagine real people speaking.
Lots of people will hate America’s Last Days or love it based on their own political viewpoints. That makes it likely that more than half of this book’s reviews will be highly biased and based not on readability but on personal enjoyment. There is certainly nothing wrong with that.
Readers who classify themselves as progressives or left leaning will probably not feel good about this novel. Readers who classify themselves as classical liberals or right leaning or libertarian will probably enjoy the book immensely.
One of the most contentious events in the novel will be the nuclear detonation near the end. Could such an event happen? Absolutely. In fact, I think such an event is quite likely in the next 50 years. Whether the device will be triggered by homegrown groups is not certain, but there are plenty of separatist movements inside this country, and there always have been homegrown separatists hiding among us. None of them has been as competent as the 1776 Command or the country would already have split asunder.
There are many useful historical tidbits scattered throughout the book that you may not have picked up in school. These relate primarily to the Civil War.
I can heartily recommend America’s Last Days, both as an entertaining read, and a thought provoking statement about one potential future the United States is facing. An apropos novel about uncertain times written in uncertain times.
[easyazon-block align=”center” asin=”0843958022″ locale=”us”]