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Afterburn : A Novel
THEY DREAMED OF THE STARS. NOW THEY ARE FIGHTING FOR THE DUST.
It is 2070, and the American dream has been replaced by containment zones, surveillance drones, and endless wildfire. Inside the Gypsum detention center, Alton Lucas lives a lie, concealing his mixed heritage from the white supremacists he is imprisoned with.
His cover is blown not by the inmates, but by the state. Desperate to stop a new wave of insurrection, the government weaponizes Alton against the insurgency's Alex Weber, now known as Hagen. Years ago, Alton, Alex, and Kiara were inseparable, bonded by a shared obsession with space travel. Now, they are on opposite sides of a civil war.
To stop Alex, Alton must become something else entirely. Augmented with lethal technology and stripped of his agency, he is sent into the mountains to hunt the only family he has left. But as Alton peels back the layers of Alex’s plan, he discovers that the target isn’t the White House or the capital—it’s the upcoming Mars Colony Launch.
Afterburn is a visceral journey into a future where identity is a weapon and nostalgia is a trap. From the squalor of prison camps to the promise of the Red Planet, Alton Lucas must decide if he is willing to let the world burn to save his friends—or if he has the strength to let them go.
Afterburn is a speculative fiction thriller in the vein of American War by Omar El Akkad or Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. The novel teems with cinematic visuals, breathless action, provocative themes, and poignant character moments.
"Sci-fi adventure, family conflict, and political suspense are seamlessly fused in Michael Green's compelling prose. Afterburn is the best kind of literary entertainment, a wise, enthralling guide to the gravity-free reaches of the human psyche."
--Melissa Pritchard, author of Flight of the Wild Swan and A Solemn Pleasure
Michael Green is a writer and professor living in Tempe, Arizona, where he earned his MFA in Creative Writing at Arizona State. His work has appeared in numerous publications including Salon, Digital Trends, StudioBinder, and Pop Matters, among others. Library Journal named his three volume edited encyclopedia, Race in American Voices and Visions that Shaped a Nation, a Best Reference work of 2017.
It is 2070, and the American dream has been replaced by containment zones, surveillance drones, and endless wildfire. Inside the Gypsum detention center, Alton Lucas lives a lie, concealing his mixed heritage from the white supremacists he is imprisoned with.
His cover is blown not by the inmates, but by the state. Desperate to stop a new wave of insurrection, the government weaponizes Alton against the insurgency's Alex Weber, now known as Hagen. Years ago, Alton, Alex, and Kiara were inseparable, bonded by a shared obsession with space travel. Now, they are on opposite sides of a civil war.
To stop Alex, Alton must become something else entirely. Augmented with lethal technology and stripped of his agency, he is sent into the mountains to hunt the only family he has left. But as Alton peels back the layers of Alex’s plan, he discovers that the target isn’t the White House or the capital—it’s the upcoming Mars Colony Launch.
Afterburn is a visceral journey into a future where identity is a weapon and nostalgia is a trap. From the squalor of prison camps to the promise of the Red Planet, Alton Lucas must decide if he is willing to let the world burn to save his friends—or if he has the strength to let them go.
Afterburn is a speculative fiction thriller in the vein of American War by Omar El Akkad or Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. The novel teems with cinematic visuals, breathless action, provocative themes, and poignant character moments.
"Sci-fi adventure, family conflict, and political suspense are seamlessly fused in Michael Green's compelling prose. Afterburn is the best kind of literary entertainment, a wise, enthralling guide to the gravity-free reaches of the human psyche."
--Melissa Pritchard, author of Flight of the Wild Swan and A Solemn Pleasure
Michael Green is a writer and professor living in Tempe, Arizona, where he earned his MFA in Creative Writing at Arizona State. His work has appeared in numerous publications including Salon, Digital Trends, StudioBinder, and Pop Matters, among others. Library Journal named his three volume edited encyclopedia, Race in American Voices and Visions that Shaped a Nation, a Best Reference work of 2017.
402 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 1, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 28, 2026
Afterburn is a near-future science fiction novel, but it reads with the pressure and velocity of a prison break thriller. Author Michael Bodhi Green drops us into a 2070 America shaped by racial extremism, internment, surveillance tech, and the mythology of space travel, then centers the whole thing on Alton, a teacher trying to stay human inside a brutal camp system. That choice matters. The book isn’t just interested in institutions and ideology. The story is interested in what it means to keep thinking, reading, and teaching when the world around you is trying to flatten people into categories.
Alton is not built as a generic action hero, even though the book gives him action scenes with real snap and danger from the opening pages onward. He’s a damaged, reflective, yearning guy whose love of books and longing for the stars feel equally sincere. Early on, the novel tells you exactly who he is with the line, “Even in this hellhole, he still loved to teach.” That works because the book keeps proving it. His classroom scenes are some of the strongest in the novel, not because they slow things down, but because they show how ideas, memory, and story become tools for survival.
The novel is also doing something pretty ambitious with genre. It’s a dystopian political novel, a war story, a story about incarceration, and a story about people who were raised on dreams of cosmic escape. Green keeps all of that moving without losing the thread. I especially liked the way books inside the book become part of the argument. When Alton says novels are “windows into the thinking of another time,” I think Afterburn is quietly describing itself too. It wants to be read as both a story and a cultural mirror, and that gives even the pulpy, high-energy sections a little extra weight.
There’s also a real tenderness under all the steel, dust, and fire. The book keeps returning to the gap between fantasy and maturity, between the dream of transcendence and the harder work of living among other people on the ground. By the end, that tension gives the novel a satisfying shape. The title turns out to be more than a cool image. It becomes a way of thinking about aftermath, desire, and the lingering heat of past choices. The final movement gives Alton a resolution that feels earned because it grows out of who he’s been all along, not because the plot forces a neat lesson on him.
Afterburn is an earnest, high-stakes, idea-driven novel with a big emotional engine. It’s vivid, angry, heartfelt, and surprisingly thoughtful about reading, identity, and the seduction of heroic myths. What stayed with me wasn’t just the worldbuilding or the momentum, though both are strong. It was the way the book keeps asking what kind of future is worth reaching for, and what kind of person you have to become to deserve it. That makes Alton’s journey feel authentic.
Alton is not built as a generic action hero, even though the book gives him action scenes with real snap and danger from the opening pages onward. He’s a damaged, reflective, yearning guy whose love of books and longing for the stars feel equally sincere. Early on, the novel tells you exactly who he is with the line, “Even in this hellhole, he still loved to teach.” That works because the book keeps proving it. His classroom scenes are some of the strongest in the novel, not because they slow things down, but because they show how ideas, memory, and story become tools for survival.
The novel is also doing something pretty ambitious with genre. It’s a dystopian political novel, a war story, a story about incarceration, and a story about people who were raised on dreams of cosmic escape. Green keeps all of that moving without losing the thread. I especially liked the way books inside the book become part of the argument. When Alton says novels are “windows into the thinking of another time,” I think Afterburn is quietly describing itself too. It wants to be read as both a story and a cultural mirror, and that gives even the pulpy, high-energy sections a little extra weight.
There’s also a real tenderness under all the steel, dust, and fire. The book keeps returning to the gap between fantasy and maturity, between the dream of transcendence and the harder work of living among other people on the ground. By the end, that tension gives the novel a satisfying shape. The title turns out to be more than a cool image. It becomes a way of thinking about aftermath, desire, and the lingering heat of past choices. The final movement gives Alton a resolution that feels earned because it grows out of who he’s been all along, not because the plot forces a neat lesson on him.
Afterburn is an earnest, high-stakes, idea-driven novel with a big emotional engine. It’s vivid, angry, heartfelt, and surprisingly thoughtful about reading, identity, and the seduction of heroic myths. What stayed with me wasn’t just the worldbuilding or the momentum, though both are strong. It was the way the book keeps asking what kind of future is worth reaching for, and what kind of person you have to become to deserve it. That makes Alton’s journey feel authentic.
February 8, 2026
Green takes readers into a broken America where surveillance is constant, ideology is lethal, and escape lies off-planet. It is 2070, and the American dream has collapsed into detention zones, surveillance drones, and endless wildfire. Inside the Gypsum camp, Alton Lucas survives by hiding his mixed heritage among white supremacists. When the state exposes him, it forces Alton to hunt his former friend Alex Weber—now the insurgent leader Hagen. Augmented and stripped of choice, Alton uncovers a plot aimed not at Washington, but at the Mars Colony Launch before it ever leaves Earth. Can he stop the future without destroying the last people he loves?
Green approaches augmentation and forced militarization with restraint, favoring psychological erosion over technological display. Alton’s loss of agency unfolds slowly, through compromises that feel minor in isolation but devastating in accumulation. As he moves from prisoner to operative, the prose tightens, reflecting the narrowing of his moral and physical options. Violence is deliberate and unsettling, never treated as catharsis or escape.
The novel’s most incisive turn is its refusal to settle for familiar political targets. By redirecting the threat to the Mars Colony Launch, the novel sharpens its core conflict. Mars emerges not as refuge, but as an extension of Earth’s unfinished damage. The future is no longer theoretical—it is personal. Memory ties Alton to Alex and Kiara as both anchor and threat. Green resists sentimentality and allows grief, loyalty, and anger to stand unresolved. Survival within the system is never morally neutral. Lovers of speculative fiction driven by moral tension and character consequence will find much to admire here.
Green approaches augmentation and forced militarization with restraint, favoring psychological erosion over technological display. Alton’s loss of agency unfolds slowly, through compromises that feel minor in isolation but devastating in accumulation. As he moves from prisoner to operative, the prose tightens, reflecting the narrowing of his moral and physical options. Violence is deliberate and unsettling, never treated as catharsis or escape.
The novel’s most incisive turn is its refusal to settle for familiar political targets. By redirecting the threat to the Mars Colony Launch, the novel sharpens its core conflict. Mars emerges not as refuge, but as an extension of Earth’s unfinished damage. The future is no longer theoretical—it is personal. Memory ties Alton to Alex and Kiara as both anchor and threat. Green resists sentimentality and allows grief, loyalty, and anger to stand unresolved. Survival within the system is never morally neutral. Lovers of speculative fiction driven by moral tension and character consequence will find much to admire here.
March 15, 2026
I received an advanced copy of Afterburn from NetGalley, and as this was my first read by Michael Green, I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I got was a tightly wound, high stakes story that hooked me from the very first chapter. After reading Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell, this book sparked my interest. Instead of white people vanishing from the earth and walking into water, white people become the minority and are placed into concentration camps like the Japanese were in the US. Anytime I can read a sci-fi/dystopian type book I am geeked. Also, you can see how folks fall into extremism....Green builds the plot with precision: a catastrophic event, a desperate scramble for survival, and a series of choices that push every character to their limits. The tension escalates chapter by chapter as the narrative shifts between the unfolding disaster and the personal histories that shape how each character responds. I loved how the plot balances action with emotional depth every twist feels rooted in who these people are, not just what’s happening around them. As the situation intensifies, secrets surface, alliances shift, and the story barrels toward a climax that is both explosive and deeply satisfying. What impressed me most is how seamlessly the plot threads come together. Nothing feels wasted; every detail pays off. By the end, I was fully invested in the characters’ fates and genuinely surprised by the direction the story took. I can see this book either being made into a movie or a 4-part series where the characters can really be developed. #NETGALLEY #AFTERBURN
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews