Afterwar

by Lilith Saintcrow

They say the war's over when the surrender is signed. It's a lie.

America's bloody Second Civil War lasted for years. When the surrender is signed, it's supposed to be over; refugees flood the highways, trying to get back home. For Swann's Riders-especially their newest addition Lara Nelson, snatched from certain death in the Firster kamp system-there's no such thing as a home to return to.

Swann and his crew of partisans work for the Federal Army now, hunting through the wreckage for war criminals and kamp officials. Their next quarry is carrying something explosive, something that can level the nascent Federal government and turn the entire continent into a hellscape- well, more than it already is.

Across America, working against time and chaos, Swann's Riders are back in the fight. And Lara, whose secrets may well end up consuming her too, has a vengeance of her own to deliver...

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Post Apocalyptic, Alternate History, Politics, Speculative Fiction

416 pages, Paperback

First published May 8, 2018

About the author

Lilith Saintcrow was born in New Mexico, bounced around the world as a child, and fell in love with writing stories when she was ten years old. She and her library co-habitate in Vancouver, Washington.

Reviews

[phoenix_singing · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a weird book and I can't quite decide how I feel about it. Second Civil War? Intriguing (and a concept I've played with in my own writing for quite some time). But it was surprisingly hard to read, and not just because of the brutal content. And yes, it's a brutal story...one that takes some odd turns.

The story starts in '98, which I assume is 2098, but it's glaringly obvious, like "clobber you in the head from the first chapter" obvious, that the fictional President McCoombs and the Firsters are heavily influenced by our current president and his supporters; if you're in doubt, there's even a comment about his small hands, I kid you not. I am 100% certain the author intended this to be obvious, and it would be funny if the story itself weren't so grim; influenced heavily by the Nazis and the KKK, these dudes call this place "Amerika" and round people up into concentration camps (they call them "kamps"), where they're starved and experimented on and otherwise brutalized, and often killed in horrible ways. The raiders you'll get to know are members of small teams who go behind the lines and attempt to take these places apart and bring their leaders to justice. It's in one of these places where we find our main protagonist, Lara a.k.a. Spooky. It's also where we find our main antagonist, a horrific excuse for a man named Gene - and, *very importantly*, I should warn here for sexual abuse. Yeah, he's that kind of a-hole.

It took a while for the plot to start coming together, at least in my head, and it took a while to feel any connection to the characters (they're complex and diverse and very deftly written, and their bond as both a fighting unit and a sort of second family is beautifully portrayed, but it takes a while to get to their backstories and really get to know them - which, now that I think about it, is exactly how the getting-to-know-you process worked for new characters joining the team). I'm pretty sure I was halfway through the book before things started to come together for me. But by the end, I was rooting for our ragtag team of raiders-turned-family, I had wild reactions when certain people were hurt or killed, and I found the ending low-key yet surprisingly satisfying. So while I can't exactly say I *liked* it, I can say that I'll probably read it again soon, since I'm sure I missed details early on when I was asking myself what the heck was going on.

So would I recommend it? Yes, but only if you're in the mood to feel greatly depressed by our political and social climate, yet also oddly hopeful. It's good. It's not happy, but it's good.

[Faye · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the first time I have ever given a Lilith Saintcrow novel less than four stars but it is just not up to her usual standard. It is clear that Saintcrow wanted to write about how much she hated Trump and then created a World War II style story to fit around those feelings of anger and fear. The result is a convoluted, hard to read and/or understand novel that replaces the word 'jew' with 'immies' (as in immigrants) and 'nazi' with 'firsters' (as in 'America first'). The characters are one dimensional and interchangeable, there is no worldbuilding or backstory to speak of and it isn't even clear what year it is taking place in.

Perhaps if I were an American living with Trump as my president I would feel differently, and perhaps have a greater understanding of Saintcrow's postion, but as it stands I really struggled with this one.

[Darcy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so lost as I started this one. I feel like there should have been a summary at the start, to explain what was going on in the world, how the civil war started and the different factions. Without that explanation I felt like as a reader I was left floundering trying to catch up. After 75 pages I realized that I wasn't going to figure things out and not sure that I cared at this point. This one just wasn't for me.

[Rich Willson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreakingly good..

[Brianpfeiler619 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would have enjoyed it much more without the blatant comparison to trump.... pretty ridiculous, the author has his “army” boiling people in concentration camps. Lol. When the federal bomb dc for first time some one says” we’ll stop at dc and forget the south we’ll build that wall they wanted, lol pretty cheesy

[Alpa · Rating 1 out of 5]

band of brothers with a tiny sci-fi edge, for a modern age? meh.

and, i'm not a trumper, but the barely-veiled trump bashing became tiresome.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A grimmer than hell story about the successful civil war waged against a Trump-clone president(only the name was changed) and his Amerika Firster followers. It includes Koncentration Kamps(K's kome from the KKK), hideous medical experiments, rape, evil Soviets and guerrilla warfare. It's a scary book since a takeover by the religious right and white supremacists is one of the more probable ways that US democracy can fail. One of the main protagonists, Spooky, is a camp and medical experiment survivor that developed some strange powers. She and the evil doctor that changed her are both hunted by powers looking to develop super soldiers. I stayed up too late to finish this book, don't start it if you have something that needs doing in your immediate future and keep some happy books or the like on hand.

Another tale in a similar vein is Heinlein's Revolt in 2100.

[Paul Daniel Ash · Rating 5 out of 5]

well-crafted war story/quest set in a near future post dystopia

I would tagline it as something like Saving Private Ryan meets Handmaid’s Tale but it’s so much more. the characters are all engaging, all revolving around the protagonist, a traumatized woman (CONTENT WARNING: sexual assault) who, interestingly, is really seldom treated as just a “victim.”

the storyline is energetic, with enough twists and turns to keep it interesting without overly complicating the plot. worldbuilding is smart and appropriately backgrounded: this is a human tale

[Pamela Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not MY Country

It's the nightmare that you wake up from in a cold sweat and think to yourself " That could never really happen... right?" Awesome read. Lilith Saintcrow takes her readers on a painful journey across an American landscape inhabited by false equivalency monsters and the destruction wrought by man's cruelty to man.

[Tfalcone · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was a book I read not too long ago based on the same topic (American War) and I figured I would like this one, but somehow I could not get into the characters.

[Debby Tiner · Rating 3 out of 5]

“They said it was the end of the war.

They lied.”

I don’t know if this was the best or the worst book to be reading right now, but it was definitely apt. This dystopian “after” war novel is a barely disguised critique of Trump’s ideologies and has some dire imaginings of what could happen under that kind of regime.

Some paranormal, Wolverine/X-men tropes add a little zing to the story, although it is primarily depressing.

The printing was well-done and I loved the stars on the corners of pages to let you know which part you were in.

“Y’all are weird. But interesting.”

Favorite character: Ngombe
However, all of the raiders were compelling as a group and few of them were fleshed out enough for one to be much more loved than another.

The book is definitely ironical. I can’t advise to read this as it is mostly sad, but the themes are important ones.

Also, if explicit writing bothers you or you are easily triggered, I would not recommend this book. I’m not talking about smut; I am talking about explicit rape, murder, suicide, and other violence. Be warned.

[DemetraP · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot is that America had a second civil war. The book takes place right after the war ends and they have to find war criminals who basically had concentration camps where they killed people and experimented on them.

The book is pretty dark with lots of character deaths. It was well written and each character had their own voice.

[K.A. Wiggins]

An upsetting exploration of a near-future second American Civil War that is all too plausible, and also full of strength, heart, and humanity.

[Joseph Trella · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I read the back cover, I thought this could be a really interesting book. I was wrong. This book is a boring mess. None of the characters are developed enough to actually care about their fates. Spooky's character is wasted and not needed in the context of the story. The whole genetic mutant story line is forced and perfunctory at best. The ham fisted propaganda is lazy. It really would have been helpful to have more of a backstory on the why and who of the civil war. Takes too long to untangle this mess. I would not recommend this book to anyone to read

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is an exceedingly biased political take comparing any supporters of any conservative viewpoint as literal nazis. I’ve never taken a book back before, but this will be my first.

I’ve read every other book by this author, and have loved them all.... I will never read another book written by her again.

Very, very disappointed.

[Adva Barkai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of the best books I have read in a long time. Likely the best book of 2019. I was hooked from the very first page on the language, the writing, the pacing and, most of all, the story. Mesmerizing, haunting and terrifying. The past and a possible future overlaid on one another. As a granddaughter of holocaust survivors this book resonated so strongly for me. Lest we forget.

[Phyllis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Afterwar by Lilith Saintcrow is a powerful dystopian novel about the United States seventy years in the future. The nation has been torn apart by civil war. Ruling from Washington D.C, President McCoombs and the America First party rule with an iron fist. Immigrants are criminals and must be forcibly sterilized. Free speech is repressed. Patriotic displays are mandatory. Failure to show sufficient patriotism will result in punishment. For the worst elements of society, there are the Reklamation Kamps.

Fighting against the government are the Federals and the Raiders, guerilla fighters of former citizens. Freeing one Reklamation Kamp, they find most of the captured Raiders had been sent to the killing jars. But one raider had been sent to the brothel. A former medic, Lara, rejoins the Raiders in the fight. But as the war end, it is necessary to search the officials, who committed war crimes. Traumatized by her experiences, Lara might be the key to finding the worst of the criminals, a doctor who performed inhumane experiments on prisoners and children.

This is a dystopian fantasy, but there is an underlying truth to it. The reader cannot ignore the similarities to the America First’s hatred for the immigrant, the homosexual, the non-Christian, and others to the rhetoric of the current resident of the White House. Moreover, anyone with any knowledge of US history must connect the darker aspects of history to this bleak future. This strong connection to the present and past of the United States makes this a powerful story. Even the descriptions of places are uncannily accurate. The City of Boise plays a role in the story and Saintcrow captures the city and its attitude perfectly.

But ultimately, Saintcrow writes an excellent, exciting story about a group of survivors of war and their struggle to find a better tomorrow.

[Rudi Dewilde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Afterwar is one of these dystopian thrillers that keep pouring out of the US, after the election of Trump made clear how easy the world can get fu*ked. And it's the best I've read so far. It gives a gruesome realistic portrait of America, divided by a second civil war. The story hurts from beginning till the end. Mainly because it is all so very plausible and the stories are served bloody raw. Probably the best of 2018 already...

[Kendall Grey]

I enjoyed this book much more than the other one I read by this author. Great descriptions, though they may be too much for readers who don’t care for extensive detail or figurative language. I also felt as if this story could happen (may already be happening right now?) in reality. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

[Ginny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book's premise sounded awesome, but it was an underwhelming read for me. The"tough badass" writing style seemed forced, the constant overuse of adjectives was cringe-worthy, and the future war jargon was hard to follow. The story itself had some interesting points but I wouldn't recommend it.

[Kayla Livingston · Rating 2 out of 5]

Excited for the concept, interested for the first handful of chapters. Then all the characters started blending together and I reached the point of "dear god just let it end."

[Bonnie McDaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was hard to read, and I can only imagine how tough it was to write. It's basically the American politics of today set 80 years in the future, with the widening divide and heightened polarization that has exploded into an all-out Second Civil War. There is eugenics and "Firsters," "kamps" (with all the attendant, Nazi-era horrors) holding "immies" and "partisans," and the last dying gasp of a white-supremacist culture that has been beaten back yet again, as this country seems destined to do over and over. It's unfortunately all too plausible, and it's scary as hell.

This is the story of Swann's Riders, a mercenary team of raiders at the very end of the war, tasked with hunting down a war criminal with information the Russians, among others, are also hot on the trail of. This information concerns genetic and medical experimentation in a certain kamp, with unwilling victims given what amounts to psychic powers, in an attempt to create a deadly new breed of Firster soldier. Our nominal protagonist, Lara Nelson, was also at said kamp, a victim of those experiments. She manages to escape from there, only to land in another kamp, where she is forced to work in the brothel as the favorite of one of the kamp kommanders, Eugene Thomas...the same monster the Riders are now hunting. (We spend a few chapters in Thomas's POV, which was a deeply unpleasant experience. It's chilling how the philosphies of hierarchies and "knowing one's place" inevitably lead to some people being regarded as less human than others, and making the atrocities described here oh so easy.) The fight scenes are brutal; Saintcrow gets right down into the blood and guts and mud, and while that was necessary for this story, just be aware that she pulls no punches.

There's a remoteness about many of the characters, a thin veneer of distance from the reader and what the characters suffered, in the writing style. For instance, I wish there could have been a tighter focus on Lara, but at the same time, I don't know if as a reader I could have taken it. This is a harrowing book, even with the sliver of hope at the end, after the Riders have tracked down Thomas and destroyed his information. I wish I could say that something like this couldn't happen here...but unfortunately, I know that's not true.

[Carlos Manuel Perez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, the bad first: at times even a liberal like me found the antiTrumpism in the book to be too blatant, too heavy-handed. Then I thought this aren't times for subtleties, so in your face, Trumpers. If the shoe fits and all that. Second complaint: while the background story and the hints the author drops about how things came to be, the time of the war proper and the atrocities the losing side committed are intriguing and horrifying; and the characters are alive and interesting in a lot of diverse ways, the plot itself is kind of... flat. When you take out all the decorations, the story is quite simple and straightforward, although really well told.

And now the good, although some of it has already slipped its way while recounting the bad. The writing style (this is the first novel i read from Lilith Saintcrow, not the last certainly) is quite harsh, short and direct; but it befits the story perfectly. The story as I've said early can be a little too straightforward for my taste but it's very well told, and with a cast of memorable characters.

But where the book really shines is with the background of the story, the hints about the ascendancy of the far right to power in the US and how it goes to an all-Nazi tyrannical state, secession and war from there is fascinating. And the way Saintcrow weaves all that back-info with the actual, current events of the story is really well done: no lengthy infodumps here to be well placed at the beginning of the story, you have to be patient and wait for the author to give you more and more pieces of the puzzle to have a more or less complete picture at the end of the book.

And I never say things like this but, in the rare event Lilith herself reads this review, I'll say it: this book is SCREAMING for a prequel. Practically begging for it. I want to read a 500+ plus novel on how McCoombs came to power, how society started changing prior, during and after his election(s), how the USA went from conservative to nazi, who was the resistance, how the camps came to be, what was the reaction in the rest of the world, etc. God, I'd read that novel right now.

[Ken Richards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lillith Saintcrow takes the gritty realism of her more well known Urban Fantasies to that new popular trope - the next American Civil War. And uses it to excellent effect.

A broadly sketched backdrop of the causes of conflict is extrapolated from the wildest wet-dreams of the more deplorable America Firsters following the ignorant blowhard currently masquerading as POTUS. The postualted McCoombs regime is every bit as detestable as it needs to be, with its extermination kamps, religious repression and mandatory xenophobia, racism, sexism and misogyny.
And of course, destined to fail ignominiously, but not before racking up and enormous butchers bill.

The story opens as Swann's Riders, an irregular militia Free Company fighting against the Firsters on behalf of the remnant Federal Government are amongst the liberating forces which defeat the garrison of one of the Firsters Reklamation kamps, just prior to the surrender of the Firsters. The repetition of history should be obvious for all to understand. The company picks up a new member from the kamp survivors. Lana Newton, aka 'Spooky' is more than she seems to be, the product of the types of experimentation and research that all fascists need to conduct on their invented underclasses.

The focus of the story though, is of the consequences on the combatants of the necessary brutality of the fight, and of the bonding and support of soldiers under fire and duress. And so when 'Spooky' becomes the target of a desperate search by all competing parties for the spoils of war, a chaotic quest across the once United States takes place.

This is an angry and passionate book. It has some eloquent things to say about how weapons of war should be used. And most especially so when those weapons are human beings, wrought into monsters by their 'leadership'.

[The Speculative Shelf · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0 out of 5 stars

Afterwar is an uncompromising story about a motley crew of raiders who hunt down war criminals after the Second Civil War. The title is a misnomer -- nothing comes after war because war never truly ends. Lilith Saintcrow’s novel explores the scars of war that live on long after a ceasefire has taken place.

There are purposeful parallels to present-day America scattered all throughout this book. Supporters of the ruling political party are dubbed “Firsters” who put “America First,” walls are being built to keep out “immies” (immigrants), and the country is run by a megalomaniac with small hands who bombs his hometown of New York City because the residents there hate him. It’s so on the nose that it became a bit of a distraction when each of these parallels appeared.

Unfortunately, I never fully engaged with the story being told, but I appreciated Saintcrow’s prose and the dark future that she presents, regardless of how upsetting (and possible) it all seems.

See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.

[Andy Polizzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book for our times although it takes place 80 years from now.

For some reason the book reminded me of WWII island-hopping movies like Sands of Iwo Jima. There is the requisite tough, gruff but fair leader Swann (John Wayne), the drunken psycho killer raider, the "kid" raider, the darkly mysterious raider, the medic, the officious "regular army" officer who joins the hunt late and everybody hates initially but then come around to respect, the Greek immigrant raider who doubles as the unit's barber, the peripheral raiders who are there usually to just round out the unit, etc. The only difference is that women and minorities occupy half the roles and there's no one from Brooklyn to talk about the "Bums" (William Bendix) and no good ol' boy from Texas who everyone calls "Tex." Not a complaint, just an observation.

Room for a sequel, perhaps taking place on the West Coast which has (with the apparent exception of Southern California, which, along with Texas, has rejoined Mexico) seceded from "The Western U.S." and joined Canada. There will always be Firsters and Patriots and jar kaptains to hunt down.

[Christopher Gerrib · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I found out about Lilith Saintcrow via Twitter. (They say "twitter does not sell books." They are wrong.) In any event, after perusing her website, I decided Afterwar was a good entry point into her writing. This proved to be correct.

The novel is divided roughly into fifths. The first fifth is the tail end of the Second American Civil War, and opens with Lara Nelson, a prisoner / sex slave in a "re-edukation" camp. America has fallen under a neo-Nazi / white supremacist / Christian Nationalist dictatorship. (The KKK gave everything a 'K'.) Lara was a Raider (Partisan) fighting against the dictatorship. When she gets liberated, she joins up with a group of raiders. The war comes to an abrupt end, but Lara's group is tasked with hunting down fleeing war criminals. This proves to be at least as harrowing and dangerous as war.

And "harrowing" is a good word for the entire novel. Its gritty, stressful and grim. Hope is a precious commodity, although there is some of that. People who have not been under a rock will find the politics of the war painfully familiar. Having said all of that, I found the work enjoyable and will be looking for more of her works.

[Caitlin Merritt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, it was OK. I loved the concept of an America at the tail end of its second civil war, fought between "Amerika First"ers and old guard federalists, but the execution was where this one lost me.

The plot wasn't bad and was very engaging at parts, but the plot is mostly a group of guerilla fighters taking down military targets from the Amerika First regime. This read much more like a war novel with dystopia elements than vice versa, which just isn't my jam. The writing wasn't bad, per se, it just didn't work for me. The narrative was constantly shifting between various characters' perspectives, but most of them were never fully fleshed out and blended together. The end result was confusion and I had to read a couple chapters twice just to understand what was going on. The confusion was not helped by the ridiculous amount of slang and acronyms, most of which were never explained.

All in all, not a bad dystopian novel, but one that didn't really work for me.

[Heather Warner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, we better hope this alternate history is not a route that our country heads down. The story is set in a future America where we have been in a bloody Second Civil War with the ultra right wing conservatives and white supremacists running the country. ‘Amerika Firsters’ and ‘kamps’ for those who are different (homosexuals, immigrants, brown and black citizens, liberals, abortion rights & women’s rights activists....the list goes on)-shades of Nazi Germany are quite obvious. Swann’s Raiders are rebel fighters who are on a mission to kill a doctor who experimented on citizens in the ‘kamps’ and created some kind of psychic warrior. This book is amazing. It will definitely NOT make you feel good but it is really good. Obviously this story is pulled out of our political climate right now and it is pretty obvious the lean of the author.....but that most certainly makes this book even better. Everyone should read this book!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TOP BOOK OF THE YEAR!!!!!

[Trevin Sandlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was a seed a good book here. And it isn't the problem of the writing style or even in the overall premise. But rather, in an attempt to mirror things from the real world, the book comes across as a sledgehammer to the face instead of being subtle. I'm fairly sure I agree with the politics of the author, and yet, I found the overt Holocaust similarities and overt KKK references and overt "Trumpyness" of the bad guys one-dimensional, cartoonish and bordering on the ridiculous...to the point where it strained credulity. There was a way this could have been written without that (I'm reminded of the fantastically well written American War, by Omar El Akkad). There was a way to do this with subtlety and care.

There is no growth to the characters. The world building is lazy and only haphazard at best. I do not recommend it. I finished mostly for plot reasons - and there's a not insignificant part of me that wishes I'd simply DNF'd it.