Does this sound familiar? A terrorist attack on the continental USA leading to terrible casualties causes an attack on nations suspected of harbouring terrorists and their supporters, while at home civil liberties are eroded and special interests seem to take a front seat in government. Although in Darkest Days these elements are far more extreme (for example, the terrorists cause a geological catastrophe using a nuclear device, while the new US President is blatantly corrupt), most readers will feel that Stanley Gallon is trying to draw parallels with 9/11 and Iraq.
Politics aside, this is actually an interesting novel. The story switches between the major power players (the US President, his collaborators/rivals and the generals) and Lieutenant Adam Burch, on duty in Sudan conducting oil surveys. As conflict escalates Burch and his men find themselves exposed to both the violence of the janjaweed and other native guerillas and the overwhelming "shock and awe" of the US political leadership in a journey that also takes them to the Gulf and possible collision with the Russians and Chinese. Eventually Burch winds up in the US, where he has to deal with the changed conditions of society while searching for his father who is a fugitive from the sinister Department of Homeland Security. In a swift-moving novel Gallon manages to cover political intrigue, "super soldiers", the relationship between fathers and sons and the nature of democratic society and its checks and balances.
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