Darkest Days is the first post-apocalyptic political thriller known to have been published. It delves into a dystopian future of totalitarianism at war with democracy in the United States. Despite its setting, this novel, published 17 years before the release of this 2nd edition, was eerily prophetic. The undeniable parallels between how the United States is transformed in the novel and the slow, methodical erasure of democracy Americans face today are chilling. Originally published by Penguin Random House and Macmillan in 2007 under the author's former pseudonym, Stan Gallon, Darkest Days exposes the devastating consequences for those who support totalitarian regimes and the innocent people who either stood by and allowed it or were powerless to resist. The nightmare scenario of a dictatorship that thrusts society into a regime of relentless mass surveillance and repressive subjugation, once the imaginings of fiction, are today policies espoused in modern American Campaigns.
The story takes place in the not-too-distant future. The world is at war. The United States is a mere shadow of its former glory, devastated by the eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera. A new President, a dictatorial leader who is not afraid to preemptively destroy any nation he perceives as a threat or that possesses resources the devastated United States desperately needs. Through a re-envisioned Department of Homeland Security, the President expands government surveillance while redirecting the civilian citizenry to the military as fodder for his ever-expanding war machine. Endless streams of propaganda work to mold society into complacency and blind loyalty. Through the regimentation of people based on race, economic status, gender, and multiple other factors, the President stokes division and conflict until the American people are pushed to the breaking point.
