A Dystopian Novel Presents a Nightmarish Future
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A Dystopian Novel Presents a Nightmarish Future

Last Call America: Last Call Before Darkness Falls – A Dystopian Novel Presents a Nightmarish Future that Could be Just Around the Corner

In the grand tradition of novels like the Handmaid’s Tale and 1984, Last Call – America: Last Call Before Darkness Falls compels the reader to envision a world not so different from our own, but with a dark twist.  So go the very best dystopian novels of past generations.  We delight in the chilling suspense of what might befall us if we’re not careful… and even if we are. Why do we love them so much?  How does Last Call – America: Last Call Before Darkness Falls written by author Debra Tash, deliver on the promise books in this genre make to all dystopian novel lovers?

The truth is that for some reason this segment of readers is drawn to the question “What if?”  What if there was a global natural disaster that wiped out our food supply? What if an unfriendly nation took out our electric grid with a properly placed EMP? Or in this case, what if a presidential executive order stripped our nation’s population of their rights? What would it be like to live in this new world? How would we react? Who would rise up as heroes?  Even more compelling, who might be the villains? Last Call – America: Last Call Before Darkness Falls does a fantastic job of setting up the world and then answering these questions in a uniquely disturbing way.

In this excerpt the world is set with startling clarity:

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“I took a deep breath and headed through the rear gate. A blustery fall wind stirred the leaves littering the street. Not a car was in sight. Gasoline was precious now and not to be wasted on a casual ride around town. Most of the shops neighboring our diner were closed. Their clients vanished. Only our establishment and the corner drugstore remained open on Main Street. There were always long lines at Roper’s Pharmacy and the government Distribution Center where the Price Shopper Market used to be.

I walked past the town’s solitary bank. Closed now, it opened only on Tuesdays and Thursdays to give out assigned ration cards. No one had any savings, not with the tax on it, then the run on the banks. The dollar had fallen and money had disappeared almost overnight, and with it the world, a total collapse. Father had warned Christina and me something like that would come one day. He said they would push us out of the small towns, make us live in the hive-like buildings that had been constructed inside the big cities. They would finish stripping us of our rights. With the slaughter in the Middle East, new nuclear powers in the world, people dying of diseases we’d never seen before, and the rise of the old Soviet Union, we should have known. Father died just before the worst of it happened.”

If you’re wondering what the worst of it might be, here’s a hint.   No dystopian novel is complete without a devastating new technology that seems insurmountable.  Charon, the newest form of weaponry, takes people out astonishingly easily.  Those who resist the new authoritative nature of government are arrested and liquefied.  So who has the courage to rise up against the oppressors?   Enter the heroes.

When Captain Jason Poole marches into Rebecca Sanders, alias Honey Beck’s life, an unexpected connection is made and a young heroine is inspired to action.  Rebecca grows to be a hardened resistance fighter who learns that things are never what they seem to be.

In this excerpt Rebecca learns what it means to be a freedom fighter:

I inched closer to Poole, Lois on my heels, as our squad rushed forward. An explosion. A grenade—maybe. Close enough I could feel the ground shake beneath my boots. The target—the agents who had just exited the MRAP. Poole issued more orders, but they were partially drowned out by another explosion. The squad gave Maggie, me and a few others cover as we ran toward the MRAP. I swung my rifle left to right, back again, one arm straight, the other bent, my finger never leaving the trigger. I gave no thought of who these people were, our countrymen, our brothers. All I knew was, The neck. A sure kill.

Lois. I lost sight of Lois. And the captain. He wasn’t anywhere nearby. Snapping noises. Bullets. So many. Each round barely missed me.

We were nearly to the MRAP’s open rear door. Knocked down by one of the explosions, a DHS agent lay on his belly in the snow. He snapped onto his back just as we rushed by him. With his rifle pointed straight at me—a pop—the sound of someone getting off a round. A red plume gushed from the agent’s torn neck.

“No!” Lois screamed.

Last Call – America: Last Call Before Darkness Falls is a story of courage, growth and an America that will always stand up for what it values most: freedom. It’s a terrifying yet thought-provoking look at what could come to pass in our nation full of daring deeds and unexpected twists.  It’s both a tragedy and a love story entrenched in personal sacrifice.  Most importantly,

Last Call – America: Last Call Before Darkness Falls is an exciting, well-told story dripping with relevance to today’s America.