Twilight hasn't been marketed as science fiction, and that actually may be sound judgment on the publisher's part. It's set in the near future, but its Wellsian “impossible assumption” isn't technological, scientific, or even philosophical: it's a political “what if” that's actually disturbingly plausible. And the focus of the narrative is on the human consequences of that assumption, with only minimal concern for technological aspects. Despite this, this is a book that readers of Prometheus may find worth taking a look at.

DuBois shows us a future United States that has disintegrated legally and politically after a terrorist attack. This isn't anything as trivial as flying airplanes into buildings; DuBois imagines an attack using nuclear weapons to set off an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) that brings down the entire American electronic communications network. This is quickly followed by the death of every major American city, as they lose both the financial resources to pay for food and the communication to coordinate its shipment. Hordes of refugees flee to the countryside, where they are not welcome.

The story starts in medias res (or, in the middle of the story, as ancient literary critics said of Homer): the viewpoint character, Samuel Simpson, is already caught up in the action, and both his personal history and the global backstory come out in flashbacks. Simpson is a young Canadian journalist sent in with a United Nations team to provide aid, help restore order, and investigate the reported murder of thousands of urban refugees. This last part of his mission makes the surviving local authorities his enemies; proof of mass murder would bring in other countries' forces for a prolonged stay, and would reveal that many local authorities were complicit in the crimes.

Simpson is hardly prepared for the horrors of this dying United States. The real story is largely about his “seeing the elephant,” and learning to function in a violent world, through the example of two other men in his unit: a British ex-policeman and a black American marine. It's also about his gaining hints that someone in his unit is a traitor, in league with the very people they're meant to be investigating. He deals with not knowing who he can trust, and with making the wrong choices and being betrayed, more than once. Fans of Robert Heinlein will find this story of a young man learning to cope familiar.

The political values aren't based on detailed analysis, but they're surprisingly sound. On one hand, we see a look at the ethics of emergencies, and about the fatal temptation to make them an excuse for brutality and hatred. DuBois gives us a different type of dystopian landscape: Not a dictatorship, not even a civil war, but a thousand petty local dictatorships with no concept of law. And on the other hand, Simpson comes to accept the ethics of defensive force, and to be willing to use violence against the violent. And his personal relationships evolve in the process, including his old hostility to his soldier father. DuBois's characterization is persuasive and makes this grim story all too plausible.

I don't normally read a lot of non-fantastic fiction. But this book, despite being essentially a realistic thriller, was worth reading. It's a solid cautionary tale in the spirit of It Can't Happen Here, with a well-crafted plot. If you enjoy military conflict as a fictional theme, take a look at it.