AFTERWAR

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

Most books about wars end with the victory - the peace treaties are signed, the villains are killed, tried, or rehabilitated, the heroes return home to much rejoicing (and, sometimes, simmering resentment) - but this is only part of the story. In AFTERWAR, the first book in a duology, Lilith sets out to explore what happens after. Set in the near-future America, after a Second Civil War, the novel centers on a group of warriors - Swann's Raiders - as they rebuild, recover and try to come to terms with the sudden quiet of 'peace'. The novel shifts through several POVs, but the focus is on Lara, who finds a new family, as well as a new purpose, with the band of misfit mercenaries who free her from a prison camp, as she sets off to try to get her revenge in a country that's trying to forget the war happened. There's Swann, whose only success in life was as a warrior, and who struggles to find footing once the fighting stops, and Chuck Dogg, who's realizing that sacrifices he made serving his country are still measured against the color of his skin and found lacking. There's Sullivan, who can't let the war go, and Zampana, whose faith in God may or may not survive the horrors she's seen.

How does one come to terms with the fact that sometimes war criminals escape justice? How does one reckon with having one's youth was wasted in war? What happens to the people who have been the subjects of horrific experiments conducted by a xenophobic dictator and his henchmen? This is a visceral, unflinching look at whether it's possible to heal the psychological wounds inflicted by a war in which brother fought against brother and each side vilified the other.


Lilith Saintcrow was born in New Mexico, bounced around the world as an Air Force brat, and fell in love with writing when she was ten years old. She currently lives in Vancouver, WA.