After The Revolution / Robert Evans / 2022
I’m a longtime fan of Behind the Bastards Podcast host Robert Evans. While I generally respect his podcast and use it to sharpen my historical understanding and build my spiritual toughness, I wasn’t sure if I could trust him as a novelist. I started listening to After the Revolution on a whim while I was at the airport after avoiding it for a couple of years. I was immediately gripped by the novel. It’s a smart-paced war drama situated in a fractured post-United States, featuring a cyborg nation (Rolling Fuck), civil war torn Texas, a crazy fascist Christian state, and a remnant of the United States called the Federation. After the Revolution follows three characters, each of whom have a deep connection to Robert Evans’ personal history. First, there’s a teenage girl and Christian zealot who runs away from home to join a fascist Christian nation’s army; here Evans is clearly channeling his youthful, religiously devout, conservative past. Next, there’s a fixer in Texas territory, helping a war journalist safely navigate a warzone; Evans himself was once a war journalist and you can hear him processing his sense of guilt and struggle with the ethics of war journalism through his empathy and voicing of the fixer character. Lastly, there’s a drug-addled cyborg with a dark past; here, Evans is clearly channeling his own experiences with a range of drugs; the dude literally has a book on all the different drugs he has tried. All these characters struggle to navigate a complicated war, make heartrending decisions, watch loved ones die, and most importantly, wrestle with the ethics of war. It’s a difficult novel to write effectively, but Evans is character driven and rarely lets his pen stray too far into unwieldy philosophical territory. I was constantly itching to return to this book and neglected others I was supposed to be reading for it. Evans’ vision of the future is as playful as it is prophetic. With characters like SkullFucker Mike, it’s nice to know Evans’ isn’t taking himself too seriously, while delivering some seriously fascinating and insightful visions of what our country may very well become. 4.5/5