Directive 51 (A Novel of Daybreak)

Directive 51 (2010) is the first SF novel in the Daybreak series. Set less than a decade in the future, it is based on the current provisions for restoring the constitution after loss of the President and Vice President. In this novel, Roger Pendano is President of the United States of America. He has known his Vice President since his college days. John Samuelson is the Vice President of the USA. He is a very good negotiator and willing to take risks in such negotiations. Graham Weisbrod is Secretary of the Future in the President's cabinet. He was a friend of Pendano and had taught both Allie and Heather. Cameron Nguyen-Peters is Chief of Staff at the Department of Homeland Security as well as the National Constitutional Continuity Coordinator. Cam is responsible for implementing Presidential Directive 51. Allie Sok Banh is Chief of Staff at the Department of the Future. She had been a student of her current boss. Heather O'Grainne is an Assistant Secretary of DoF. She too was a student of Weisbrod and heads the Office of Future Threat Assessment. Arnie Yang is senior analyst in the OFTA. He is using a new form of threat analysis that indicates that Daybreak is a new kind of threat. In this story, Samuelson is camped in a 787 at Sentani International Airport near Jayapura. He is has presented an offer over the past few days, but does not yet have any agreement. He notifies the President of the failure and prepares to depart Indonesia. Then a van pulls up alongside the 787. The occupants claims to want to extent the negotiations. Samuelson takes the risk of letting them enter the plane, but these people are not negotiators. The plane flies away with the Vice President and his people as captives. Arnie is pushing Heather to spread word of Daybreak to other Federal agencies. Allie agrees with Arnie. So Heather holds a meeting with the other two DoF assistant secretaries. Heather's peers take the news with a minimum of arguing. They even works out some analogies of their own to the methodology. Later DoF briefs other Federal agencies on Daybreak. Things are going well before Weisbrod pulls Heather out of the meeting and sends her to another called by Cam. That meeting concerns the capture of the Vice President. Heather decides that the timing is not a coincidence and suggests that the Daybreak conspiracy was involved. This tale follows an international search for Air Force Two, the Vice President's plane. The President activates a contingency plan to block aircraft entering from the Pacific. Then an A-10 Warthog shoots down Air Force Two when the captors fail to respond to orders to change their course. The President is emotionally distressed at the death of his old friend. He declares himself to be temporarily unable to perform his duties. Cam has to supervise the appointment of an acting President. The Daybreak conspiracy is destroying America's technological base with biotech and nanotech sabotage. The next

Government cover-ups, eco terrorism, nano-technologies, blind obedience to mass destruction; what if it was all true? //Directive 51// reveals in vast fictional detail the terrifying possibility. John Barnes makes it conceivable with his knowledge of interior government strategies and terroristic mentality. He portrays relatable, unaware Americans, the deeply diminished mental thinking of terrorists. and our nation's current process for dealing with heightened government threats with political savvy. Barnes's ability to intricately weave a complex storyline with multiple characters adds credence to the plausibility of something this devastating happening to our country and our government. While admittedly, he dispels the likelihood, he aptly plants the seed of doubt and allows the reader to become engrossed in this terrifying story. Impressive attention to details and his inside knowledge of government workings, Barnes brings this tale to modern-day life with uncanny realism. Named "the thinking person's technothriller" //Directive 51// does not disappoint. This will be a book to read many times over to capture all the nuances missed the first time through. Review by M. Chris Johnson

John Barnes' novels have a tendency to tackle big ideas. It's hard enough to tackle one big idea in a novel (e.g., Vernor Vinge's "zones of thought" in A Fire Upon The Deep, or the nature of reality in Greg Egan's "Permutation City"), but Directive 51 takes on three: how the Internet can amplify emergent behavior to a level never before seen in civilization, even developing self-reinforcing mechanisms (this is a variant of the Meme War idea in some of his earlier books); a new take on the perils of technology (there are some very scary "what ifs" here); and an interesting take on continuity of American government and the fragility (or ultimate stability) of our Constitution. He does a fine job in teeing up these ideas and exploring them, but it seems almost too much for a single book, with the result (as other reviewers have noticed) that the characters lose out. I found that there were only a few whom I actually cared about (hint: they were not the Daybreakers), yet they got insufficient page count to really flesh them out. If this book is the first of several, then it may come off better as an introduction to the subsequent novels than standalone. Despite the flaws, I found it an enjoyable (albeit scary) read precisely because of the ideas.

DIRECTIVE 51 is the first book in a new post-apocalyptic trilogy by John Barnes and tells of one Heather, who was a cop before she was recruited by the U.S. Government and is brought on board on a new Future Threat Assessment taskforce. When a plane carrying the Vice President vanishes, Heather discovers a larger plot may indicate world destruction in this tense science fiction thriller, perfect for any lending library.

In his earlier "Meme Wars" novels, science-fiction author John Barnes portrays a future world in which humanity is the prize in a struggle amongst sapient computer programs that run, not only on the 'net, but on hardware implanted in people's bodies. These are often action-packed, sometimes violent stories about a world in which the very soul and nature of humanity is at stake. I recommend them. "Directive 51" has themes in common with those stories, but it is very different stylistically. Without ever using the word "meme," Barnes posits an Internet-born movement, Daybreak, which (in the very near future, 2020) takes hold of people who wish to end the "Big System" and return the world to a simpler paradigm. "Directive 51" tells the story of what happens in the United States after Daybreak succeeds, mostly from the perspective of government functionaries who are in one way or another responsible for leading the recovery efforts. Much of the conflict in the story arises from two questions: 1. Is Daybreak really a "system artifact" -- the product of a sort of collective understanding amongst like-minded people -- or is it an actual attack by an identifiable enemy? 2. Should the National Constitutional Continuity Coordinator (NCCC), who is the person charged with identifying the proper succession to the Presidency and seeing that it is carried out, make such a choice when it conflicts with his own understanding of what the country really needs? These conflicts don't result in much action in the narrative. Most of the national catastrophe takes place off-stage, and much of the conflict-resolution is verbal. There's a lot of detailed description of the science and technology of the mechanisms of disaster, and much focus on process and on the central character, who is a mid-level functionary in the "Department of the Future." "Directive 51" is not a disaster movie. There are no graphic descriptions of burning cities, mass starvation, riots, cannibalism, vigilantism, or any of the other tropes of the post-apocalyptic novel. Indeed, its tone is remarkably upbeat (especially for a John Barnes novel!), full of people who want America to succeed, who work hard to find new and viable ways to stay alive, to maintain their communities, and to rebuild America. I enjoyed it, without feeling particularly compelled. This is reported to be the first of a trilogy. This volume does reach a satisfying conclusion, in my opinion, but it does not answer the fundamental questions it raises.