{"id":43218,"date":"2026-01-27T09:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T16:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=43218"},"modified":"2026-01-27T09:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T16:04:13","slug":"afterburn-by-michael-bodhi-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=43218","title":{"rendered":"Afterburn by Michael Bodhi Green"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>A sharp, precise, and quietly brutal SF tale\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Green takes readers into a broken America where surveillance is constant, ideology is lethal, and escape lies off-planet. It is 2070, and the American dream has collapsed into detention zones, surveillance drones, and endless wildfire. Inside the Gypsum camp, Alton Lucas survives by hiding his mixed heritage among white supremacists. When the state exposes him, it forces Alton to hunt his former friend Alex Weber\u2014now the insurgent leader Hagen. Augmented and stripped of choice, Alton uncovers a plot aimed not at Washington, but at the Mars Colony Launch before it ever leaves Earth. Can he stop the future without destroying the last people he loves?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Green approaches augmentation and forced militarization with restraint, favoring psychological erosion over technological display. Alton\u2019s loss of agency unfolds slowly, through compromises that feel minor in isolation but devastating in accumulation. As he moves from prisoner to operative, the prose tightens, reflecting the narrowing of his moral and physical options. Violence is deliberate and unsettling, never treated as catharsis or escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The novel\u2019s most incisive turn is its refusal to settle for familiar political targets. By redirecting the threat to the Mars Colony Launch, the novel sharpens its core conflict. Mars emerges not as refuge, but as an extension of Earth\u2019s unfinished damage. The future is no longer theoretical\u2014it is personal. Memory ties Alton to Alex and Kiara as both anchor and threat. Green resists sentimentality and allows grief, loyalty, and anger to stand unresolved. Survival within the system is never morally neutral.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lovers of speculative fiction driven by moral tension and character consequence will find much to admire here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Afterburn-Novel-Michael-Bodhi-Green-ebook\/dp\/B0FTD4DQDH\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Buy now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">ISBN 979-8330452699<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Pub date October 4, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Print length 400 pages<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Price $16.49 (USD) Paperback, $1.99 Kindle edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A sharp, precise, and quietly brutal SF tale\u2026 Green takes readers into a broken America where surveillance is constant, ideology is lethal, and escape lies off-planet. It is 2070, and the American dream has collapsed into detention zones, surveillance drones, and endless wildfire. Inside the Gypsum camp, Alton Lucas survives by hiding his mixed heritage among white supremacists. When the state exposes him, it forces Alton to hunt his former friend Alex Weber\u2014now the insurgent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145610851,"featured_media":43221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[723770808],"tags":[723771493,91,3328,723769808,178,5718510,723771210,723771287,1136176,723769804,723769803,723771492,723769805,1473,1008073,856121,309,10615,723771494,723770910,723769837,349],"class_list":["post-43218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-fi","tag-afterburn","tag-blogging","tag-book-reviews","tag-bookblogger","tag-books","tag-dystopian-fiction","tag-dystopian-science-fiction","tag-goodreads","tag-indie-books","tag-kindle","tag-kobo","tag-michael-bodhi-green","tag-nook","tag-reading","tag-review-blog","tag-review-website","tag-reviews","tag-science-fiction","tag-science-fiction-adventures","tag-sf","tag-sf-thriller","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/41Uk1cs6-QL._SY445_SX342_QL70_FMwebp_.webp?fit=288%2C445&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pajKJn-bf4","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/145610851"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43218"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43222,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43218\/revisions\/43222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}