BOOK NOOK: Futuristic sci-fi thriller set in Dayton area feels almost too real

As the story opens a couple of veteran pilots serving at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base are flying their final flight together prior to retirement. When they return to the base they find a surprise; they are met by some somewhat peculiar fellows who ask them if they would be willing to continue flying for the government as part of a top secret program? They agree to do it.

Essinger tells his story through constant time shifts and character viewpoints. One of the primary points of view is that of Rosa, the teenage daughter of James, the pilot who just agreed to continue working for the highly classified program. Sonja provides another crucial viewpoint. Sonja is Rosa’s mother and is married to James.

There’s also an annoying little brother named Leo. As the story opens it quickly becomes apparent that Sonja is heavily medicated and seems somewhat detached from reality. Early on we also start getting the viewpoint of Robbie, a government scientist who is working on a top secret research project.

Robbie was designing a bioagent to affect the human brain. What could go wrong? Apparently, a lot. I’m dancing delicately here so I don’t ruin this for readers. Early in the story a group of people are shepherded down into a top secret bunker on the air base.

Among the group are Sonja, Rosa, and Leo. James is not among them, he was off flying a top secret mission. One of the people who recruited James is in the bunker along with his daughter, who is Rosa’s best friend. I realize all these characters make this complicated, the author does a superb job juggling them.

Actually, there are a lot more characters and a number of ultimately convergent storylines in “This World and the Next.” This is dystopian and apocalyptic, also quite entertaining. When the people inside the bunker finally come out they encounter a world that has been transformed. For one thing, there’s nobody else around. What happened to everybody?

During one “interlude” Essinger wrote: “beneath a government stronghold, survivors burrowed deep into the mantle of the planet, hiding like parasites, sheltering under living rock, their air supplies scrubbed and then purified, and then scrubbed again.” Far beneath the earth these officials evaluated a worldwide catastrophe.

Their subterranean conversation: “everything that was authorized, was in response to direct orders. The old man nodded, “yes, the orders of incompetents, appointed by criminals.”

Eventually new people do finally show up. They are heavily armed and on a mission. There’s a clever and unexpected twist coming up for readers soon and when it happens you’ll be surprised and possibly thinking, how did I miss out on guessing this was happening?

Dave Essinger has written a prescient, thoroughly captivating novel.