- Directive 51 (novel)
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Directive 51 Author(s) John Barnes Country United States Language English Series Daybreak Genre(s) Science fiction novel Publisher Ace Hardcover Publication date 2010 Media type Print (Hardcover ) Followed by Daybreak Zero Directive 51 is the title of a science fiction novel by John Barnes. It is the first of three books comprising the Daybreak series.
Plot
The title is a reference to Directive 51, the Presidential Directive which claims power to execute procedures for continuity of the federal government in the event of a "catastrophic emergency".
In the near future, a variety of groups with diverse aims, but an overlapping desire to end modern technological society (the "Big System") create a nanotech plague ("Daybreak") which both destroys rubber and plastics and eats away any metal conductors carrying electricity. An open question in the book is whether these groups, and their shared motivate, are coordinated by some conscious actor, or whether they are an emergent property / meme that attained a critical mass.
The Daybreak plague strikes, and world governments are helpless to deal with it.
Industrial civilization rapidly breaks down, and tens of millions die in the US alone (the global death toll measures in the billions).
There is a presidential succession crisis.
Just as society in the US seems to start stabilizing, preemplaced pure fusion weapons detonate, destroying Washington DC and Chicago.
This is followed by additional pure fusion weapon strikes, which are determined to be weapons that are being created on the moon by nanotech replicators.
A shadowy neofeudalist group (the "Castle movement") led by a reactionary billionaire may be inadvertent saviors of society ... or may have some deeper involvement in things.
References
Books by John Barnes The Century Next Door series Orbital Resonance (1991) • Kaleidoscope Century (1995) • Candle (2000) • The Sky So Big and Black (2002)The Thousand Cultures series A Million Open Doors (1993) • Earth Made of Glass (1999) • The Merchants of Souls (2002) • The Armies of Memory (2006)The Time Raider series Wartide (1992) • Battle Cry (1992) • Union Fires (1992) •The Timeline Wars series Patton's Spaceship (1997) • Washington's Dirigible (1997) • Caesar's Bicycle (1997) • Timeline Wars (1997) (omnibus)The Jak Jinnaka series Duke of Uranium (2002) • A Princess of the Aerie (2003) • In the Hall of the Martian King (2003)The Daybreak series Directive 51 (2010) • Daybreak Zero (2011) • The Last President (2012)Other books The Man Who Pulled Down the Sky (1987) • Sin of Origin (1988) • Mother of Storms (1995) • Encounter with Tiber (1996) • One For the Morning Glory (1996) • Apocalypses & Apostrophes (1998) • Finity (1999) • The Return (2001) • Gaudeamus (2004) • Payback City (2007) • Tales of the Madman Underground (2009) • Losers in Space (2012)
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