In 1962, the U.S. was gripped by Cold War paranoia—focused on nuclear threats, communist expansion, outpacing the Soviets, Vietnam and the space race. Fast forward to 2025, and the focus has shifted to a power competition with China and Russia, where the battles are digitally fought through cyberattacks, AI warfare, and the race for technological dominance. Departure 37 takes place in both. Scott Carson has managed to plant enough seeds of truth in both timelines to totally f with my head and tell an amazing, unforgettable story. It’s historical fiction, speculative science, and eerie horror all at once, and somehow it works.
You get espionage flashbacks from 1962, and modern tech paranoia wrapped in one deeply entertaining, slightly (maybe totally) unhinged ride. Carson threads the dual timelines with precision, connecting a covert 1962 military experiment to a chilling 2025 aviation crisis. When pilots begin receiving impossible phone calls warning them not to fly, and a teenager in Maine spots a strange balloon near a forgotten B-52 wreck, the novel's eerie premise locks into place. What follows is a smart, speculative exploration of how history’s darkest secrets rarely stay buried—and how our technological leaps may come with haunting consequences.
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