The darkest path / Jeff Hirsch.

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USA Today bestselling author Jeff Hirsch once again creates a futuristic world with stunning, dramatic realism.

For the last several years, a civil war has raged between the Glorious Path - a militant religion based on the teachings of a former US soldier - and what's left of the US government. The Glorious Path seeks complete control of the country, and those they capture are given the Choice: convert or be killed.

Fifteen-year-old Cal and his younger brother were captured and forced to convert five years ago. Cal gets along until he befriends a stray dog named Bear, and then kills a commander who wants to train Bear to be a brutal attack dog. Thissends Cal and Bear on the run and sets in motion a series of events that will test Cal's loyalties and beliefs, ending in a brutal battle that the fate of the entire country rests on.

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

When I woke up in the examination room, I was handcuffed to the bed. My head swam as I lifted it off the pillow. My right wrist was circled in gray steel and locked to the bed rail. My left arm lay throbbing by my side, the skin swollen taut and scarlet from where Sergeant Rhames had broken my wrist with a baseball bat.The room I was in was small and sharply antiseptic. Footsteps passed quietly outside, their sound mixing with the breathy hush of air conditioning. I've done it, I thought. I'm here.I closed my eyes and thought about James, hoping that my little brother's face would be enough to get me through what came next. I pictured him back in the dorm, straightening our meager possessions into piles around our bunks. It always made me laugh, his hospital corners and tidy bustle. Sometimes I'd leave my bunk unmade just to see the obvious pleasure he took in making the place neat again. The door to my left opened and then shut with a clap. There was someone else in the room with me now. His breathing was raspy and labored. Papers rustled in his hands."You must have really pissed somebody off."I didn't move. Didn't speak."Three lacerations that required stitches, along with ten other minor cuts. Multiple bruises over your chest and arms and face. Damn near cracked your eye socket. Your left wrist is fractured. I think maybe I can put a cast on it, but I can't spare any pain meds. Your friends in the Path are to thank for that."I opened my eyes and lifted my head a painful inch off the pillow. The doctor was short, probably in his forties, with an awkward belly and thinning brownish-gray hair. He wore a white coat over a khaki T-shirt and camo pants. "Where am I?" "Ah, the dead arise. It's a miracle. What's your name?""I asked where I was.""Fine." He started writing on a clipboard. "You're Path John Doe.""I'm not Path." I said, letting my head fall back. "Not anymore.""Funny, they're not exactly known for their revolving-door policy over there."My tongue darted out over my cracked lips. "Can I have some water?""If I can have a name.""Callum Roe. Cal."Seconds later a canteen was lowered to my lips. The water slid ice-cold down my throat. I drank until I gasped and the doctor pulled it away from me. "It's okay," he said. "Take it easy. You're in the infirmary at Camp Victory. I'm Dr. Franks. One of our patrols found you out in the desert and brought you here.""I need to see your base commander." "Oh, sure," Franks said with a nervous chuckle. "He asks that I bring all supposedly ex-Path soldiers right over to his office. You know, I keep my sidearm in my desk -- maybe you'd like to take that with you.""I'm not joking.""Why do you think you need to see the commander?"I swallowed hard and stared beyond him to the water-stained ceiling. Could I really do this? Would he even listen? I thought of James again, moving through our barracks, setting everything in its place. "Because if you don't let me see him, everyone here is going to die." Excerpted from The Darkest Path by Jeff Hirsch All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Hirsch returns to the post-apocalyptic well of his first two books, The Eleventh Hour and Magisterium, in this bleak and somewhat familiar novel. The archetype at play is a military-religious one: a man named Nathan Hill has founded his own church and taken over several southern and western states. The former U.S. has been mired in a civil war ever since, and Callum Roe and his brother, James, were two early converts to the cause, captured when they were kids and forced into service. After bonding with a stray dog, Cal kills a superior officer to save the dog's life and becomes a fugitive. His journey out of occupied Utah and attempts to subvert the cause he once fought for intermix with his meeting an attractive girl named Nat and joining the U.S. forces. The novel hits its stride during well-choreographed action sequences and in occasional scenes featuring Hill, a demagogue who rarely comes across as the evil force he embodies, showing empathy when talking to Callum even as he perpetrates horrific acts of war and terror. Ages 12-up. Agent: Sara Crowe: Harvey Klinger. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal Review

Gr 7 Up-Callum Roe, 15, and his younger brother, James, were whisked away from their parents in Ithaca, New York, six years ago, by followers of the Glorious Path. More than a religious sect, armies of Path believers have systematically taken over large portions of the United States. Citizens offered "the Choice" of joining are given jobs or trained as soldiers for the cause, and those who refuse often disappear without a trace. James is content with his Path life working as an officer's valet in Arizona, but Cal is considered rebellious and relegated to cleaning out dog kennels. Challenged when trying to save a stray dog named Bear from certain maltreatment, he kills the kennel boss and goes on the lam with Bear. Intending to journey back to New York, Cal heads north to evade capture and encounters a full-fledged war between the Path and the Feds, encountering roadblocks, air assaults, and soldiers at every turn. In Wyoming, Cal meets Natalie and other teens resisting the Path, and they are nearly killed in a skirmish. Nat's father is a casualty and, while they convalesce in a rich kid's hideaway, Cal sees Nat's transformation from a mere rebel to a martyr willing to die to avenge her father's death. Her plan results in a page-turning climax fraught with danger and emotion. The dystopian story is action-packed all the way.-Vicki Reutter, State University of New York at Cortland (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Teen warriors populate a great deal of young-adult fiction. Coming up with a fresh take on these protagonists, especially in the dystopian genre, is not an easy feat, but in Callum Roe, Hirsch has created a hero who stands out. First there's his loyalty to the mutt he rescues he literally kills for the dog. Then there's his ability to walk away from his younger brother when it becomes clear the boy has been swallowed up by the fanaticism of the Glorious Path, a military-religious cult that holds half of America under its sway. The brothers were kidnapped by the Path years before, and Cal never gave up on the idea of returning to their true home in Ithaca, New York. Forced to run, Cal treks with his dog through the desert Southwest, seeking to cross into Federal territory. His encounters with those who help or hinder him always surprise. Only at the end of his journey, in a series of convenient plot twists, does the novel falter. Still, recommend this to thrill-seeking, adventure-loving readers. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Hirsch hit it big with The Eleventh Plague (2011) and subsequently got a big publisher push for Magisterium (2012). Expect similar national advertising this time around, too.--Cruze, Karen Copyright 2010 Booklist

Horn Book Review

This unceasingly grim look at a future taken over by a murderous religious cult requires a strong reader with a taste for true dystopias. Aside from the dark content (even little brothers and cute stray dogs aren't safe), Hirsch occasionally threads his dialogue with far too much exposition. Still, Cal, searching for any semblance of peace, is a deeply compelling protagonist. (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Fifteen-year-old Callum Roe is caught up in the second American Civil War. It's 2026, and the United States is once again fragmented. Federal forces are at war with the Army of the Glorious Path, which includes most of the former Confederacy plus additional states, including the southwest, Alaska and Washington. The Path--a militant and religiously fundamentalist organization--in which women are robed and veiled "companions" ministering to the men--is dedicated to being "a light in the darkness and the rod that falls upon the backs of the defiant." Cal, captured by the Path six years previously, is set to move up from novice to citizen when Capt. Monroe reneges on a deal, and Cal instead becomes Pvt. Callum Roe in the army. When he kills a man to protect a dog, he becomes a runner, off the Path, intending to journey across the war-torn country from Arizona to his former home in New York. Cal's first-person point of view offers the immediacy of his personal experience in this action-packed drama, but unfortunately, it isn't up to offering the fuller social and political history of the war that many readers would find interesting. An intriguing vision of a possible future rooted in current politics and wrapped in an exciting tale of war. (maps) (Fiction. 12-18)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.