Book Review: Delta Green–Through A Glass Darkly

Delta Green: Through A Glass Darkly is a blend between science fiction and classic horror story telling. The novel written by Dennis Ditwiller in just one in a series of Delta Green novels that play upon the twisted world created by Lovecraft and reigned by Cthulhu. Through A Glass Darkly starts off with a story already begun. Much in the way classic crime novels or Grisham novels weave tales of black ops and underground organizations hiding in the shadows of society and cleaning the streets of sinister and disaster laden plots by seedy characters or nefarious villains, so does the book too begin. In this realm of conspiracy there are many forces at work. There is an organization known as Delta Green who clean up the mess and stop the madness that befalls an unsuspecting populous. Then there is Majestic, a powerful but corrupt secret agency that wants all the power and knowledge that humanity can uncover whether from mad scientists, alien races, or dark forces from another dimension.


This book starts with a slow and organized build carrying the reader through this dark story through a series of case reports and follow-up incidents as well as journal styled pages of  events that lead up to one hell of a nightmare. Very reminiscent of Vince Flynn and yet filled the same grit and organic feel that one would associate with such authors as Stephen King or Peter Straub. The narrative unfolds to expose so many curious lives as they unwind and lay splayed like road kill on some nightmarish highway of life. Lost souls who only wrong where their personal demons and misfortune to cross paths with damned science and hellish truths of the universe. Much like Mulder and Scully skirted through the dark corners of life investigating the abnormal tales of tragedy knowing that something far more sinister was at work so to does our hero's of this tale maneuver their way in the pages of Through A Glass Darkly.


The characters here are cold calculative shadows unapproachable as human yet fully armed as secret agents destined for the shadowy world far from normal life. Much like the code names and untraceable affects afforded them, fake identities, unmarked weapons, and deadly skills the imagery of these characters shared that untouchable personality level. They exist solely as men of mission and nothing more. Reading this novel I understood that and found no flaw in the fact that I never really connected with Cyrus and Charlie because I was fully connected with the dark journey that they were on. I felt the horrors that they faced in this story and I understood the cold nature of their personalities. It actually made the story more solid for me than if they would have held normal lives filled with the mundane instead of nights erasing scenes of bleeding walls and mangled corpses causing havoc. 

From a pure science fiction and horror fan who loves reading about the genre as much as watching nightmarish scenes unfold on screen, Through A Glass Darkly achieves it's intended goal of telling a clever and intense tale of terror. Although at times the story-line seems quasi-theatrical in it's crescendo to a suspenseful moment, almost contrived to degree, the over all result is quite effective in producing a thrilling climax that more than justifies the obvious set ups. Over all this novel is very enthralling and genuine in it's story telling. It delivers in on all fronts, science fiction-horror-suspense and creates a world that is both thrilling while producing a disturbing scene of constant versus chaos. Never mind that the Delta Green series enhances the Cthulhu mythos, the reality created within manages to build an original mythos of sinister struggles worthy of cult following. The characters, story, and basic human conflicts of this novel both entertained and captivated me as a reader. In a rating scale I would give Delta Green: Through A Glass Darkly ***3/5*****

ArcDream Publishing