Review: Twilight’s Last Glory by Stephen C. Perkins

If you have ever suspected that professional sports may be slightly more engineered than people understand, Twilight’s Last Glory by Stephen Perkins is a perfect, conspiracy-laden read.

Sometime in the not-too-distant future, the shadowy powers behind American football launch a scheme to capture an even larger portion of the world’s attention. Blending organized crime, corrupt head honchos and even a touch of sci-fi and fantasy, this futuristic thriller will appeal to a wide range of readers.

The Octagonal is a secret society based in London, composed of an elite group of bankers, financiers and mystics with bizarre powers. As is the case with so many secret societies, their ultimate goal is power and control, and what better way than through the violent opiate of the modern masses – American football.

With the aid of a crime lord named Gigi Salerno, who runs the gambling halls of America, the Octagonal hopes to extend their power by combining the NFL with the WFFL. However, a wrench is thrown into Salerno’s own plans for control when an AI program threatens his tenuous seat of power.

Gigi may be the first major player introduced in the novel, but there are a wealth of peripheral characters that carry the book forward, particularly Maddox, the aging quarterback determined to revive his career, as well as Marcum, the reporter hungrily hunting for a scoop on the Octagonal’s global manipulation. With this complex backdrop to play with, Perkins spins a complex tale of political clout, machismo, betrayal, underhanded dealings, and undying devotion to the idea of pure sport. Set slightly over a decade in the future, there are more than enough parallels to the real world to make this a timely and entrancing read.

Even if you aren’t a football fan, this novel offers exceptionally developed characters and dark, sinister undertones that allow the book to defy any genre pigeon-holing. Furthermore, every chapter pulls you deeper into the suspense, and Perkins’ unpredictable plot progression will keep readers guessing. Most notable about Twilight’s Last Glory is the language, descriptive and constant, making every page the author’s verbal canvas.

The level of detail and depth of the action scenes is remarkable, specifically in the play-by-play dramas that unfold on the field. Bringing readers into such a visceral setting is difficult, but a mastery of language and a voluminous vocabulary set this author apart. Maintaining such a dense approach to storytelling is no easy task, nor is retaining a reader’s attention with that kind of writing, but Perkins succeeds in both.

What could have become a slightly goofy or outlandish plot is, in fact, an unforgettable one, calling into question readers’ faith in their appointed leaders, trust in the political system, and possibly, even their love of professional sports. With just enough self-aware humor and tongue-in-cheek allusions, readers feel that they are in on the author’s joke, even if the novel’s events and underlying commentary on modern life is anything but funny.