Author Topic: Empire, By Orson Scott Card (A Review.)  (Read 7486 times)

Heradel

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on: February 20, 2007, 10:26:50 AM
I picked this up from the library based purely off the author and while I have to say that it is probably the best video game novel ever written, it's still not that good compared to his earlier works.

There are spoilers below. If they're deeper than what you can learn by reading the book's flaps/synopsis than I'll put a warning(*Spoilers below*) on it.

As this book is pretty political and with a definite right-ward slant (even though it claims not to be about 200 times in ~340 pages), I'm going to note that it says Democrat under party affiliation on my voter card. I'm going to be as balanced as possible, but not promises.

As it is explained in the afterword, most of the book's concept is not Mr. Card's but Chair Entertainment's, a video game company that wanted to do a franchise based on the concept of a near-future American Civil War. Because there's nothing so handy as a Mason-Dixon line in today's America, the faultline is hard-line liberal vs. hard-line conservatives. Because it's Orson Scott Card we're dealing with, this is from the Conservative viewpoint.

We are introduced to the main characters Major Ruben Malich, a tough-as-nails, smart-as-his-knife-is-sharp Army Special Operative who doesn't trust anyone but his secretary, his wife, his Jeesh (I think he has some sort of compulsion to put that word in anything he writes), and Captain Bartholomew Coleman, who is basically only differentiated by Major Ruben by his relative youth and the elder's education at Princeton (described by the book as being hopelessly liberal and having professors that prefer students parroting back answers rather than learning, with the notable exception of a Professor Torrent that we'll get to later).

The only notably liberal characters that make any positive contribution to the book in a positive manner are Malich's wife, Ceiley, and her Aunt. However, while they both say they're liberal and Democrats, they don't really say anything beyond that, while most of the conservative characters do.

The book's events are set in motion when Al Qaeda, working off a plan penned by Major Malich and given to them by someone in the Pentagon, successfully launch a mortar attack on the White House from the Tidal Basin (link goes to Google Maps for those unfamiliar with DC geography) that kills the President and Joint Chiefs, and a garbage truck bomb that rams into the Vice President's car, killing him. The Republican Speaker of the House is sworn in, who Malich's wife used to work for. After that, things get interesting and Union is once again torn asunder.

*Spoilers below*

Major Malich, facing suspicion as his plan was used to kill the president, sends his wife and their five kids (the two older boys are basically Peter and Ender but less gifted) to her aunt's house in New Jersey. He meets with his Jeesh — members of the special forces that served under him and for the most part have left the service — and Captain Coleman to tell them that he suspects that a vast Left Wing conspiracy, or Right Wing, has infiltrated the Pentagon and sent the plan to Al Qaeda to throw the country into disarray. Malich then leaves for New Jersey and Captain Coleman stays in Washington, where he is taken to breakfast by a General who also give him a long speech on why the country has gone the wrong way for the last fifty years, and why we should get rid of all the liberals.

Captain Coleman, while reassuring the reader that he's a conservative, is uncomfortable with this level of vitriol and seeming intent of a military coup. He decides that he should go on Bill O'Reilly's show to share this with the world, so he goes to NYC and tells army officers not to obey an order to shoot another American and start another Civil War. He then goes down to New Jersey to meet with Malich. He gets there around nightfall, and the next morning he and Malich decide it would be nice to take a field trip to go see Ground Zero.

Of course, because this is a Science Fiction Video Game Novel, when they get to Manhattan it's crawling with "Progressive Restoration" Mecha and Halo-esque armored infantry killing anything with a uniform(NYPD, NYFD, Doormen). This, apart from unrealistically low levels of people walking the streets at that time of the day in lower Manhattan, takes the book from somewhat interesting to shattering my suspension of disbelief. They, picking up some NYPD along the way, manage to make an Escape From New York back to New Jersey (Insert obligatory "I bet that's the first time someone was happy to be in New Jersey" comment here). There's also a laser-like EMP that takes out a few F-16s (which are somehow still in use even though this is supposedly far enough in the future that Mecha are believable).

The book devolves into a series of Video Game cliches from here on in. First there's the almost-fooled-into-working-for-the-bad-guys President, then the Judas Secretary who kills Malich while his hands are full (Added bonus — she's basically Cindy Sheehan! And no one knew! Honestly, from what I know of the background checks necessary to work there, this is about as likely as... well, Mecha in Manhattan). Then there's the President relocating Government to Gettysburg, the Jeesh's running a number of covert operations, and the slow pinpointing of the Progressive Restoration's main base to a, wait for it, a secret underground lair! Under a Lake! That they have to drain the water from that lake into another lake to lower the water level so they can get to the main entrance! That's apparently so badly guarded that Coleman and one of the guys from the Jeesh can run through the entire building without picking up so much as scratch. They then arrest a rich liberal billionaire (a barely disguised George Soros) that apparently bankrolled this entire thing without anyone figuring it out.

The one somewhat interesting part from a Speculative Fiction perspective is the character of Averell Torrent, who argues that America cannot be like Rome until it goes into it's Empire phase from it's Republic phase. Mr. Card takes the time to inform us that he's like a real life Hari Sendon from Asimov's Foundation novels, what with predicting the course of human events over a long period of time. He writes this in a bunch of papers, then goes to teach at Princeton, where he teaches Malich, and then goes to work for the Executive as the National Security Adviser.

He is scrupulously apolitical, and acts as the mission-planner of the Jeesh's missions to take down the Progressive Restoration. He plays nice for the cameras, telling them about the missions that are taking down the rebels and becoming immensely politically popular in the process. After they capture George Soros, er... sorry, the rich liberal billionaire, and use that to get Manhattan 'freed' from the 'Progressives', Torrent becomes a hero and is asked if he will run for President, as there are only a few months left until the November elections and only the Democrats have a probative nominee (an unnamed woman who apparently has a lock on the nomination for reasons both unexplained and obvious. She also apparently can't be given a name, even though we all know who he's talking about.).

Where was I?

Oh, right, only the Democrats have a probative nominee and Torrent is being asked if he'll run for President. He replies that he will only run if nominated by both Parties, which promptly nominate him (sorry unnamed female Democrat ... Ok, it's Hillary. I know it, Mr. Card knows it, the Orangutans at the National Zoo will tell it to you if you learn sign language and can distract them from playing around with the tire-swings in the Think Tank.). He then gets nominated, which the book is only too happy to tell us is not unlike Augustus who took power and turned Rome into an Empire. Thus America becomes an Empire... the details of which are left up to the sequel, should there ever be one.

The book also suffers from a temporal uncertainty that leaves the reader unsure of when exactly the events are supposed to be taking place. The events of 9/11 are brought up several times, and it's apparently far enough into the future that Ground Zero has been rebuilt. Also, Malich's wife says that she was a child when 9/11 happened, and as she's over 30 we get a range of dates between around 2016 to 2026. Yet apparently F-16s are still active in military service, and from a calendar point of view the only near-future Friday the 13th in June happens in 2008 (shamelessly ripped from Wikipedia). It ends up feeling like 2007 with some freaky future stuff thrown in to try to make that case that the book is set further into the future than it feels like.

* End of Spoilers*

In summation, its a decent thriller, but a lot worse than his earlier work and has a pretty blatant conservative slant that he tries to explain away by saying that it didn't have to be a liberal rebellion against the Republican-controlled government. Along with some not-really-veiled digs at liberals and Democrats, it does have a somewhat interesting viewpoint about America being a pre-Augustus Rome. That aside, it relies on a lot of pretty basic thriller/video games cliches to move the plot along (he cites 24 as a major help in creating the thriller atmosphere) and basically comes off as Orson Scott Card ghostwriting for Tom Clancy, with all the literary skill of the latter.

If you need something pretty mindless to read this summer, it's not a bad choice. If you're looking for Ender's Game, this isn't even close.

It's not bad, it's just poor.
« Last Edit: February 20, 2007, 12:30:31 PM by Heradel »

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Swamp

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Reply #1 on: February 20, 2007, 08:28:35 PM
Thanks for the review!  I have been trying to decide whether I should get this book or not.  I really enjoy most of Card's work, but sometimes he throws out a cold potato.

I wasn't sure that I would like it for two reasons: a) it was based on a video game, and b) it looked to be highly political.  Political thrillers aren't always bad (I liked Crichton's State of Fear), but I'm just not in the mood anymore, especially with the liberal vs. conservative angle.  I get enough of that everywhere else.

So thanks for reading the book and letting me know about it.  I think I'll pass.

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DKT

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Reply #2 on: February 20, 2007, 09:18:33 PM
Had no idea it was based on a video game.  Thanks for the review.  I'd just glanced at the book in the store.  Generally, I really like Orson Scott Card's writing and I thought this was either going to be really good or really bad.  I was curious whether or not it'd be a one-sided rant.  I don't mind reading things that challenge my views but the idea of a near-future American civil war seemed...difficult.  Bummer that it sounds like it was a rant. 

Card's a prolific guy and I really like a lot of the stuff he's written but there's a lot of other books he's written I'm more interested in. Thanks again.


SFEley

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Reply #3 on: February 20, 2007, 09:28:35 PM
Had no idea it was based on a video game.

I remember reading about this a while ago.  It was conceived very deliberately as a multi-pronged book/video game/movie/etc. media franchise.  They probably figured out how to work breakfast cereal into it too.

In any case, yes, great review!  You achieved very well what a good reviewer should set out to do, in my opinion: you helped me decide whether or not I wanted to buy this book.  >8->

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Leon Kensington

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Reply #4 on: March 17, 2007, 04:40:43 AM
Yes, very good review.

I agree on that the slant was there and that it was badly portrayed.  I have some of the same feelings as Card gives as his own in the book, but I found them put in an "I'm right, your wrong, and the fact that you won't see it my way is going to be kill us both" kind of way that left me unsatisfied.  I wanted the book to be good, but found it disappointing, as I have found most of Card's work since Ender's Game.