Just Finished Reading: Empire by Orson Scott Card.

In near future USA the political tensions between the Right and the Left boil over into conflict. A rocket strike hits the White House killing the President and his Chiefs of Staff and the Vice-President is killed in an apparent car accident. At the centre of it all is Special Forces Major Malich. It was his plan that the apparent terrorists used to kill the President and now whoever was behind the attack wants him dead. Running for his life and trying to clear his name Malich seems to have the knack of being in the wrong place and the wrong time when New York is attacked….

This book started out well enough with the interesting idea that the US could become a global Empire – akin to that of Rome – only after the fall of the Republic. But as soon as the dust had settled on the White House lawn the story just became more and more ridiculous. I might be able to suspend my disbelief long enough to accept the (faint) possibility of a Republican Vs Progressive Civil War but Card progressed it in such a ham-fisted manner that the whole plot became laughable. The reasons for the insurrection were flimsy at their very best. The plotters where not even two dimensional and often barely one dimensional. The technology and tactics used by the Progressive forces were quite frankly ludicrous as was the response by the regular Armed Forces. The story basically pilled nonsense on nonsense with a sprinkling of nonsense on top for good measure. Quite frankly this book gave SF a bad name and I am surprised that TOR published it. I can only imagine that the authors name sold them on the idea or that they mistakenly thought that a Left-Right conflict novel was timely. Luckily I’m presently reading a much superior SF novel that has restored my faith in the genre. If you want to keep yours intact I suggest that you avoid this book.