Review: Distracting, Polemical Politics
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 12 31, 2012
Only rarely do I stop reading a book and I made it less than 1/4 of the way through this book.  First bit did a reasonably good job setting up an interesting story of several main characters.  Then the politics started, such as: an incompetent president making bad foreign policy decisions; an openly named Republican party seeking a smaller and less controlling government; three major television networks with a liberal bias; and an unacceptably high fiscal deficit.  I quit reading at the point where people who voted for Obama were labeled as people who are unable/unwilling to think, as I do not appreciate such stereotyping from any political perspective.  There are often political elements in thrillers yet they are usually unique enough to a given story rather than such a close mirror of what is going on currently.  For example, Tom Clancy has an obvious lean to the right and I find his work to fall outside the bounds of 'political correctness' at times yet I thoroughly enjoy his books.  The difference is that he creates a reality that is distinct enough from current times that one is not subjected to polemical viewpoints. Personally, I prefer to get my dose of politics from nonfiction works. I do not appreciate having to deal with conservative, libertarian, liberal, or any other viewpoints about current events in a fictional work.