Review: A Moderately Fun yet Contradicting Experience
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 20, 2014
What I would have liked to know before I bought this book. (no spoilers)1. What type of book is it: action, drama, etc? This is a book with a healthy amount of action. There is a large amount of politically minded ultra conservative verbosity that crosses the line from fictional characterization into advocacy.2. What is the story about, in general? The story is about ultra-right wing military trained conservatives that, through the help of alien technology, forsake the intolerably flawed United States to build their own nation. They also defend the Earth from a very hostile galaxy where everything goes.3. What/Who is the target audience? I believe the target audience is young adult males.4. Is there character development? No. The characters in this story have general specific traits and do not deviate at all from their assigned roles. Even those that change within their roles, do so very slightly. One of the main characters almost -almost- has a personality flaw, but that flaw never provides momentous changes within the story.  That's pretty much it.5. Are the characters likable? I have to answer this question from two directions. As gun-ho folks that act like cowboys with bazookas with a desire to express their Dirty Harry awesomeness on alien butts, they are likable.Beyond the previously mentioned actions, the characters are too extreme for my liking. Their reasons have a certain cold blooded lack of empathy and little desire for compromise.  In fact, the main characters act like big bullies while spouting constant extreme right wing political dogma. Anyone who disagrees with the perfect logic of their society is considered an idiot, corrupt, both or a rival. I don't mind political views in books, whether from the extreme right or extreme left. Yet, there has to be a limit. My limit was well crossed in this book. It is a truly self aggrandizing spew that simply doesn't end. It gets to the point of: Enough with the `Only the Elite deserve to be with us' talk. Let's get back to the story! Oh, crap, the story IS about `Only the Elite deserve to be with us!'6. Does the story keep its pacing?  Yes and no. I enjoyed both the description of better opportunities and the nation building of the book. I did find the nation building simplistic because it was too detailed! Yes, I know is a contradiction. Most of the `nation building details' were of administrative and legal matters, where events were discussed after they had occurred. The reader isn't part of said events. There is no dialogue involved, only narration of: `Hey that thing happened. How do we legally deal with it?' So, those moments are discussed in detail after the fact, but are too simple for the scope of what the book is trying to explain and achieve. Thus, those moments drag the story and kill its pacing. I ended browsing too much.Now, when it comes to the combat scenes, they are interesting. Yet, the opponents are so underwhelming that I'm only moderately entertained.7. Do you have to suspend disbelief? Hmm, a little. I like the very hostile galaxy. It allows for a lot of possibilities and good story conflict. I found the simplistic nature of the current extraterrestrial enemy to be too simple to believe.I found the character created super elitist `my hammer speaks for me, my nation is epic, we shall conquer the solar system and the galaxy while providing humanitarian aid to show our awesomeness' society very Fascist. How it seems to, later, easily change from Fascism to democracy, frankly strains my disbelief.My disbelief is also strained by the ever present conflicting dogma of providing small businesses with opportunities, while hand in hand with minor regulation to BIG business (a contradiction right there as big businesses have a tendency to crush small businesses if not well regulated). In fact, the very FIRST company to have a spot in the 'haven for small businesses' is a company incorporated in multiple nations! Practically screaming BIG business. I wouldn't normally care about this side of the book, but since a lot of it IS sociopolitical I would feel remiss if I didn't touch on it.8. Is the book worth the asking price? It is a $3 book. Yes, it is worth it. I have no problem with this price at all.In conclusion: An action driven sociopolitical sci-fi book with characters that have no individualistic flaws to give them personality. Their roles are predominantly rigid. The political dogma and extremism seen in the book is too predominant to be attributed to any particular character, and thus is not a character flaw. The human conflicts fall in line with stereotypical archetypes of traditional enemies of the United States and its internal political contentions. The extraterrestrial enemies are interesting in their social structure, yet underwhelming in their simplicity. Nevertheless, it is a moderately entertaining read that is well priced.3.2 stars