Review: Political intrigue in the South China Sea
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 10, 2012
A friend had recommended this book when I happened to in a conversation about another title, so I noted the title and bought it here a few days later. The cover was intriguing, but it was forgotten in light of the weather reports as Hurricane Sandy was brewing in the Atlantic. The "superstorm" hit New York City and my power went out. But my Kindle was still operational, and there was that fascinating book cover again, so I started reading...Frederick Aldrich's new novelTwo Peasants and a Presidentgets off to a fast start. A young American newlywed couple have received the wedding gift of their dreams from her parents: two tickets to Hong Kong and a voucher for a honeymoon cruise in Hong Kong harbor and on into the South China Sea. As they embark, leaving the bright lights of Hong Kong behind them, something happens that caused this reader to be riveted, and I hoped that my book-light would hold up as the hurricane winds were blowing outside.We shift to the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, and there's an elderly naval vessel wearing the flag of the small Philippine Navy, steaming leisurely through the water. This 300-foot frigate had it's beginnings in 1943 with the US Navy as the destroyer USS Atherton. After WW-II it had been transferred to the Japan Self Defense Forces, then later in the late '70s to the Philippine Navy. As it was cruising slowly on patrol in the South China Sea, the captain received an ominous and very arrogant message:"Philippine warship; you are entering waters of the People's Republic of China.  You are instructed to come about 180 degrees and withdraw.  Do you copy?"The story really escalates from this point... and this is just the beginning of author Aldrich's book, and it's one that spans continents and soon the United States is facing a crisis that goes beyond diplomacy. As the American president and the Chinese leadership face each other down, the entire world looks like it's on the brink of war.If this sounds like an excellent, well thought out thriller, that's how it hit me as I read each chapter, hoping that my book-light and my Kindle would hold out as I heard Sandy's winds blowing outside. But as I read on into the night, I began to to see cracks in the surface. What was seemingly an excellent political thriller was slowly turning into right-wing novel with a strong anti-China slant, and one where in the U.S., it was the Conservatives who were the heroes, and a fictional Liberal American president had a "grand dream of an all-powerful federal government." One began to wonder who was the real fictional villain: the megalomaniac Chinese leader or the Liberal American president.Political slants are not uncommon in novels, but at times it appeared that the author was employing his novel as a bully pulpit for his own political beliefs instead of keeping on track with what is an excellent and fast paced novel. I won't go so far as to call it xenophobic, as some of the heroes in this tale are Chinese. But for this politically moderate reader, the portrayal of the American Liberals as evil bureaucrats took away from from this book to the point of distraction.Get past the borderline rants here in author Aldrich'sTwo Peasants and a Presidentand you'll find an excellent and well crafted thriller that's sure to capture your imagination. For this reader, it proved to keep my mind off of the noise from the hurricane as Sandy moved past, and why I can call it a solid 4-star novel.11/10/2012