Empire

Orson Scott Card's Empire is not a science fiction book. It is set in what seems to be a faraway land - an America ruled by a right-wing president with a right wing congress. It attempts to attack the demagoguery present on both sides of the blue state/red state divide. However, it comes across as much more sympathetic to the Fox News/Red State crowd.

The book did have its moments. However, it is fairly violent, and seems to just skip ahead for a bit right after one of the main characters die. In spite of this, it takes a while to get back up to speed.

My favorite part on the audiobook was the author's commentary at the end. In a few minutes he does a much better job of elucidating the point that he fumbled through in the many pages of the novel. He is concerned about the political parties villainizing each other, without leaving room for compromise and middle ground. (Just take a look at Congress or the California state legislature for a good example.) The strong, non-compromising views could be a good way to launch a civil war. The right has the army, the left has the media. The division may divide individual families like in the Balkans. It would be a difficult struggle to hold on to principles even when ones own side seems to demand something else.

Unfortunately, in the book, these things get lost among the Hollywood action. The "bad guys" are led by a rich egomaniac who takes over New York with walking robots and hovercraft. It makes for great action, but a "progressive restoration" movement that kills anyone in uniform just seems to be too much of a caricature of the left to be believable. And on the right, the president only narrowly decides against declaring martial law because of an Army guy on Fox News' O'Reilly Factor. Com'on. The theme just gets buried in all the bloody action. Card has written much better books than this.