Amsterdam 2012 [Kindle Edition]

Ruth Francisco (Author)

Book Description

A young woman witnesses a murder in Amsterdam that touches off a Muslim rebellion and leads to the Great Eurabian War—World War III.

During her summer break, Ann Aulis travels to Amsterdam with her boyfriend Peter to visit the Anne Frank Museum. They befriend a hip Dutch couple who invites them home for dinner. They spend the night, and the next morning discover their hosts have been murdered. Ann and Peter flee to London only to find the murders have touched off a Muslim rebellion in Holland that spreads to England. They flee to the US, where Peter is detained at Kennedy Airport, then taken away by FBI agents.

Ann returns to her family in Los Angeles, horrified as she sees Muslim rebellions in Europe spread to civil war. With her lover in Guantanamo Bay Prison, Ann watches the United States slowly get dragged into the Eurabian war. As the Muslim world establishes a new caliphate, the United States falls into a major recession caused by high oil prices. Then a major flu epidemic. The only thing keeping Ann sane is her deep attachment to Anne Frank, and her love for Peter. Finally, Ann throws off her passivity, and decides to act.

Product Details

• File Size: 412 KB
• Print Length: 201 pages
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0034KYZWW
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #271,982 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 46 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars ....... February 16, 2010

By Jessie Potts TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Ok so before I write down what I think about the story I need to give out some warnings. Yup big fat warning labels for this book so pay attention!

1. This is about Muslims and Christians, about Islam and America and is not always 'politically correct'

2. This is about a war, slang, profanity,anti-semitic and anti Allah do exist in this book, but I think it's a fair for both sides

3. You will be disturbed by the chain of events leading up to the war and the current position of the world, there's no way around it

Now if you don't mind a very edgy book, this is amazing. The lead character Ann finds herself alternating between discovering the sensual appeal of Masques and the cruelty of the radical jihadist. It is scary, I found myself often nodding and realizing that everything that happened in book could happen here, in real life. The author researched tirelessly and was very well read and descriptive on the different Muslim cultures, ways and segregation. Ann is at the wrong place at the wrong time, she witnesses the shot that started the next great world war. From there she watches almost like an obsessive zombie (yes I know that's an oxymoron) as Europe collapses, America's downfall is much more seductive and under the radar.

The end of the novel also had me at last happy with Ann's character, but then again, she grew up during this war. I was amazed at who everyone turned out to be, who died, and what was being done about it. The end doesn't give you a happily ever after, merely the slight hope that all could be well, all might be well, all will be well.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars World War III from the Inside - a Winner February 3, 2010

By Anne Wingate

Format:Kindle Edition

Amsterdam 2012

Don't open this book until you have a lo-o-o-ng amount of free time in front of you. Otherwise you'll find yourself doing what I was doing this morning: trying to tie your shoes and read at the same time.

A realistic, believable, nightmare. One of the best novels I have read in quite a long time. The opener hints at a small amount of overly workshopped material, but by the fourth page you're into a major page-turner. In the entire book I found four misused words and one misspelled foreign word, but I've been an editor and writing teacher more than twenty-five years. I don't think anybody else would notice them.

Each peak leads inexorably toward the next peak, so that it's very hard for me to say anything substantive that wouldn't be a spoiler. But maybe this, about a quarter of the way in, will work:

"This is great, I thought, my boyfriend is being held as a terrorism suspect, my brother is a Nazi, and my sister is a Muhammad groupie." A few pages before or after this, the narrator refers to her parents as liberals. When the book begins, the narrator is a prototypical rich liberal college kid on her European backpacking tour with her boyfriend. When the book ends . . . .

No, you're going to have to go and read it for yourself.

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Where Do I Start? March 14, 2010

By Joanna

Format:Kindle Edition

I've never cared enough about a book to actually write a review on Amazon. Until now.

In one respect, that's a good thing. I was entertained. Books SHOULD move people enough to care this much. Unfortunately, this book entertained and moved me for all the wrong reasons.

Let's get the least important point out of the way first. The book is riddled with typos and inconsistencies. "Mother" and "Father" one second, "Mom" and "Dad" the next. Verb tenses that do not agree. And come on... if you're going to elevate Ah-nold to such a level of glory, at least take the time to spell his last name correctly.

It's as if the author uses her characters as empty vehicles to get viewpoints across. Everyone talks in stilted, unrealistic language. Ann is a shell - completely unlikeable and unrelatable. She witnesses something horrible (the first section of this book that takes place in Amsterdam is by far the best, and I loved it), yet reacts to the event amorally and doesn't really think about it very much. Afterwards, she "can't sleep" at night and doesn't know if her boyfriend is alive or dead, a criminal or innocent... but yet she never misses her daily cappuccino and takes the time to "ogle" guys at the local gym. That's just an example... there is just so much bizarreness in this book.

Many of the events that apparently occur within a couple years of now (i.e., mandatory Muslim education in schools, communities of non-Muslims agreeing to follow Islamic law) are so implausible that I just could not take them seriously. If they had been much more subtle, I could have been on board with it. But they were scare tactics, and they made me laugh.

The Anne Frank theme is tedious, forced and unnecessary. It just didn't work for me... maybe because Ann, the narrator, completely sucked and I wanted her to shut up.

The "epilogue" is especially hilarious. "We are Americans!"

I'm giving the book 2 stars because there WERE fun parts. It clearly took some guts to write. The first section in Amsterdam was incredible. To me, though, the book as a whole read like a sort of plodding propaganda... but for $1.99, I got my money's worth.

More About the Author

I tend to write novels that are a little controversial. I don't intend to, but a question grabs hold of my mind--Do we have a right to say no to medical technology? What would it be like to be Jackie Kennedy? Where is Islamic extremism taking us?--and it won't let go. I have to explore it, I have to write about it.

Since my interests are varied, my books are varied, perhaps too much so. But whatever the theme, I always explore identity, trying to reconcile the physical and spiritual worlds. My characters respond sensually to the world as I do, they question and doubt. It would be easier to be a different kind of writer maybe. I hope you get something out of my little efforts.