Customer Reviews

War Against Islam

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The author's husband, Tom Clancy Fan (poor Tom Clancy will have a coronary if he catches wind of his work being compared to this dreck) has said this repeatedly: "They can preview a fifth of the book themselves at Google Books (link below) and make their own judgement on the work."

So I did. Oh. My. Gawd.

I usually have no use for people who review books they haven't read, but having taken TCF's advise I can only thank him for the suggestion. This book is painful to read; one fifth of it was too much. Amateurish to an embarrassing degree. Upon arriving at Google Books to see what I could learn, I clicked on the first available excerpt and began to read. The first thing I came across was this:

"Gentlemen, welcome to one of the few exclusive mile-high country clubs in the world" boomed the now second term Colorado Governor, having been successfully re-elected a couple of years ago. "Ah hate mixing business with pleasure, so I suggest we first have a few rounds of golf; am good you know! Then we shall retreat to ma exclusive room in the club yonder. While we're playing golf, your security personnel are welcome to check the room for audio-visual listening devises, if it makes you feel safer about our private conversation later."

This is really awful, starting with the poor punctuation and sentence structure and ending with "audio-visual listening devices". Huh?

As the dialog begins, it appears the author is attempting to write in what is presumably supposed to be an American Southern drawl ("Ah" is used for "I", although the next use of the personal pronoun is offered as "I". The "Am" for "I'm" is interesting, although if consistency is attempted(which in this book it absolutely is NOT) it would presumably be "Ahm". My personal favorite is the use of "shall" and "yonder" in the same sentence.

The first problem, of course, is that the author apparently doesn't know how to write in this dialect(her husband mentioned elsewhere that the spelling used is British rather than American English which may explain a world of issues except why a "satire" about America would be written with British English, but I digress.)

The second problem is that the character's dialect changes back and forth. He even uses the word "whilst". Definitely NOT a good ol' boy.

The capstone problem with this dialect is, of course, that people in Colorado don't speak with a southern drawl. Oops.

This book first needed a proofreader. The punctuation, capitalization, grammar and sentence structure are that bad; not only frequently incorrect, but also inconsistent. Then it needed an editor. I mean it REALLY needed an editor. I could write more quotes, but the gentle reader can find them for him or herself on Google books. Don't look for them by buying this mess unless you have $20 bucks to pound down a rat hole.

Of course, the single biggest problem with the book is revealed in the Prologue. The main character is a one-dimensional, vile, disgusting bigot and there isn't anything funny about him or the premise of the book. Nuclear war...giggle, giggle. Ick.

No, wait, I do have to say that when I got to the part about the governor's children being taught by "a vetted nun from the Mormon church" I fell off the chair. This author knows next to nothing about the United States, its culture, its Constitution or the good people of Colorado. And she also knows nothing about writing.

You have been warned. So have I. Won't buy it or read any more of it.

I read the first part of the book on google books. I wanted to judge for myself if it was the trash that people are claiming it is. I know a lot of people like the Colorado Governor portrayed in this book. I wish I didn't but there you have it. The author should have put this book in a drawer somewhere and sat on it for a year, then come back and reviewed it with a fresh eye. I'm not saying the author lacks talent, far from that, I just think the book feels rushed to me. The editor should be shot. The premise sounds interesting but the sloppy editorial work and high price of the book are big negatives. The tom clancy fan or whoever that's jumping all over everybody promoting this book reminds me of those people at the turn of the century that went around promoting quack cures. If I was the author I'd be mortified by someone doing that with one of my books. Maybe I'm being generous by giving it 3 stars, but I like Mystery Science Theatre 3000 too, and that is absolute trash. PILATE: A Brutal Bible Tale was connected in a forum with this book which is depressing. People will publish anything to raise some eyebrows.

This book really needs an editor.

Some of the basic ideas, while seeming far-fetched, are entirely plausible. Other are completely delusional. I wonder if the author came up with these ideas while at a college frat party after losing a beer drinking contest.

Read Tom Kratzman's Caliphate for a much more plausible scenario.

"War Against Islam" presents a post-911 Colorado governor who vaults to the American Presidency on the promise to eradicate Islam, eliminate American's dependence on oil, and bring outsourced jobs back to the States.

Over the course of the book, the newly-elected President meets his promises: he nukes many of the Muslim-heavy countries, helps Israel consolidate Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt into its territories, turns large chunks of the Middle East and Africa into European colonies, kicks all Arabs and Muslims out of the US, outlaws gas- and oil-based automobiles, and reneges on the US debt to China.

Readers who favor taking an all-out radical approach to changing the world may enjoy this book. It's an easy read, and switches between a "future history book" style and a Clancy-like level of detail on how the American weapons are used to destroy cities and satellites (and like Clancy, the missiles' flights were better-described than some characters).

This new President is an enigmatic figure. He's family-loving, straight shooting, full of strongly-held convictions, and able to get a full nights' sleep after killing a hundred million people. He's a racist, a bigot, and a tree-hugging environmentalist. He was brilliant enough to anticipate and block every possible counter-attack on his plans. As I read the book, I yearned to see how he handled the emotional conflicts in his life, but, strangely, he didn't seem to have any.

This book portrayed an America with no political oversight. Not a place I'd like to live. At several points in the story, I wondered if this is how the Germans felt during Hitler's rule: thrilled to right the perceived wrongs, glad to be so powerful, and finding ways to suppress their consciences over the excesses taken.

I decided to read this drivel after "Tom Clancy Fan" recommended it in a forum.

The book is printed on nice paper. The print is clear and easy to read. No publisher marks are found. The price of the book and style of printing suggest a vanity press.

The author uses a nom de plume but is honest about the fact. The author is trying to conceal his identity out of embarrassment or the Salman Rushdie factor, I suspect the former.

The most telling comment on the book is the amount of outrage from the Muslim communities over the content. Oh wait there is none.

Let's add it up; vanity press printing, nom de plume, poorly written and expensive. If you really want to read this garbage my copy is for sale for $0.01 and the cost of shipping.

One thing that, War Against Islam, is not is politically-correct. The author truly tells it like it is without worrying if he offends his readers or not. Robertson pushes the envelope in his story of how things could be if America ever got a fanatic president of its own, one who has no trouble taking the lives of millions of people. His goal is the complete destruction of many of the worlds Muslins countries and the removing of all Muslins and Arabs from the United States to produce a safer nation. The book got better with each page. Don't let the title fool you, it is a great thriller, and not in the least a political comment on Islam. I highly recommend it.

I have seen excerpts of this book that make it appear to have been written by a high school student who has seen too many action movies. Perhaps that is the target audience, because I can't imagine any mature adults appreciating this. The author has no concept of the consequences imposed by reality, the hero can be written out of any tight spot. This book is to fine literature what paint-by-numbers is to fine art. The author believes we are not intelligent enough to understand satire, and therefore all but connects the dots for us by naming characters Al Bore, Hitlery Minton, etc. The author (George P. Robertson is a pen name, allegedly to avoid retalliation by Islamic extremists) even writes himself in as the hero. George Robertson, an ultra right-wing hybrid of George W. Bush and Pat Robertson, saves the world by nuking the Middle East. I have read enough to wholeheartedly recommend avoiding it.

As if that were not enough, this book was brought to my attention by a single individual who, using multiple accounts and identities, has been shamelessly and tactlessly spamming the politics discussion forum (and is responsible for two favorable reviews here so far). Presumably this spamming is the work of the author, or someone working on their behalf. It is hard to imagine anyone else working so hard to promote the work. He started two threads for the sole purpose of raving about this masterpiece, and he posted plugs for it in countless other discussions. He was sure to mention the book, the author, and provide links in nearly every post. This type of behavior would be enough to turn me off from the book on its own, but when not plugging the book, he spewed a disturbing level of hate and backwards thinking on a variety of topics. He fully believes that this work of fiction holds the answers to the very real problems we face today (after all, it worked in the book, so why wouldn't it work in real life?). Regardless of whether this spamming has been done by the author, or the book's biggest (only?) fan, the fact that it has gotten this particular hateful individual so excited is reason enough to avoid it completely.

What I liked most about this book was the author's ridicule of each and every one of our politicians of both colors. Journalists were not spared either. The author breaks ground by daring to ridicule our ruling class without restraint. I wonder if the author will get sued anyway...

The story line is a bit of a stretch. But then, as the author mentions in his Amapedia article, most people also thought Tom Clancy was mad when he portrayed a plane hitting the Capitol many years before 9/11 happened. Hey Tom must've lost a beer drinking contest too...

The geopolitics and military action in this book is a helluva lot better than the mediocre (non)"EndWar" book Clancy recently sponsored that I had the misfortune to read. While Clancy still remains embroiled in the Cold War past, this author has moved on to the Great Power competition of the present.

After reading negative reviews, I took risk buying this book. But it was worth. Maybe somebody used hard tactics on amazon forums, but I do same if noone hear me. Amazon should do something about people posting reviews without reading books. It is sure that they misjudge both work and objective of author.

Yes,this is vanity press, but author tells very good story. I say no more about book because you can read preview yourself on google books.

Normally, I give this book a 4 star (I am very demanding), but in support of author, I give 5 stars.

PS: If author read my review, is french translation coming? If ever you are in France, you sign my book?

This work is not your typical commercial politico-military thriller. I can understand why some readers did not like it. They were expecting Clancy when they got something unexpected that shocked them. This is truly innovative writing - from the blasphemization of our leaders in the first half to the relentless untraditional depiction of war in the second half of the novel. This is the first book I have ever read where the author combines the terrible destruction of war with incredibly well researched detail of the culture and history of the nations being bombed. For example the author describes the destruction of Tikrit but at the same time mentions that Saladin was born in this town. I learnt a lot of history and culture from this book. Things I did not know despite being in the governmental field for many years (now retired).

Another strange thing is that the book becomes better as you read along. Once I got to the war part, I stayed up all night to finish it.

This novel may not become popular. But it will surely become a classic. Perhaps fifty years from now, people may buy more copies of this superb work of unending creativity than they do today. If I have one criticism, it is the choice of title and cover. Naturally I could not read it on my metro rides into or from town and had to read it exclusively at home.