Empire
by Orson Scott Card

When many people were bloviating about how George W. Bush represented the darkest threat to America in recent history, Orson Scott Card found himself worrying about how the demographic popularity of that thought itself represented a darker threat. In his view, the real story of the Bush presidency was how America had become polarized between a mostly urban, coastal, professional Left and a mostly rural, central, working-class Right. Even more, he saw how cynical media masters and other popularity manipulators were leveraging this dissent to their own benefit.

From that thought came Empires, which melds Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton/Robin Cook-style scientifically informed paranoia to give us a vision of a new American revolution. In it, a terrorist assault on the United States is used as a pretext for what appears to be a straightforward political situation. However, once the dust settles, it becomes clear that all is not well, and nothing is as it seems, in a country that has suddenly had to face how radically divided it is.

While Card's patriotism and American-style conservatism can be overstated in this book, I don't like other reviewers think it is too dogmatic in what he shows us in the story: he remains a faithful author, showing us how things would go down given the precepts he established. However, whenever given a chance to editorialize he does, in part trying to convince us that he's not taking a Right/Left stance, but that this division arose from the left.

I enjoyed this book. It's a heck of a read, with bready text that passes quickly without much artistry but describes with clarity situations that are artfully arranged. In other words, like most science fiction, you aren't reading it for the similes, but for the characters and logical developments in situations no one seems to expect. Action occurs in the undertones of those who worship dynamic change but are somewhat indifferent to its methods.

Characters are not "deep" in the pseudo-literary sense that's popular now, but are clear archetypes recognizable from life, with simple but honest motivations. Descending into this world is easy and immediately one is caught in the theatre of people who are trying to do the right thing in a world where confusion reigns. While the maze of deceit will not be a shocker to anyone who has read enough ancient history, it makes itself irresistible through a contemporary setting and an overt grappling with the divisions we normally try to ignore.

Some will find the heavy political undertones too much for light reading but here they are more plainly revealed than in Clancy or Crichton or Cook. The real story, as always, is a struggle for survival in a time when we must predict complex interactions of social and psychological forces to know what each action will create, and through that knowledge pick the right one. This fast-paced thriller will delight anyone who likes a good story of struggle by good people.

Empire by Orson Scott Card