I've been reading science fiction for decades - my second grade teacher gave me a copy of "Flight to the Mushroom Planet" and the first story I ever wrote, in kindergarten and with crayons, was "Space Kitty" - and I've been following politics for almost as long. So naturally, I was overjoyed to pick up "Empire," a science fiction look at near-future America written by one of the paragons of the genre, Orsen Scott Card. The back leaf held a promising synopsis for an entertaining science fiction story with a powerful political message.
It was only half true.
The story follows a pair of U.S. Special Forces soldiers as they become ever more involved in rooting out a conspiracy to overthrow the legitimate government of the United States. Card is an accomplished writer, and the story unfolds in an interesting and generally plausible manner (plausibility being a major factor in science fiction, as unreasonable scenarios make poor entertainment - readers like myself are picky about making stories seem as though they COULD happen, no matter how far in the future it needs to be). Indeed, as the story unfolded, I found myself being drawn in... right up to the part where the main characters went on Fox news.
Now, nothing wrong with that, except that the reason they went on Fox news was that it is taken to be self-evident that Fox is the only reliable news network in the country, and that all other press is out to make the soldiers look like traitors. O'Reilly is used to provide an interview, and Card even manages to work in a "fair and balanced" quote.
Now this is distasteful for me but hardly a deal breaker. However, the story goes on to defend "this president" (who is tactfully never named) for saving the military; makes New York City, Vermont, and Washington state the action centers of the "Progressive Restoration," a violent rebel group which claims to be out to restore the Constitution after the egregious abuses made against it by the administration and are painted by Card as complete lunatics for making such a claim, even while I was thinking they had a pretty fair point; and appoints a new President and VP who save the Constitution by saying things like the following paragraph:
"In some ways, the vice-presidency is a thankless office. But under recent Presidents, the Vice President has been relied more and more to oversee ever-more-important aspects of government. It is with full and, dare I say, enthusiastic approval of the leaders of both parties in both houses of Congress that I assure that I will continue that practice and expand on it.
This doesn't make for a bad story; indeed, Card's storytelling, though not up to the level of his epochal "Ender's Game," is still quite compelling and made the book hard to put down. But for someone with a progressive bent, it was hard to stomach the constant reminders that everything bad happening in the book was our fault.
Card writes an afterword explaining how he came to these conclusions and how he feels there is lunacy on both sides and moderates like him can't find a voice; but I find it it difficult to accept his claim to moderation in the face of the body of evidence he provides in the story itself. Maybe it just made for a better story to make the progressives the bad guys; but it sure seemed like Card was trying to make a pretty enthusiastic defense of President Bush, his administration, and his policies.
I guess I just expected something a little smarter from a science fiction author.
UPDATE h/t to Swampash for linking through to this article on Card: http://www.kuro5hin.org/...
Worth reading, I learned a lot about the man and his writing.