Tom Kratman's A Desert Called Peace

What a way to start the New Year!

I received several good reads for Christmas, and my recent trend of slacking off in the reading department is no longer acceptable with all of the reading goodness arrayed before me.

I’ve started with Tom Kratman’s A Desert Called Peace. Kratman is currently in the Baen stable of authors, which means that there is a certain amount of baggage associated with the book.  Baen authors tend to write in a fairly uniform style (the exception being Eric Flint, who seems hard pressed to find a style), and their political leanings seem to be either strongly libertarian or right-of-center. Kratman is no exception to this; his novel of the future is depressingly like the events of today, including an attack by Islamic fundamentalists on an edifice of trade and commerce similar to the WTC.

Instead of history following its course as it has today, Kratman posits the existence of a capable, retired military officer in the mould of Belisarius or Julius Caesar who feels a burning hatred toward the world of Islam. The novel follows a Heart of Darkness style journey to the depths of this officer’s soul as he embarks on a course of annhiliation. That this book even contemplates such a course is disturbing to a reader with voyeuristic tendencies; that his message resonates so well not only with me, but with a sizable portion of the sci-fi community is frightening. I find it ironic that the post I made in the wake of Bhutto’s death is so germane to this novel. My hat is off to Kratman…I don’t think I would have the guts to go where he’s going with this series, but I’ll certainly keep reading.