Steve Skojec

Dan Balducci. Brad Thor. Tom Kratman. Michael Flynn. These are the authors whose novels I’ve read in the past two weeks, and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying them. I just couldn’t do any more non-fiction for a while…it wasn’t working. I had been trying to read the same book - an interesting book at that, about the Founding Fathers and the original battle over church and state - for at least a month. I was maybe 60 pages into it. I realized I was burned out on all the non-fiction I had been reading and had to make the switch to something I couldn’t make myself put down, rather than something I couldn’t make myself pick up. I can’t mix genres, so it’s one or the other.

Dan Balducci’s book, Stone Cold, was mediocre. The guy has over 50 million books in print, so maybe I’m missing something, but I found the dialogue to be unbearable at times. It was like watching Die Hard 7. I picked this one up because it was actually available at the little library annex I discovered downstairs on the day I registered for my card. It held me over until my inter-library loan books came in.

Brad Thor’s The Lions of Lucerne was quite enjoyable. As it was a military/political thriller (but much more well-written than Stone Cold) I don’t have much to report. It was a fun read, quite suspenseful, and it made the time on the train pass quickly. I’ll definitely be reading more from Brad Thor.

Tom Kratman’s Caliphate is something I’ve already been talking about. Set 100 years in the future, Kratman examines what Europe looks like after it’s been taken over by the Muslims and subjected to Sharia law. Two of the main characters are children who grew up in dhimmitude as German Catholics. After their father is unable to pay the jizya, one is sold into slavery (and eventually, prostitution) and the other is forced to become a Janissary, who re-discovers his faith after being forced to crucify a priest.
 
The third protagonist is a soldier in the American Empire - an empire rooted in a common will to wipe Islam off the face of the earth after a multi-city nuclear bombing campaign (which was only half-successful, due to the inadequacies of the bombers) left three cities leveled and 4 million Americans dead.
 
Interspersed are flashbacks to the present, as portrayed through the relationship of a secular, liberal, atheist German artist and her nominally Muslim (later convert to Christianity) boyfriend. This aspect demonstrates how Europe simply let itself be taken. The book is not subtle, but it’s dead-on, and I appreciated the editorial essay from the author at the end.

I’ll warn you that this one is a difficult read at times. The book depicts a rape, several acts of prostitution, child abuse, slavery, and its fair share of violence, and it can leave you feeling pretty down about mankind and our prospects for the future. I never had a moment’s peace while reading it - I always found that at some point, I was experiencing discomfort over what I was reading. Hilary says it reads too much like a comic book for her tastes, but for those of us with less distinguished palates I think it’s a really worthwhile read with an ominous and accurate glance at what the future may hold. (Thanks to Dale Price for the heads up on this one. There’s an interesting discussion on the combox there, including quite a bit from novelist S.M. Stirling and an appearance or two by Mr. Kratman himself.)

The book I’m reading now is Eiefelheim by Michael Flynn. This one is about a priest in 14th century Germany who, along with his town, encounters a first contact scenario. That’s right - aliens in the hamlet. It’s really quite beautifully written (I think; Hilary may disagree) and so far (I’m 50 pages in) it’s about 100 times more interesting than it sounded when I read the description that follows:

A present-day scientific odd couple who are longtime domestic partners, physicist Sharon Nagy and historian Tom Schwoerin, look into the fate of the Black Forest village of the title, which apparently vanished in the plague year 1348, in Flynn’s heartbreaking morality play of stranded aliens in medieval Germany. Most of the narrative focuses on the consequences of the discovery in the 14th century by Eifelheim’s pastor, Father Dietrich, of a crashed space ship carrying the “Krenken,” horrific grasshopperlike aliens. Despite Inquisitorial threats, Dietrich befriends, baptizes and attempts to help the aliens return home. Flynn (The Wreck of the River of Stars) masterfully achieves an intricate panorama of medieval life, full of fascinatingly realized human and Krenken characters whose fates interconnect with poignant irony. Through human frailties, the very Christianity by which Dietrich hopes to save Krenken souls dooms them all.   

I’m thinking I may just enjoy this one most of all.

(Thanks to Mark Shea for putting the idea in my head of checking out some of these authors, several of whom are Catholic. I still have Tim Powers and John C. Wright in a holding pattern in my drawer o’ books here at the office. )