Book Review: Prayers for the Assassin by Robert Ferrignohttp://search.barnesandnoble.com/Prayers-for-the-Assassin/Robert-Ferrigno/e/9781416567370/?itm=1Spoiler Warning:
I will not reveal major plot points. I will focus on the sotry's setting and execution, and general commentary with only "back cover" detail of the plot itself.
UpshotMuch better than average pot-boiler and well-worth the time & money spent.
AuthorRobert Ferrigno has writen several well-received pot-boilers over the last few years. Prayers for the Assassin (PA) is his most successful work to date.
Background/SettingThis is what has caused a bit of controversy. In the PA world, the whole religio-econo-political landscape has changed drastically.
The story takes place in 2040, on the west coast of N America and mostly in & about Seattle.
Timeline: Iraq War-20402003: Iraq war begun
2008-2010-ish: USA pulls out of Iraq on poor terms. No specifics given as to why, just the how. Meaning, the chattering classes have done their job of sapping the war effort and somehow have achieved their goal of American defeat. Iraq implodes into chaos & strife.
2010-2015: America slips into a crisis of confidence similar to the 1970s. Crime rates explode, traditional values mocked, the word "patriotism" never apears outside of scare quotes, etc. The mainline Prot churches continue their decent and offer nothing but the same pablum one would find on Oprah. Agitating minorities sieze much political power and gov't largesse as a result of the center/majority's dissolution. Europe sinks lower into ennui, while China and Russia grow more powerful in political, economic, and military matters.
2010-2015: Many entertainment, sports, and other public figures make high-profile conversions to a moderate and in some cases, monderist Islam. Many folks influenced by the glitterati follow them (similar to, but on a greater scale than the bump Kabbala got whem Madonna was on her Kabbala kick). It is a cultural phenomenon.
2015: The Zionist Betrayal. Suitcase nukes destroy & irradiate NYC & DC, while another only achieves dirty-bomb effect in Mecca, leaving it structurally sound, but irradiated. Initially, it is thought to be the work of Muslim militants. The perpetrators are caught and turn out to be Mossad. Their intent was to drive a wedge between Islam and the West, provoking Western action in retaliation and thus neutralizing their greatest threats. Televised confessions are broadcast worldwide. A combined Arab/European force crushes the state of Israel. No country is willing to accept them, when Russia offers them asylum. Jews are hounded throughout the world and run out of Europe and put under pressure in the USA.
2016: The first Muslim President of the USA is elected with a majority of the Electoral College and the popular vote and is sworn in by the Imam of the Grand Mosque in Seattle, his right hand on the Koran. Even more in America convert to Islam. Teh POTUS pushes legislation through Congress that builds on GWB's Faith Based Initiatives and expands the power and influence of his moderate form of Islam. Many of the laws are unconstitional on their face and cause great consternation in the Bible Belt & Utah. Free speech is severely limited and gun possession outside of government forbidden.
One thing leads to another and the Second Civil War is begun between the moderate muslim federal govenment and breakaway states in the Bible Belt & Utah. The federal gov't cracks down on evangelical/fundamentalist protestants and Jews. A Long March occurs where the Christians up and leave the areas controlled by the federal government. Muslims in the Bible Belt also pick up and move.
The civil war lasts several years. Martial law is declared in both the American Islamic Republic and the ible Belt. The war devastates industry and the economies of both. 10-20 million die in fighting, famine, and disease during the years of hte war. Eventually a cease-fire is called and active large-scale fighting ends.
2040: Things are not so good in the AIR. Think of a country of diminished expectations and no longer master of its own fate in the world.
Nature of the American Islamic RepublicLiberty-wise, kind of a cross between Iran & Singapore. Meaning, the state is a (mostly) light-handed dictatorship (similar to Singapore) with a moderate muslim basis. Majority Muslim.
There are three major factions and one minor: Moderate muslims (majority), Moderns (Muslims who use/take in modernity but still consider themselves Muslim), and Fundamentalists (religiously and culturally oriented toward a severe, intolerant flavor of Islam). The minor faction is the Roman Catholics. They are de jure second-class citizens, but can usually get by without too much trouble.
Jews and protestants are actively hunted down. Pagans were killed or converted.
The government has a group called the "Black Robes." They are fundamentalist enforcers. By law, their authority is only over other fundamentalists and are prohibited from enforcing doctrine and conformity on muslims of the moderate or modern persuasion as well as Catholics.
Economically, since a minor recovery after the civil war, it has been a slow downhill slide. Too many bright minds were killed, left, discriminated against, or were exiled. Too many sharia restrictions on commerce rob the economy of its flexibility.
The environment has taken a hit, as the leaders are more worried about the economy than the environment. Very close ot a thrid-world country.
The most economically vigorous part of the AIR is California, which is majority Roman Catholics of Mexican decent.
Nature of the Bible BeltHeavily Christian fundamentalist, with a twist: alcohol consumption is now considered a mark of Christians, so the tradition of teetotaling has passed.
As with the American Islamic Republic, it is in the dumps, economically. Also close to third-world country status.
Other North American PolitiesMexico is no longer a republic, but an empire.
Canada is similar to today's Canada.
The Bible Belt and Utah are not the same polity, but are allied.
Nevada Free State is the Switzerland of N America. It is seen by wiser heads in AIR and the BB as necessary and a place for folks to blow off steam.
Initial PlotThe protagonists are moderate or modernist muslims. Rakkim, the primary protagonist, is a veteran of what we would consider a special operations unit, kind of a muslim Rangers/SF/Delta/CIA mish-mash of super-troopers. He is called in by his adoptive father, Redbeard (head of state security for the AIR) to find Redbeard's niece, who has gone missing. There is plenty of bloody infiighing in the gov't between the various power centers as well as an outside, shadow influnece.
CommentaryThe author is not a gun-guy. He makes few gun errors, but keeps everything very generic, "sub-gun," "pistol," etc. He avoids large mistakes by writing them out of the story: almost all action is hand-to-hand maybe with a knife or two.
A lot of what the author draws on looks to be the initial muslim conquest of Byzantium, N Africa, and Persia. Some bits of 7th-century Byzantium fought the muslim onslaught. But, some cities threw open their doors to teh muslim. Why? Well, the Byzantine gov't had gotten corrupt, had not fostered a sense of patriotism, had screwed the economic pooch, had heavily taxed the people, and had not supported the faith of the empire.
In both cases (Byz & USA ~2015), the muslims brought moral certitude, something to believe in, and relief from outrageous taxation.
Also, in both cases, inital military success was followed by a short economic/intellectual burst that soon petered out. As the conquered lands lost their old nature (Hellenized/Americanized) and became more Islamicized/Arabicized, they lost vigor and went into decline. The initial decline took a couple hundered years with regard to the first muslim conquest of the Hellenized world (less the rump of Byzantium). In the case of the AIR, the deline was precipitous. This goes along with my observation that these days, "events happen faster." Meaning, that what used to take decades or centuries to play out, now plays out in a few years of less.
The author works hard to keep the characters and environment 3-dimensional. Even the muslim fundamentalists have factions, human foibles, etc. He takes pains to show the AIR as more liberal than, say, Iran.
