Science Fiction, Orson Scott Card

You wouldn't think that a political column would be the best place to review a sci-fi book... but in this case it's the perfect place.

I just finished reading Orson Scott Card's book Empire. I couldn't put it down. Then I couldn't stop thinking about it. He's always been one of my favorite authors, writing books that engage the imagination and tweak your thought processes. With Empire, he doesn't tweak, he kick-starts your brain and races you around the track a few times at top speed.

Empire takes the reader into a possible future of war in the United States. Not with Iraq or China or some other trouble spot on our current radar, but into civil war in our great country. Not hundreds of years down the road, but in our lifetime. Unfortunately, it's almost plausible.

He takes 'red state vs blue state' to it's extreme, tosses in the personalities and mind-sets of many we hear and see in 'real life', weaves his word-magic and rolls the country into war.

The best part of the book for me was the Afterward. Somehow he managed to take all those random, scattered thoughts that I think in passing and coalesce them into a strongly rational case. With any luck, he's not alone in his thinking, and neither am I.

Hopefully, by avoiding any specifics in this blog, you'll run right out and buy the book or hit your local library so you can find out for yourself what in the world I'm talking about! This is a book that everyone who considers themselves to be 'red,' 'blue,' in the middle or on the edge, should read.