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readwithzelda 's review for:
American War
by Omar El Akkad
I had a difficult time with this book. Reading this while quarantined during a pandemic might not have been the best choice. I kept asking myself if it was the book itself, or if it was the fact that I feel like I'm living through a doomsday scenario already. There were actual moments where I would put the book down and struggle with the similarities between the book and of the horror of the present day.
That said, I think upon finishing it that no, I just didn't really like this book. Here's why.
The story is set in a future US, between the years of 2075 and 2095 mostly. And in this future, a few Southern states are at war with the north because they want to continue to use fossil fuels after it has been banned. For me, this might be one of the biggest problems with the whole book.
This novel is filled with brutal violence, torture and massacres, and it simply does not seem believable that it could occur over fossil fuels. I just cannot buy into a world where people would allow for that much brutality over something that they are not directly profiting from. In this book, the South is reduced to a pile of cliches, mostly of people fighting for no reason other than just a hatred of the North. They are mostly fighting amongst themselves unable to agree between all the rebel factions.
I suppose that could be possible, since it does happen, but I think it would need to be maybe 200 hundred years in the future, not 50. In the direction our country is going, it would be very difficult to imagine that people would care enough about gasoline to wipe out entire cities. (Again, when the people defending it are poor and not in anyway retaining direct ownership of the oil fields, why would they care at all?)
But this is just one of numerous frustrating unexplained holes in the plot. Why a huge swath of the west now owned by Mexico, for one. Not only is it not explained, it doesn't have a bit of relevance to anything. There are potentially interesting plot lines such as the new Empire of Bouazizi - created after many revolts similar to the Arab Spring, but this new empire is only alluded to, and again, never really explained. I would have loved to have learned more about it, or have a parallel plot going there. Also, the narrator is writing from a place called New Anchorage. What happened to the old Anchorage? Where is New Anchorage? Apparently we don't need to know.
Finally, the lack of female characters is just repulsive. The main character is female, sort-of. She's some sort of giant (6'5'' at the end, but several mentions of her "still growing") the only dark-skinned person in the entire book (including even her family), and despite being a woman, she's described as very masculine. Several times throughout the book she's referred to as more man then any of the men fighting the war. Of course she's also gay, but that's a total throwaway scene that's out of left-field and never mentioned again.
Are there any female fighters, soldiers, generals, leaders, any women anywhere in this book that are taking up any sort of cause? Nope. There are a couple of women that are staying home and tending children or gardens. The descriptions of women could have come straight from the first civil war and you'd not be able to tell the difference.
I could go on about that, but I'll just say the final glaring disappointment of this book was it's complete lack of imagination when it comes to any aspect of Science Fiction. There is no mention of technology at all, and no explanation for it's absence. There is a little vague reference to "Birds" (drones? planes? who knows) and "Tik-toks" (what I think are solar powered cars - again, not explained) and that's absolutely it. Again, this story could be taking place in 1975 or 1875 and you'd never know the difference.
I wanted to like this book, it had an interesting premise, but it was never fully fleshed out. The writing was dull, and the characters one-dimensional. The whole thing just fell flat for me.
That said, I think upon finishing it that no, I just didn't really like this book. Here's why.
The story is set in a future US, between the years of 2075 and 2095 mostly. And in this future, a few Southern states are at war with the north because they want to continue to use fossil fuels after it has been banned. For me, this might be one of the biggest problems with the whole book.
This novel is filled with brutal violence, torture and massacres, and it simply does not seem believable that it could occur over fossil fuels. I just cannot buy into a world where people would allow for that much brutality over something that they are not directly profiting from. In this book, the South is reduced to a pile of cliches, mostly of people fighting for no reason other than just a hatred of the North. They are mostly fighting amongst themselves unable to agree between all the rebel factions.
I suppose that could be possible, since it does happen, but I think it would need to be maybe 200 hundred years in the future, not 50. In the direction our country is going, it would be very difficult to imagine that people would care enough about gasoline to wipe out entire cities. (Again, when the people defending it are poor and not in anyway retaining direct ownership of the oil fields, why would they care at all?)
But this is just one of numerous frustrating unexplained holes in the plot. Why a huge swath of the west now owned by Mexico, for one. Not only is it not explained, it doesn't have a bit of relevance to anything. There are potentially interesting plot lines such as the new Empire of Bouazizi - created after many revolts similar to the Arab Spring, but this new empire is only alluded to, and again, never really explained. I would have loved to have learned more about it, or have a parallel plot going there. Also, the narrator is writing from a place called New Anchorage. What happened to the old Anchorage? Where is New Anchorage? Apparently we don't need to know.
Finally, the lack of female characters is just repulsive. The main character is female, sort-of. She's some sort of giant (6'5'' at the end, but several mentions of her "still growing") the only dark-skinned person in the entire book (including even her family), and despite being a woman, she's described as very masculine. Several times throughout the book she's referred to as more man then any of the men fighting the war. Of course she's also gay, but that's a total throwaway scene that's out of left-field and never mentioned again.
Are there any female fighters, soldiers, generals, leaders, any women anywhere in this book that are taking up any sort of cause? Nope. There are a couple of women that are staying home and tending children or gardens. The descriptions of women could have come straight from the first civil war and you'd not be able to tell the difference.
I could go on about that, but I'll just say the final glaring disappointment of this book was it's complete lack of imagination when it comes to any aspect of Science Fiction. There is no mention of technology at all, and no explanation for it's absence. There is a little vague reference to "Birds" (drones? planes? who knows) and "Tik-toks" (what I think are solar powered cars - again, not explained) and that's absolutely it. Again, this story could be taking place in 1975 or 1875 and you'd never know the difference.
I wanted to like this book, it had an interesting premise, but it was never fully fleshed out. The writing was dull, and the characters one-dimensional. The whole thing just fell flat for me.