Card Sharp

Originally Posted at The Festering Swamp on July 12, 2007

This post was inspired by an ignorant review of Orson Scott Card's Empire that I read at Amazon.com. The reviewer in question dismissed it as a piece of conservative Republican propaganda - making it obvious to me that he had not read the book (not unlike the hordes of leftists screaming indignantly about Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism). Speaking of which, I will be posting a review of Liberal Fascism in the coming weeks - and yes, I have read the book. - Mike LaRoche

For those who are unaware of him, Orson Scott Card is an award-winning science fiction novelist best known for his Ender’s Game and Tales of Alvin Maker series. In recent years Card has also gained notoriety as a political firebrand, becoming a vocal critic of the Democratic Party’s leftward tilt, complaining that the party has left conservative Democrats like him without a true political home. A more in-depth explanation of Card’s political beliefs, provided by the writer himself, can be found here.

Card’s latest novel (which may be the first of a new series), Empire, published in November 2006, does little to undermine his new reputation as a polemicist. Set in the near future, the story revolves around two military officers: Captain Bartholomew “Cole” Coleman and Major Reuben “Rube” Malich. The two officers find themselves at the center of a tremendous political upheaval when, in the months before the upcoming presidential election, the incumbent President and Vice President are assassinated. The assassinations are soon proven to have been a prelude to an even more shocking event: the take-over of New York City by a rebel movement calling themselves the Progressive Restoration.

The Progressive Restoration releases a statement claiming they are restoring the Democratic governments that were duly elected in 2000 and 2004, but thwarted by entrenched radical right-wing special interests. Cole and Rube quickly trace the rebel movement to a wealthy leftist financier named Aldo Verus (a thinly disguised facsimile of George Soros) and a sympathetic general at the Pentagon. Together, the two officers work to prevent the crisis from degenerating into a Second Civil War.

The most interesting character in the novel is a shadowy Princeton history professor named Averell Torrent. Torrent, a former graduate advisor to Major Malich, is shown to have hidden political ambitions of his own as well as considerable influence among the hierarchies of the Republican and Democratic parties. We learn that Torrent is an admirer of Augustus Caesar, the first Emperor of Rome who managed to transform his country from a republic into an empire with the overwhelming, if unwary consent of his subjects. The people of Rome, Torrent explains, were convinced that the Republic was still up and running because Augustus had diligently preserved republican institutions like the Roman Senate while steadily centralizing his sovereign power over the growing imperium.

Since its release, many reviewers have criticized Empire for its polemical nature and the thinness of its character development. Some of the critical reviews (like that from Publisher’s Weekly, posted at Amazon) are from people who clearly didn’t even bother to read the book, preferring to use its publication as an excuse to slam Card’s right-leaning political views. Such assessments are not fair to this novel. What Empire may lack in character and plot development is more than made up for with Card’s smooth prose in addition to his inclusion of the wily, inscrutable Professor Torrent.

If you wish to see thin character development (and worse), read the truly awful Red! Blue! by D. Quinn Mills (available for free download in pdf format) – a tale of how evil Republicans attempt to steal another presidential election from the virtuous Democrats, this time in 2008. At the center of the story is Senator Sheila Brinton, the Democratic presidential nominee who bravely stands up to the underhanded electioneering tactics of her Republican rival, Governor John Cox and his brother, incumbent President Rick Cox. Yes, it is as bad as it sounds. To call Mills’ novel one-dimensional is an insult to stick figures everywhere.

Card has no such trouble, deftly using his characters and storyline to lay the foundation of what could become a fascinating (if greatly controversial) series of reflective allegories upon our divisive political culture. I trust Card will dismiss his critics and take to heart the advice of Admiral David Farragut: “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”