Carrera Returns

In his latest novel, The Lotus Eaters, Tom Kratman revisits the saga of Patricio Carrera, the protagonist of his novels A Desert Called Peace and Carnifex.  Some eight years after the events in Carnifex, Carrera has settled into a somewhat settled, but troubled life.  He is still haunted by the death of his first wife Linda and their children, as well as by the brutal, but effective way in which he ended the war against the Salafists in Pashtia.  There is, however, much trouble in the present as well.  The Tauran Union maintains its occupation of Balboa's Transitway, propping up the corrupt rump government of President Manuel Rocaberti while the rest of the country is governed by Carrera's allies, led by President Raul Parilla.  With the power of Carrera's Legion del Cid - and by extension the government of free Balboa - growing by the day, the Tauran Union faces a dilemma: risk starting a costly war with Carrera and his legion now that might bring in the Federated States of Columbia in on Carrera's side, or simply stand by while Carrera and his allies prosper and grow stronger.

There are, in the novel, three viewpoint characters: Patricio Carrera, Marguerite Wallenstein (the new leader of the United Earth Peace Fleet), and General Janier (the head of the Tauran Union's forces occupying the Balboa Transitway).  Wallenstein is seeking to reform the Peace Fleet so that it can become an effective deterrent to the increasingly expansive Terra Novans, all of whom are still unaware of how far Old Earth has fallen under the rule of the Consensus.  Janier, understanding the aforementioned crisis facing the Taurans in Balboa, is pushing his superiors to act against Carrera and the Legion del Cid sooner rather than later.

In addition, Carrera's young son Hamilcar (born to his second wife, Lourdes) is beginning to come into his own.  Revered by a tribe of Pashtians who consider him to be the avatar of their god Iskandr, Hamilcar is guarded day and night at his home in Balboa by tribal warriors, pledged to defend him to the death.  The Pashtian tribesmen prophesy that Hamilcar will some day become a great military leader in his own right, with a legacy that will surpass that of his father.

Interspersed within this story are excerpts of a book titled Historia y Filosofia Moral, written by two prominent characters from the previous novels - Jorge and Marqueli Mendoza.  Within these excerpts, the philosophical nature of Balboa's timocratic republican government is discussed.  What is a timocracy, you ask?  The term derives from the Greek words timē - meaning "honor" - and kratia - meaning "rule".  Written of by various ancient Greeks like Solon, Plato, and Aristotle, a timocracy is essentially a government where political power derives from the degree of honor that rulers hold relative to other members of society.  In the timocratic republic of Balboa, this honor is acquired via miltary service.  The characters Jorge and Marqueli Mendoza argue the case for timocracy thus:

The military mind is rapacious, but that rapacity has limits.  It may force life to subordinate itself to the practical needs of war; it will rarely, or never, on its own, force life to subordinate itself to mere fantasy or high sounding theory...

The need for civilian control over the military is not, in any case, based on any presumption that the civilian mind is, on average, wiser or more creative or more moral than the military mind.  Indeed, human history provides no unambiguous evidence to support any such proposition.  Rather, the moral imperative of civilian control is based on two related factors.  One is that, will they, nil they, civilians will be affected, will suffer, from the decision to go to war.  This, if nothing else, entitles them to a say in some form, though that say may be no more than the option to have a say, with conditions.  The second is that, without adequate civilian support, every serious war effort is ultimately doomed to failure.  Failure in war is, of course, the height of immorality.

In any case, civilian control of the military does not mean that those who never served are best suited to exercise control.  Rather, those who have never served are not clearly morally fit to control the military.  Neither are those who have enjoyed it and made a life.  Conversely, those who have served and, duty done, left service, have shown a willingness to do that which they do not like, for the common good...

It is a thought-provoking notion that Kratman puts forth, and one which I enjoyed reading amidst the novel's action and drama.  Kratman is clearly well-read in classical history and philosophy, something I've known since our discussions of Thucydides and Victor Davis Hanson on this blog two years prior.

I should also point out that The Lotus Eaters is Kratman's first novel since A State of Disobedience to lack an afterword.  However, the aforementioned discussion of timocracy within the novel's pages more than makes up for its absence.  While awaiting Kratman's next addition to the series, be sure to check out the excerpts of The Amazon Legion posted on this blog - a story set in the Carrera universe, to which there are a few oblique references in The Lotus Eaters.