A review by beejai
Alpha and Omega by Harry Turtledove
3.0
In this book at one point, three significant world leaders are suddenly killed. Six months after publishing one of those three are suddenly killed? Prophesy? Well, only if you think DT is the hand of God.
OK, now on to my real book review. Pretty much any time Harry Turtledove puts something in print, I pick it up and read it. He isn't the greatest author out there. He isn't even the best alt-history author out there, but he always does have some really good thought experiments. Most of his books revolve around an idea that any lover of history has probably played around in their own mind. What would England look like if they had not stopped the Spanish Armada? (Ruled Brittania) What would life be like for a modern day Jew in Germany if Hitler had won the war? (In the Presence of Mine Enemies) You get the picture.
This book is not alt-history, but it is still a great thought experiment. What if Israel took down the Al-Aqsa Mosque (Dome of the Rock) and rebuilt the Temple in its proper place? He lays out a scenario where Jews in Israel give up trying to play nice with their neighbors, political sentiment swings to the extreme far right, and the next thing you know, construction crews are taking down the third holiest site in Islam that they might rebuild the holiest site in Judaism.
The scenario is definitely an interesting one and HT does a great job of pacing the plot well and keeping the reader hooked. He also shows well the incredible complexities involved when three major world religions all are focused in on the same small plot of ground. A victory for one group always makes losers for the others and HT shows what those might look like. At points, this book is as unbelievable as anything since he wrote about sentient dinosaurs (what if the asteroid missed?) but you ought to expect miracles to occur when religion plays such a key point in a book.
One thing that did not surprise me, but might surprise someone not as familiar with Turtledove, is how unsympathetic or even how unbelievable his characters are. Turtledove is writing about radicals from three different faiths and he makes it very clear he doesn't know the first thing about what they really believe or how they think. He just keeps reverting back to stereotypes. Since I was raised as a fundamentalist Christian, now live in the Muslim world, and have spent decades reading up on God and history I probably know more than the average reader here, but I am guessing anyone picking up this book will see through his stereotypes and poor characterization just as easily.
What really got to me, though, was his absolutely horrible ending. I won't throw up any spoilers, but I will say that I was fighting back a gag reflex at how despicably bad the last 20% or so of this book was. This book really should be a 2, but considering all the anti-Semitic attacks in NYC, the Iranian attack on the US embassy, and Trump's retaliatory strike on that Iranian general, I am bumping it up one star for its timliness.
OK, now on to my real book review. Pretty much any time Harry Turtledove puts something in print, I pick it up and read it. He isn't the greatest author out there. He isn't even the best alt-history author out there, but he always does have some really good thought experiments. Most of his books revolve around an idea that any lover of history has probably played around in their own mind. What would England look like if they had not stopped the Spanish Armada? (Ruled Brittania) What would life be like for a modern day Jew in Germany if Hitler had won the war? (In the Presence of Mine Enemies) You get the picture.
This book is not alt-history, but it is still a great thought experiment. What if Israel took down the Al-Aqsa Mosque (Dome of the Rock) and rebuilt the Temple in its proper place? He lays out a scenario where Jews in Israel give up trying to play nice with their neighbors, political sentiment swings to the extreme far right, and the next thing you know, construction crews are taking down the third holiest site in Islam that they might rebuild the holiest site in Judaism.
The scenario is definitely an interesting one and HT does a great job of pacing the plot well and keeping the reader hooked. He also shows well the incredible complexities involved when three major world religions all are focused in on the same small plot of ground. A victory for one group always makes losers for the others and HT shows what those might look like. At points, this book is as unbelievable as anything since he wrote about sentient dinosaurs (what if the asteroid missed?) but you ought to expect miracles to occur when religion plays such a key point in a book.
One thing that did not surprise me, but might surprise someone not as familiar with Turtledove, is how unsympathetic or even how unbelievable his characters are. Turtledove is writing about radicals from three different faiths and he makes it very clear he doesn't know the first thing about what they really believe or how they think. He just keeps reverting back to stereotypes. Since I was raised as a fundamentalist Christian, now live in the Muslim world, and have spent decades reading up on God and history I probably know more than the average reader here, but I am guessing anyone picking up this book will see through his stereotypes and poor characterization just as easily.
What really got to me, though, was his absolutely horrible ending. I won't throw up any spoilers, but I will say that I was fighting back a gag reflex at how despicably bad the last 20% or so of this book was. This book really should be a 2, but considering all the anti-Semitic attacks in NYC, the Iranian attack on the US embassy, and Trump's retaliatory strike on that Iranian general, I am bumping it up one star for its timliness.