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Title: The Holy Land by Robert Zubrin ISBN: 0-9741443-0-4 Publisher: Polaris Books Pub. Date: 03 September, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (20 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A new line has been drawn in the sand
Comment: Robert Zubrin's new book, "The Holy Land", satirizes the conflict in the Middle East, specifically the troubles between Israel and the Palestinians.
How, one would think, can a person make fun of this particularly sensitive subject? Zubrin succeeds by turning it into a darkly humorous science fiction tale of an alien race who settle in the town of Kennewick, Washington, stating that this is their promised land and theirs by right because it is written in their holy scriptures.
The US administration is understandably perturbed by these events, and led by a crusading fanatical Christian President, go to extraordinary lengths to have the plight of the displaced Kennewickian residents brought to the attention of the Galactic media, while also plotting their own gains from the situation.
Zubrin has created a story which can switch from amusement to disbelief to shock and back again in a single page. He parallels the methods and events which have so defined the Israeli/Palestinian conflict to degrees which even in the satirical world could be considered disturbing, but somehow manages to keep the reader at a safe distance, mirroring the sanitization of such horrors as suicide bombings which today's media have learned to do so well.
This distancing of the reader to the events is achieved in Zubrin's style of writing. I am, in this respect, reminded particularly of The Crystal World by J.G. Ballard, a story which was so fantastic, and yet written with a childlike simplicity which made the abnormal seem normal and didn't allow the reader to pause and think enough to stop believing in it. Zubrin gets the same results - his Ballard-like storytelling sets the pace and "The Holy Land" plays out like a well oiled machine.
I am also reminded of a satirical television mini-series from the U.K back in the early 80's, called "Whoops! Apocalypse". The storyline was ridiculous, the acting was over the top, but somehow you could imagine that things could really be that way - the insanity of crazed politicians and an over zealous military steaming full ahead with utter righteous conviction towards annihilation.
"The Holy Land" takes satire to a new extreme, giving the reader the opportunity to be both amused and horrified, turning the tables on a far away conflict and bringing it close to home, not just physically, but socially and psychologically as well, at times begging the question "is this really how things are?". The story is sufficiently different to be fiction, sufficiently the same to hit home.
Congratulations Mr. Zubrin, you stepped over the line in the sand and drew another one for everyone else to try and cross.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Parable of Israel
Comment: The Holy Land, actually, it's Kennewick, a land of Christian zealots. A madcap world turned upside down, where Minervan exiles discover their spiritual home (dropped off inconveniently by spaceships from an, er, Galactic Empire), only to set off a chain of events of interstellar proportions - from planetary genocide, and suicide bombers, to flawed peace treaties which result in the fading of an entire people. This is Robert Zubrin's latest fictional effort - The Holy Land. A bitter-sweet tragedy to reflect our times. A parable of the Middle East, with its center the story of the continuing struggle for the survival of Israel, and the battle for a young womans heart.
One of the unique attributes of the sci-fi genre is its ability to cast both the mundane and the bizarre events of our lives in a theatre where the very absurdity of the props serve to sharpen our understanding of ourselves. Social satire comes naturally to sci-fi writing, and Zubrin deals it out in spades.
Actually, reading the Holy Land it's more like getting hit between the eyes with the spade itself. Zubrin's parable is forceful, his metaphors deliberately unsubtle, and his cast of characters are frighteningly real. Much of the story is reflective of modern history of the Middle East, from the creation of Israel after WW-II, to the present struggle for the souls of both Israelis and Palestinians. So little of what follows contain spoilers of any kind. But first, the beginning...
The Holy Land is Kennewick, Washington. A little strip of land that the Minervans (the Jews in this parable) have re-discovered as their ancient home. After a bruising inter-stellar war between an opportunistic alliance of the Western Empire (the Anglosphere ) and the Eastern Empire(the old Soviets), who finally crushed the imperialistic ambitions and dark genocidal impulses of the Central Empire (shades of Germany and Europe), the winners allow the Minervans a last refuge. An opportunity to reclaim their spiritual home. In what much of the galaxy considers a hell-hole and nobody really wants, the wandering Minervans gladly settle. On Earth, always the pimple on the armpit of galactic civilization, in case you didn't know that already.
Of course, they turn Kennewick into a land of milk and honey, even offer to share the bounty with their American (read Arab) hosts. Naturally, the Americans, with their outrageous worship of the male God-son Jesus, plot their final annihilation. From frontal warfare, to guerrilla actions that ultimately drags American culture into a cesspool of nihilism and glorification of death, The Holy Land ends up giving the reader an intense view into the fury and hell that is the fate of Israel and its citizens today.
Much of the story is seen through the eyes of a young Minervan priestess Aurora, and her Earthling captive Sgt. Hamilton (who we meet when he's leading a suicide sniper-squad of Marines to kill a bunch of heathen Minervan picnickers). Theirs is a love story, perhaps doomed from the start. Will they make it in the end? Will the Minervans survive the pathological hatred of the Americans, or the thinly disguised contempt of the Central Empire, the weak-spined friendship with the Western Empire? Will Kennewick be turned into a smoking ruin from the WMDs sold to the Americans by the opportunistic arms-dealers from the Eastern Bloc? Who will lead the Americans from their well of hate? Who will help their brainwashed children with their sixguns and bombs?
Well, you have to read the book to find out. A warning to any who are of the thin-skinned sort. Zubrin's prose can be offensive, and since it is impossible to read him, without making clear historical connections between events in The Holy Land and our own just-as-fanciful world, this book is likely to offend those who are faint of heart, or are partisans in our own conflict to the exclusion of everything else.
The Holy Land is an entertaining, compelling, yet disturbing, and sometimes a difficult read. It is also a damning indictment of one of the foremost tragedies of our time. For that reason alone, it represents an important and effort in this genre.
Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant!
Comment: Where else can you get witty satire, political attacks, brilliant symbolism, and futuristic aliens all in one place? Reading this book, you will laugh, you will cry, you will want to read it again. Well, maybe not cry, but definitely say "Ouch," as Zubrin points out a not-so-flattering view of our own society. Regardless of your political standpoint, however, you are likely to be both insulted and laugh your behind off, as Zubrin makes fun of everyone. The book is also chock full of symbolism beyond the obvious, things that do not seem amusing to the characters, but are brilliantly amusing to the reader -- "Inside jokes" of our own society. The most brilliant thing of all is that he exaggerates moderately little, but enables us to laugh at the ridiculousness of our own society as it is. The cover says it best -- "A world crazy enough to be our own." Cleverly conceived and sharply hilarious, The Holy Land has a little something for everyone who enjoys a good satire.
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Title: Mars on Earth: The Adventures of Space Pioneers in the High Arctic by Robert Zubrin ISBN: 158542255X Publisher: Jeremy P. Tarcher Pub. Date: 25 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $28.95 |
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Title: Entering Space: Creating a Spacefaring Civilization by Robert Zubrin ISBN: 1585420360 Publisher: Jeremy P. Tarcher Pub. Date: 03 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror by DAVID FRUM, RICHARD PERLE ISBN: 1400061946 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 30 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Civilization and Its Enemies : The Next Stage of History by Lee Harris ISBN: 0743257499 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 11 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Trembling in the Ivory Tower: Excesses in the Pursuit of Truth and Tenure by Kenneth Lasson ISBN: 1890862088 Publisher: Bancroft Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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