Bob @ Beauty in Ruins

When I first read the synopsis for Christian Nation, I was excited. It sounded like a fantastic alternate history/future dystopian novel, built around a premise far more plausibly terrifying than aliens, zombies, or vampire plagues. What I found in its pages is really two books, both of which are deeply flawed, but which combine to provide a whole that's more fascinating than the sum of its parts.

As a novel, as a narrative work of fiction, this is a rather weak tale. It's told as a series of personal recollections, framed by the act of writing a forbidden memoir. While that kind of framework has its uses, and has certainly been done successfully before, Rich makes a mistake (in my mind) of never straying far from the physical detachment of memoir. There's very little action or excitement, no insights into the thoughts or emotions of those populating the tale, and a distinct lack of urgency. It's a very clinical telling, and one that does little to endear readers to the narrator/protagonist, making it difficult to become emotionally invested in the tale.

It bothered me that so much of the story depended upon coincidences and well-time accidents, but it bothered me even more that government sanctioned murder was required to enable significant turning points in history. Those murders really strained the credibility of "it could really happen here." At the same time, I had an issue with the the narrow-minded focus on the evils of homosexual sin, especially in a world where it's a second 9/11 type terrorist attack that polarizes the average citizen into supporting the establishment of a theocratic government. Similarly, the complete lack of interest in foreign affairs is troubling, not so much in their lack of interference, but in following through on Palin's platform of retribution against the Islamic terrorists.

As a borderline sci-fi novel, there are some really interesting concepts in Christian Nation, but I'm not sure if they're flawed, or just not fully developed. For instance, the Purity Web certainly has the potential to be more horrifying that Big Brother, and should leave you second-guessing yourself every time you go online. It has the potential to be awe-inspiring, menacing on an unprecedented level, but it ends up being downplayed. That, for me, is one of the story's biggest failings. Even if you can't make the reader care for your characters, you should be able to make them fear for themselves.

Finally, it must be said that this is also a rather linear tale, one with a ending that's never in doubt, which makes it impossible to generate any sort of suspense. The cast of main characters is small, and none of them are every really defined beyond their faith, their politics, and their career. It's almost as if they are merely props with which to explore a philosophical idea - which, of course, is precisely what they are.

As a philosophical treatise, this is a somewhat narrow-minded, but well-intentioned tale. Ultimately, it is an intriguing read, and possibly even (to borrow an overused term) an important one. It's not a great work of fiction, but it is a good work of speculative fiction in that it makes you think, ponder, and really consider the possibilities.


Originally reviewed at Beauty in Ruins