When I started this book, I was fully aware that it isn’t my kind of book. But, I thought, you can’t have a conversation with someone if you don’t know what they’re thinking. You can’t have a conversation with someone if you don’t listen.
So, I listened. And, for starters, this is not well written at all. If this book had an editor, they should give whatever they were paid back because they did not do their job. There was a whole autobiographical part at the beginning that was completely unnecessary (or, it was a different story altogether). I think it was meant to establish Flynn as an authority on military intelligence, but I spent most of this section trying to figure out why he was telling us the things he was telling us. I then spent some of the later chapters trying to figure out how the first chapter related to it. If you’ve read other reviews of this book (I can’t stop myself after I finish a book from seeing how other people liked it on goodreads), you will know that it was full of typos and other copy-editing issues. Audiobooks don’t have problems with typos. But, even without seeing the errors, this text was still… just not very good. It seems like Flynn has a huge ax to grind against “being politically correct” and “not calling Islam what it is”. Sorry, not calling “Radical Islam” what it is. But, he also seems to not wholly be on board with making a distinction between radicals flying an Islamic flag and non-radical followers of Islam. I mean, he’s willing to say the words that not all Muslims are radical Muslims, but most of the rest of the book I felt like he wasn’t making that distinction. And, I need this to be clear. Just like I’m sure we can all agree that not all Christians are the Westboro Baptist Church and that not all Atheists are Ricky Gervais or Christopher Hitchens. Some of them are really chill people.
He also doesn’t seem to think that Islam as a religion is any different than Nazism and Fascism as belief systems. That is pretty troubling, especially when you can be both Islamist and Fascist. There were more troubling things about the texts. He seems to call for more critique from the Muslim community of the Radical actions of parts of the community. I don’t know what part of the world he’s in, but I’ve seen plenty of critiques coming from the Muslim community. (There’s a facebook group called Muslims against ISIS and there was a convention this summer to reject ISIS in the UK. Back in 2014 a number of Islamic scholars wrote an open letter to the ISIS leadership about why their state was not supported by Islamic texts. Maybe instead of calling for this kind of critique, we should cover it when it happens in the news?) Flynn also is worried about the education system in the Islamic world. He points to the number of schools (madrasas) where children are taught by memorizing passages of Koran, which is a disgusting level of indoctrination. Depending on the actual amount of that that is happening, that is really troubling. But, hooo, boy, if you want to talk about troubling things in education systems, you don’t have to look that far from home to find upsetting things. How many of our students here are being taught one specific line and never to question that? Shouldn’t we be upset by that? (Especially when that’s something we could immediately do something about?) The text also seems to suggest that we’ve been openly hostile to Israel, our best ally in the Middle East, of late. But, I thought we just promised Israel some billion dollar amount of military aid? (With strings, sure, but what agreement doesn’t involve some kind of give and take?)
Anyway, what I got from this book is that there are RADICAL ISLAMIC FORCES in the world that want to destroy America and replace all democracy with an Islamist theocracy and leadership that encourages citizens to spy on each other. To avoid this terrible future, we, the Judeo-Christian democracy-loving West, need to fight Islam, and private citizens/companies should help gather data on these anti-democratic forces. So, basically, in order to remain Christian and free and not become Islamic and afraid our neighbors are spying on us, we should be anti-Islamic and spy on our neighbors. Of course, I’m reducing and parodying his argument here for effect, but there was a lot of anti-Islamic rhetoric here. I’m for freedom but I know we live in a complex world, so I’m not all that happy when our leaders (and their potential advisers) seem incapable of nuance.
Normally at this point in the review, I tell you, “hey, if you like X kinds of books, then check this one out!” And, I guess I kind of can. If you believe the Islam is everything that is wrong with the world, then this book is for you. It was written to preach to the choir. Or, at least I hope it was written to preach to the choir. If it was written to lay out a reasonable argument and sell people an idea, it failed. This book was a mess. It was not well-written. It had all kinds of troubling reasoning and it didn’t make any kind of solid case. It played with stereotypes and stated it was making distinction that it then failed to maintain. Zero out of ten. Do not recommend.
I got this book from the wonderful and amazing Buffalo and Erie County Public Library.
I didn’t realize that Samantha Shannon published two novella’s in connection to her Bone Season series. I was delighted that one of was Jaxon Hall’s infamous pamphlet. On the Merits of Unnaturalness. Fans of the series will be familiar with the title as it is bases of the clairvoyant community and what made Jaxon a major player in the syndicate. Under the pseudonym of the Obscure Writer, Jaxon goes through all the different types of Clairvoyance there is and grouped them in seven different orders. This also created a hierarchy among the community by ranking orders by difficult and by rare each gift is. I feel like this is a must read for fans of the books because it really clears up a lot of the different gifts that the characters have and how they relate to each other. It also explains why some are treated with more reverence then others. We understand that Paige’s gift of dreamwalking is rare but not only that, it’s part of the seventh order so it makes her even more powerful among the community and having her in his gang, it makes Jaxon more powerful too. It also cleared up more as to why the “vile augurs” were so despised and exiled to Jacob’s island. I feel like I have a better understanding on the syndicate and Paige’s life after reading this.
Speaking of understanding more about Paige’s life, the second novella is the The Pale Dreamer. It chronicles the early days of Paige in the Seven Seals. She has only been in the gang for three months and so far on desk duty. Aching to prove her worth, Paige gets a chance when a Poltergeist is set loose in London. We see that even three years before the action of the Bone Season, Paige was already brave, a little brash but a quick thinker. Her powers are still raw but you can see the glimpse of her strong she will become. This is also shows us why she goes by The Pale Dreamer. It was the name given to her by Jaxon himself. It was the events depicted in the novella that lead her to becoming his Mollisher. At the time the Seven Seals is only Jaxon, Nick, Eliza and Paige so we get the glimpse of their early relationship between these characters. Also it lays the groundwork to the future conflict between Paige and Jaxon but also not that surprising as to why Nick and Eliza chose Paige over Jaxon at the end of The Mime Order. It’s definitely worth a read for any fan but not necessary to enjoy the series as a whole as it doesn’t really add to the narrative. It just fills out the world and Paige’s backstory a little more. With a little less then a month before the release of The Song Rising, it’s a good read while you wait.
A Study in Charlotte was a very fun read. It’s new take on the Sherlock Holmes stories. This time it’s the descendants of Holmes and John Watson. In this world, the famed detective and his assistant were real. Watson chronicled Holmes’ cases and well fictionalized them. The Holmes family continue to solve crimes and being eccentric, while the Watsons continue to be normal. Here we catch up with the latest generation of Holmes’ and Watson’s when Jaime Watson starts at a new boarding school. Jaime meets Charlotte Holmes, the girl who is full of mystery as anything else. (For some reason I thought Jaime was a girl and I was a little disappointed to find out that he isn’t but I got over it.) There are little sprinklings of the originally stories throughout the novels and the nastiest parts of the stories like Holmes’ drug use. Charlotte is just as impossible as the original Holmes or Benedict Cumberbatch’s. Shortly after Holmes and Watson meet a fellow student is murder in a way that is reminiscent of Holmes’ stories. Of course, they are the prime suspects. They have to work together to clear their names. They story goes through many twists and turns that will keep you guessing all through the story. You don’t have to be a fan of Sherlock Holmes to love this book. You just have to enjoy a good mystery with interesting characters and you’ll be set.
Hammer of Thor
2 Women, So Many Books 