After America, John Birmingham

"March 14, 2003, was the day the world changed forever. A wave of energy slammed into North America and devastated the continent. The U.S. military, poised to invade Baghdad, was left without a commander in chief. Global order spiraled into chaos. Now, three years later, a skeleton U.S. government headquartered in Seattle directs the reconstruction of an entire nation—and the battle for New York City has begun."








After America is one of the most ridiculous books I have ever read, and bearing in mind that I've just posted a review of a comic that features a superhero who replaces his head with that of a ghost cow, after an undead boxer smashes his to smithereens, that is saying quite a bit.

This is the second in a series called 'The Disappeared', the plot of which is that in the run up to the Iraq war, with most of the American military about to step into a war in the Middle East, an unexplained wave of energy hits America and reduces its population to a few million. In the last book the fallout from the near total destruction of America was the near economic destruction of the world, and a pre-emptive nuclear attack by Israel on every neighbouring nation.

Having set up a new democratic Government, and prevented secessionist Texans from declaring military rule, the new President is having a hard time, due to the fact that New York has been occupied by an entire terrorist force.

Focusing on the battle to retake the city, as well as the struggles for various characters in Europe and southern America, it basically becomes a lovingly detailed book of military hardware. Much like Birmingham's other series, Weapons of Choice, this is a book that loves to go overboard on the intricacies of weaponry. What it lacks in sense, or explanations, it more than makes up for in embellished characterisation of the military.

It's a great book, don't get me wrong, in the classic mold of an airport page turner. It's not smart, it's not clever, and it's rarely all that well written. Above all, it's not good Sci-Fi. Not since 1632 decided it could just dump a modern town into history because 'aliens' has a major plot point been quite so sketchily planned. The wave is a catalyst, but it isn't ever explained. There's no attempt to analyse it. Like King's 'Under the Dome' it's just something that happens to start the plot. Reactions to it vary, but all accept it and move on.

Everything that comes after is tinged with the sense of that; people accept things and move on. People do things that don't make sense, and it's chalked up to the wave. It's bad sci-fi, and it's a shame that it's unexplored (and unexplained). At least in Weapons of Choice Birmingham attempted to rationalise an explanation.

It shouldn't bug me in a book about the invasion of New York by the US army to fight the evil forces of Islam, but it does. It's not helped by the portrayal of anyone outside of America as either evil (and Muslim) or cold and aloof (and English). These are the defaults of outside America. Not all Americans are good, but all non-Americans are pretty bad. And that's a pretty problematic world when America is quite so reduced in status and size.

Also Try:
John Birmingham, Weapons of Choise
Eric Flint, 1632
Brian Wood, DMZ
Brian K Vaughan, Y: The Last Man