Transnational Progressivism: The Conspiracy You've Never Heard Of

I'm currently planning a little review of Tom Kratman's work and it won't make any sense without an explanation of his weird little obsession with transnational progressivism or 'tranzis'. An explanation will be too large to go into the actual review, so I kind of need to separate it into its own section. So, there's a huge chance you're reading this to understand what I'm ranting about some time in the future.

Transnational Progressivism is a strange political concept and it's primarily due to its origins. It was first proposed by John Fonte in his The Ideological War Within The West written in 2006 and this is the first strange thing. Unlike every other political ideology I've ever heard of, Transnational Progressivism is the only one ever named by its opponents. Marxism, Leninism, Communism, Liberalism and Conservatism are all names at least partially coined by their members. They're proudly owned by their adherents and this is where Transnational Progressivism gets a little weird. It's a label that seems to be applied solely by tranzis' opponents.

So what exactly is Transnational Progressivism? Fonte defines eight policy areas that are at its core:

1)The ascribed group over the individual citizen (people are part of an assigned 'group' rather than an independent citizen),

2)Grouproportionalism as the goal of fairness (assigned groups should be proportionally represented in all areas of life)

3)The values of all dominant institutes to be changed to reflect the perspectives of the victim groups (all institutes should reflect not just the dominant world view, but also the world view of all participating groups)

4)The demographic imperative (the standard paradigm of immigrants assimilating into the national culture should be replaced with an encouragement to diversity)

5)The redefinition of democracy and democratic ideals (Replace the idea of the democratic majority with the sharing of power between different groups)

6)Deconstruction of national narratives and national symbols of democratic nation-states in the West (the folding of national identities into a more inclusive structure)

7)Promotion of the concept of postnational citizenship (decouple the concept of citizenship from nation-states)

8)The idea of Transnationalism as a major conceptual tool (transnationalism as the next stage of multicultural ideology)

A quick problem immediately strikes once one reads through Fonte's list: many of these concepts are almost completely without definition or attributed to a handful of relatively innocuous pieces of work. Take, for example, number 7. The only evidence given is a single line written by Law Professor Linda Bosniak. There's no context given, nor is it mentioned that a quick Google search shows that Professor Bosniak's work is almost entirely in the area of US immigration and the rights of migrant/immigrant workers. This is scarcely someone interested in rewriting global democratic structures.

This kind of cherry picking is endemic throughout the whole work. Fonte's opening example is the asking of the UN, by fifty American NGOs, to censor the US for its discrimination. Fonte seems to find that because the NGOs' requests were ignored or stymied by federal officials, they should have simply put up and shut up, rather than publicly appealing to the UN for help. It's a fairly nonsensical argument, almost akin to claiming that a whistle-blower should take his problem to his manager and then shut up when told to.

There's also a massive streak of American Exceptionalism running through the work. While 'examples' of Transnational Progressivism are taken from all over the Western world (mainly from the UK, EU and Israel) they are only presented as a threat to the US. The ideology only really seems to come across as the enemy of US Constitution, not the larger world.

Of course one simple paper isn't enough to define my problems with the concept of Transnational Progressivism. David Carr coined the short term 'Tranzi' and immediately adds to the concept when he observes that many tranzis are:

'high-level statesmen, the wealthy and the heads of multibillion-dollar corporations. Their behaviour cannot be explained away in terms of the Marxist "Class struggle.'

Because of course, all left-wing effort is directed towards the 'Marxist Class Struggle' and that's something only the poor care about. It has nothing to do with a rich man's desire to do something good in the world, not at all.

Where things get a little weird is in a fundamental shift from Fonte's words, to the words of his followers. Fonte's three works on Transnational Progressivism (link for the Wikipedia article on the subject with all three papers linked) always point out that Transnational Progressivism is a political ideology and opposed to traditional liberal democracry. His supporters, however, view tranzi-dom in a far darker light. Take this article written about Transnational Progressivism (the second result on a Google search). Almost immediately, the author states that:

Fonte is quick to forewarn us that this coming global administration will be no respecter of our freedoms and suggests that some form of racialist police state will be imposed.

I've browsed through Fonte's papers and I can't really find anything of the kind. Fonte is worried about the increase in multiculturalism and the effect on democracy, but he never suggests, for example, that the elites will encourage the historically oppressed to get even with their 'oppressors'. Nor does he suggest that the police will side with the 'oppressed' against the 'dominant'. To be honest, this sort of thing is reaching.

This strikes at the heart of my problem. Transnational Progressivism is a historical successor to the Red Scare of the Cold War and bears many of its trappings. There is no-one defining themselves as a tranzi, only people labelling others as such. Their 'ideology' has been stretched into a kind of conspiracy. And that's really what the problem is with tranzi-dom: It's a conspiracy theory, no different from bleating about George Soros or claiming that Obama's a secret Muslim.

Goodbye 2009

Looking back on 2009, it's relatively easy to compose a mental list of some of the best and worst of the year. So saying that, let's take a look at some the highlights:

Worst book of the year: The Last Centurion (John Ringo)

Techincially, this is a 2008 book, but I read it in 2009 and that makes it a contender for this year. However, it's here because it simply blows all other contenders out of the water. The Last Centurion is characterised by the worst first-person writing I've seen in a published book, hectoring, offensive partisanship and an author avatar that pushes the boundaries of the Mary Sue. The book starts with a ten chapter screed against seemingly everything, including a chapter-long NHS bashing and a stunning moment of Bush-shilling. The rest of the book is little better and the finale is so far-out stupid that my eyes actually glaze over every time I try and read it. It is a measure of how bad The Last Centurion is that I was openly wondering all the way through the novel as to whether it had actually seen an editor during its creation. Empirical evidence says no.

Runners-up: Claws That Catch (Ringo & Taylor)

Biggest Disappointment of the Year: Torch of Freedom and Storm from the Shadows (David Weber and Eric Flint)

I've been looking forwards to the new Honorverse novels since the events of At All Costs. Unfortunately, Weber's obviously waiting for Mission of Honor to start the new plot. As such Torch of Freedom and Storm from the Shadows were mere holding pattern books. Both fleshed out exactly what's going on with Mesa, with Storm taking the strategic side and Torch taking the human side, but as a result, they weren't the greatest novels. In particular Storm suffered horrendously with very little action happening during the course of the novel.

Runners-Up: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Micheal Bay), My Warriors of Chaos Army this summer

Best Series of the Year: Mahou Sensei Magister Negi (Ken Akumetsu)

I'm a big fan of Akumetsu-Sensei's Negima and this year has been simply brilliant. The year started with the trapping of the cast on the magical world and several volumes later, they're almost all together finally. Their varying adventures have been original and interesting. There's been loads of development of the characters and the relationships. Incredibly, the action scenes have gone from strength to strength, opening with the epically mental battle for the gateport and simply sky-rocketing from there. Many questions that have been in the story are finally being answered (like exactly what is going on with Asuna and why?) with fresh ones being posed constantly. Those new characters being introduced are likable and multi-dimensional. I'm probably never going to stop admiring the skill that's going into juggling the forty-odd characters in the series. Negima may be the best action manga currently being published and it's been a constant priority purchase for me over the last year. Even better, the new OVAs are excellent, finally showing just how awesome the battles in the manga could be if animated.

Runners-Up: Codex Alera (Jim Butcher), Full Metal Alchemist (Hiromu Arakawa),

Surprise of the Year: Star Trek (J.J. Abrams)

I'm going to be honest. I wasn't looking forwards to this movie. I've never been the biggest fan of Star Trek, but this film was impressive. The central ideas and themes were strong, the characters were well-done and the visuals were awe-inspiring. Sure, the plot was a little thin and the time-travel elements weren't stunning, but the film was full of charisma. Both Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine dominate the film with their performances. There's some wonderfully funny moments, courtesy of the other characters (Simon Pegg's Scotty is a constant supply of hilarity, especially in the wonderful nod to the Enterprise series). Over all, I was hugely impressed.

Runners-Up: X-Men: Misfits (Dave Roman, Raina Telgemeier and Anbu)

Book of the Year: Fruits Basket 23 (Natsuki Takuya)

The finale of the incredible Fruits Basket series is effectively a volume long epilogue. That's not to knock it. I've always enjoyed a well written epilogue and this is definitely one. It's got the requisite tying up of loose ends and the taking of new paths. It's both sad and happy at the same time as the cast confront their inevitable separation. There's a brutal moment where it is made clear that there are some scars which aren't healed yet. There's still a plentiful amount of FB's trademark humour, mostly thanks to Yuki and his friend Manabe. There's an almost elegant brutality to this finale, with the cast accepting the minor sadness of losing each other as the price for their new found freedom. Over all, it's a wonderful ending to the series and a great excerpt from it.

Runners-Up: Too many to mention

Anime of the Year: To Aru Kakagu No Railgun (A certain scientific railgun)

Railgun is the sequel to the relatively blah To Aru Majutsu No Index (A certain magical index). Unlike its predecessor, Railgun is far better scripted and characterised. The central four girls are each likeable and unique with a good group dynamic defined far more by personality than power. The art and action is top-notch with several stand-out powered battles towards the end. Best of all is the gloriously fun storyline, where almost every moment has something to do with the whole part. It all simply works.

Runners-Up: Basquatch, Gurren Lagann

And now a few notes about what I'm looking forwards to:

First Lord's Fury

The final novel in Jim Butcher's excellent Codex Alera, I've been looking for this for the last month. It's not hard to list the reasons why I'm looking forwards to this. We're finally going to see the battle for Alera between Tavi and the Vord. We're finally going to see the last moves from the Aquitanes. And then there's the big question of exactly what Tavi met at the very end of the previous novel. Given the general excellence of the previous novels, it's not hard to imagine how much I'm going to enjoy reading it.

Mission of Honor

Given how much I complained about Storm from the Shadows and Torch of Freedom above, you might be surprised to know I didn't regret buying them. At their most basic level, they've set up an incredible avalanche to come. Manpower and Mesa are coming and no one's ready for them. The sheer epic nature of the coming story arc is awe-inspiring. Weber is looking at the breaking up of the Solarian League, the sole superpower of the Honorverse stories. The changes that are coming will be insane.

Iron Man 2

I've only recently seen the first trailer from this, but I've got to admit I'm interested. It retains the glorious madness of the first and Mickey Rourke's Whiplash looks he's going to kick butt as well as provide a certain stalkerish pathos to the story. After all who can't love a guy who can freely boast 'I have successfully privatised world peace!'?

Merry Christmas all.

Crown of Slaves Review

Author: David Weber & Eric Flint

Publishers: Baen Books

Quick Synopsis: Slaves in a sci-fi future capture their own world with the help of a few unusual characters.

Quick Review: Simply magical. One of the best books by either author

I've written a lot of reviews criticising some of Baen's more dreadful novels and ideas, so it only seems right that I actually be nice about one of their books. Crown of Slaves is one of the best novels I've read and may simply be my favourite Baen book. It's an incredibly intelligent story about nation-building and is a welcome addition to Weber's excellent Honorverse story universe.

Plot: A number of individuals (including a Manticoran princess who wants to be a spy and the galaxy's most wanted terrorist) from the Honorverse come together for the funeral of a famed anti-slavery advocate on the planet Erewhon, foremost among them Victor Cachat, a 'troubleshooter' for the Republic of Haven. Seeing an opportunity to advance his own star-nation's interests, he co-opts the local powers (including Manticore, the main good guys of the Honorverse) into helping him steal the nearby slave-plantation planet Congo from its owners, the delightfully hissable Manpower Corporation. In doing so, his allies lay the groundwork for a sane nation by the creation of their very own Crown of Slaves.

Like any good book, Crown Of Slaves is complex and has many parts. What starts as a state funeral segues into an assassination attempt then two separate hostage rescues before ending with the stealing of an entire planet and the foundation of a new nation. The impressive part of this story is that it works. There is an underlying logic to the entire business that works and the groundwork for every element is laid well in advance. The concept of a ex-slave nation and its myriad difficulties is well laid out early on with an emphasis on how hard it is for the ex-slaves to actually be independent and successful with a passel of pissed of ex-owners on their case, as well as how hard it is to subliminate their understandable anger into constructive purposes. The political scientist who creates this nation (the excellent W.E.B Du Havel, ex-slave and owner of more academic prizes than any one mad should really have) comes up with a doozy of a solution and it is a tribute the the characters involved that you don't doubt it for a moment.

It helps that the characters involved are extremely well written. Some of them are Flint regulars from his earlier Honorverse short-stories, in particular Anton Zilwicki, Victor Cachat and Jeremy X. Others existed before in an almost implied fashion in the universe (Princess Ruth for example, the princess who wants to be a spy, is the child of a relationship from an earlier Honorverse short story), while others are entirely new (Berry, Thandi Palane and Web being prime examples). None of them are merely one dimensional with often brilliant personal issues that show up on a regular basis.

The stand-out has to be Victor Cachat, Havenite master spy. Victor is obviously one of Flint's favourite creations (he's the only character to star in two Honorverse short stories) and the reason shows. He's at once an incredibly scary secret agent, one far more ruthless than Daniel Craig's awe-inspiring Bond of recent years, and a good man, almost as horrified by his acts as his allies. This is best exemplified by the interrogation scene part way through the book, where he thoroughly intimidates three very dangerous men and gets information out of them in about a minute. One of them is still utterly terrified of him two weeks later. In a later scene, he is selected to impersonate a religious fanatic because he is the best at acting like one. These scenes of incredible threat and intimidation are tempered by his burgeoning relationship with Thandi Palane, an incredibly dangerous Marine with heavy-world ancestry. It's an awkward, believable romance that makes a genuine impact on the reader.

The other great character is Anton Zilwicki's daughter Berry. She's inveigled into the plot when she is convinced to be disguised as Princess Ruth for security reasons. A rescued orphan from the slums of Old Earth, she's wonderfully described as 'specialising in sanity'. She quickly becomes central to the plot and showcases incredible courage, in particular volunteering to be a hostage with the solid knowledge that she's probably going to be raped. In doing so, she manages to be adopted by a shipload of slaves and a central part of the plot to steal Congo. Her eventual promotion at the end of the novel is entirely believable and one of the best parts of the novel. A particular favourite scene of mine is the scene when she's discussing her historical epitath. The mixture of teenage pride (she objects to both the royal 'we' and 'the great' on the basis that she has enough issues about her weight as is) and clear-eyed determination is simply magical.

It helps that Crown of Slaves is at times extremely funny. The scenes around Thandi and Victor's eventual hooking up are utterly hilarious, going from Victor waking up guilty about the night's debauchery to he and Thandi discovering that a number of characters were spying on them. The moment when Ruth tries to parse a threat of 'regicide' by pointing out that she isn't a sitting royal is surreally hilarious. Jeremy X is possibly the funniest terrorist in fiction (he was designed to be a jester and it worked, Manpower just epically pissed him off first), needling and mocking his friends with massive panache. One great moment come from near the end, where Thandi's superiors list the reasons why she shouldn't be eliminated for quitting. One of them then proceeds to list the people who would be irritated about her death. The last name is Jeremy X and is wonderfully explained with the following line: 'Talk to Manpower. Ask for their bodycount department'.

The only problem with Crown of Slaves is that it comes with a degree of baggage. While it is a stand-alone novel, set as it is in a series with something like eleven previous novels and four short story compilations does mean that there are a few plot points that only really make sense if you've read the rest of the series. You're unlikely to know why Anton and Victor get on when they are on either side of a bitter war unless you've read the story where they first met. Nor are you likely to know exactly why the High Ridge Government in Manticore is so incompetent if you haven't read War of Honor. These are really minor quibbles as the book does a good job of defining exactly what is going on and why. Reading them will just give you a bit of extra colour.

Crown of Slaves is a thoroughly excellent novel with a cracking story, interesting characters and some wonderful scenes that will stick with you for quite a while. Its story is a constant surprise and I've tried to keep as much of it back as possible for your reading pleasure. The best word to define the book is simply 'magical'.

Goodbye Mr Card

Orson Scott Card is one of science fiction's biggest names. His novel, Ender's Game is frankly seminal, a marvellous novel of growing up and war. However, that was a while ago and nowadays, his reputation is a lot worse. His support for right-wing causes has coloured his writing to the tune that Empire, one of his most recent novels, is renown for it's tea-party level excesses. But what's really made him unpopular is his opposition to gay marriage. Still there are a lot of reasons why he might oppose gay marriage, even if I can't think of any sane reasons to oppose it. Then I found this online:

The hypocrites of homosexuality are, of course, already preparing to answer these statements by accusing me of homophobia, gay-bashing, bigotry, intolerance; but nothing that I have said here -- and nothing that has been said by any of the prophets or any of the Church leaders who have dealt with this issue -- can be construed as advocating, encouraging, or even allowing harsh personal treatment of individuals who are unable to resist the temptation to have sexual relations with persons of the same sex. On the contrary, the teachings of the Lord are clear in regard to the way we must deal with sinners. Christ treated them with compassion -- as long as they confessed that their sin was a sin. Only when they attempted to pretend that their sin was righteousness did he harshly name them for what they were: fools, hypocrites, sinners. Hypocrites because they were unwilling to change their behavior and instead attempted to change the law to fit it; fools because they thought that deceiving an easily deceivable society would achieve the impossible goal of also deceiving God.

Basically, it's Card describing his opinions on homosexuality, with respect to his Mormon religion. It's a little distasteful. Firstly, Card consistently treats being gay as a 'phase'. He directly and frequently compares it to childhood experimentation. Indeed so attached is he to this metaphor that he effectively advocates the treatment of homosexuals as children, with their 'punishment' intended to correct behavioral issues rather than punish. This single memetic concept is so incredibly offensive as to be astounding. He is basically saying that every single Gay, Lesbian and Bi person who's ever lived was immature and irresponsible. He is ignoring every person who's ever had to stand up and say 'I am not straight, I cannot take pretending to be so any more', despite the cost in family and friendship. Worse, he's effectively laid the blame on the head of every victim of a gay-bashing ever, as he implies that everything is the fault of the gay person, as they should be able to restrain their sexuality.

In a sane world, the Mormon church would be embarrassed by this, though their Prop Eight support will tell you that in this world, they're not. Card frequently and often establishes that being gay is impossible within the Mormon church, that the only way to be exist in the church is to knuckle down, admit your sin and pretend that you're straight. This is the kind of dialogue that gives the Church of Latter Day Saints such a bad name. Effectively, Card states, to be Mormon is to be anti-gay, because the words of their prophets say so. It's the kind of fundamentalist absolutionism that gives religion a bad name.

To be blunt, by writing this op-ed, Card's cheerfully thrown away his credibility. It's an authoritarian nightmare advocating for the arrest of practicing homosexuals by an author who clearly has no real clue what gay life is like. He equates gay rights with tyranny and seems to believe that his church has the right to dictate someone's sex life. I'm straight and I still find that incredibly offensive

Baen Finally owns up to being Right-Wing (and not in a good way)

Baen Books has long had a reputation for being a bit right wing. It's not entirely unwarranted, given their massive love for all things Heinlein (king of sci-fi libertarianism). Still, they also publish a number of authors (in particular Eric Flint) who are definitely not right wing. However unfortunately, they then turn around and publish something like this:

http://www.webscription.net/p-1153-taxpayers-tea-party.aspx

The book's called Taxpayer's Tea Party by Sharon Cooper and Chuck Asay. It's a reprint of a book published in the 90's during the Republicans' big revolt against Clinton. As one might imagine it's aimed at the Teabagger and their friends. The book doesn't entirely raise one's hope about its contents, proudly proclaiming it's dual forewords by Newt Gringrich and Rush Limbaugh. Yes it has the support of a Republican who resigned from office due to corruption charges and, well, Rush freaking Limbaugh, they guy who has his face next to the dictionary definition of 'Right-Wing Jackass' (For added humour, their website's preview of Taxpayer's Teaparty contains no actual book, just the two forewords and a cartoon I had to keep reminding myself wasn't satire). It's also possibly the sign that Baen's finally fallen down the rabbit hole they've been can-canning around for the last decade or so.

The thing is, Baen is a Science Fiction and Fantasy label. That's not to knock them. They publish dozens of truly excellent books every year and I'm a big fan of several writers (the aforementioned Eric Flint and David Weber in particular). They've also got a few books in the catalogue which are non-fiction works on the science involved in Sci-Fi. What they aren't however, is a political publisher. They publish entertainment, not education.

Still, to be honest, I'm really not surprised that Baen's finally taken the plunge into publishing right-wing populism. They've been doing it for years in stealth. I first noticed Baen's rightward lean when they published Tom Kratman's unpleasant screed, A State of Disorder. Anyone who can read the book's prologue alone and claim that it's completely balanced deserves a medal. The book itself is even worse, with possibly the most grotesque parody of Hillary Clinton ever written (Let's just say she starts off as a narcissistic closet lesbian who was actively involved in the death of her first running mate and that she gets worse), while the book's conclusion, a series of constitutional amendments rammed through by the good guys, is likely to provoke sheer horror in anyone left of Limbaugh (the amendment banning abortion alone is awe-inspiringly clueless and offensive). To be honest, my first response to ASOD was sheer horror, but now it's almost a nodding acceptance. This is what Baen does these days.

The years after ASOD haven't been good years either. Kratman's continued to write a handful of books, none of which can be really considered fair or balanced. His Caliphate might just have to considered one of the most incredibly racist science fiction novels ever. His Legion El Cid novels are a incredibly unpleasant screed about how Kratman 'would' fight the War on Terror, with a disturbing obsession with brutality. Kratman's books brim with right-wing anger and paranoia. He constantly casts all liberals as the enemy, with vehemence particularly reserved for the media (which he sees as terrorist supporters, let alone enablers) and 'transnationalists' (a weird right-wing fantasy about an illuminati of liberals looking to reintroduce Soviet style aristocracy). About the only thing that can be said for his books is that they so quickly accelerate past the suspension of disbelief as to at no time can you take the books for anything to do with reality.

No mention of Kratman would be done without mention his frequent collaborator, John Ringo. Mr Ringo is one of Baen's biggest authors, but unfortunately that seems to have only magnified his tendency towards the more ridiculous end of the political statement. Ghost is probably the best starting point. Ghost tells the story of a ex-Navy Seal who finds himself getting into multiple encounters with various Islamic terrorists while also meeting a bevy of beautiful girls. Think of it as the right-wing bastard child of Jack Bauer and James Bond. The book and its sequels are incredibly right-wing, attributing all failures in the War on Terror to either Clinton or political correctness. They're also incredibly over-sexed, frequently in directions that are incredibly tasteless and unforgivably vile (Any possible good feeling I felt for the main character disappeared by the end of Ghost, where he hires and rapes a prostitute, a scene written with far more detail than necessary).

As bad as Ghost and its sequels were, the true cherry on the top has to be The Last Centurion. If you want a full description, look at the review below. Here's its suffice to say that LTC is a book with only one real purpose: blame every ill in the world on liberals and suggest that right-wing solutions are the only way to fix the mess that the world is in. The first ten chapters of the book are little more than an extended, poorly thought out rant as to the failings of an imaginary female Democrat President (see a pattern here? Baen seems to have its hate on for Hillary), with her every move being exactly opposite to the logical path mapped out by the author. What makes the book so thoroughly objectionable was that it was published in late 2008, in a transparent attempt to be out before the presidential election (a decision presumably made when every one thought Hillary was a shoe-in for nominee).

Still, much of Ringo's work shines before his collaborations with Kratman. A Watch On The Rhine may just take the cup for most incredibly wacko book ever published by Baen. Again, see my review below for details, but in a nutshell, the SS save Germany from invading aliens. I'm going to repeat that, in case your mind instinctively wiped the idea from your head, the SS save Germany from invading aliens. The book is an ode to the SS' ruthless strength and epically manages to make the liberal villains less sympathetic than the cannibalistic aliens. Their other collaboration, Yellow Eyes, is an improvement, but only by a little. The story's relatively forgiveable and is frankly the best story to come from Kratman's pen, but it all falls over at the end. Kratman sees fit to include an afterword about some of the book's themes and the results are well, memorable. He offers a weird little rant about Transnationalists and their goals, vis-a-vis the International Court and warcrimes prosecution. Being, well, Kratman, he misses the point in style and comes to the conclusion that everything is an effort to hamstring the common soldier with the fear of prosecution. It's the kind of pap he pumps out on a regular basis, secure in his little happy place, uncaring as to the realities of the world.

I honestly don't mind some of the right-wing books published by Baen. I greatly enjoyed reading Freehold by Michael Z Williamson, even if I think the libertarian country at the centre of the story is a laughable fantasy. I'm also hugely tempted by Monster Hunter International by Larry Correria, a book with a notable anti-government theme. What I do mind is where the author can't put his politics behind the needs of the story. Many of the above books by Ringo and Kratman would be far better if they'd restrained their urges.

In all honesty, I feel much of my complaints about the above stories would be improved if their editors had restrained them. I can't imagine Yellow Eyes would have done worse without its repugnant afterword. Nor can I imagine A State of Disorder doing worse with its ridiculous liberal bashing excised. To be honest, I can't imagine any amount of editing fixing some of their other works (Watch On The Rhine). Honestly, I find it hard not to imagine an editor handing most of Ghost and Caliphate back to their respective authors with a message along the lines 'start again, less ick'. Quite frankly, there seems to be a decision by the editorial staff not to remove the more offensive lines of their right-wing authors, instead letting them run rampant.

This decision leads almost inexorably towards publishing something like Taxpayer's Teaparty. Baen already lends succour to the extreme right-wing by publishing fantasies of Liberal treachery and Conservative victory, so why shouldn't it directly help by publishing a blueprint to protest? It's hard to say exactly what Baen's lost here, but legitimacy is probably the best word to start with. The argument that Baen isn't a conservative company, with a distinct bias in a given direction has fallen over, probably forever. By publishing Taxpayer's Teaparty they've lost forever the right to claim that they are misrepresented.

It's possible that one day someone's going to look back at the history of Baen Books and directly trace it's decline to Taxpayer's Teaparty. It's definitely not a positive sign for the company, clearly trying to cash in on the conservative zeitgeist and it's going to backfire. Baen's already garnered an amazing amount of ill will with readers like myself, who don't enjoy having asinine politics shoved down our throats. The only reason I look at their site at the moment is to keep up with the latest books by David Weber and Eric Flint, as well as seeing if they've got any new authors that might catch my eye. As soon as those two leave Baen's fold, I'm gone as well.

A Watch On The Rhine

Author: Tom Kratman and John Ringo

Publisher: Baen Books

Quick Synopsis: Germany is forced to reform the SS to stave off alien invasion

Quick Review: An idea with potential mutilated by the wrong author

I have to admit that the idea behind A Watch on the Rhine is an original one: can the German SS really be redeemed? Are they the monsters of history, or are they misunderstood, patriots fighting for an evil regime? Unfortunately, the authors don't really manage to answer these questions. They go into the book with their own preconceived notions and don't manage to make them convincing. Worse, they let their own prejudices colour the story, further damaging their efforts by trying to score cheap points with hollow characterisation and weakarguments.

Plot: Set in John Ringo's Legacy of Aldenata universe, the book follows Germany's defence against the Posleen hordes (an alien species that considers all animal life food, up to and including their own dead and young). Aware that their army stands little chance, their government decides to rebuild the SS, using alien technology to regenerate the few survivors and give them fresh recruits to train (Just to be clear, by SS, I mean the Schutzstaffel, the paramilitary force within Nazi Germany infamous for running the concentration camps as well as several other atrocities). While the intention is to use the new units up in the coming conflict, they prove far more useful than that.

It's a measure of AWOTR that I'm still unsure on the central theme of whether or not the reputation of the SS can be redeemed. Quite simply, there is very little of the book devoted to this argument. Those few characters who make the argument that they are irredeemable and that Germany shouldn't resurrect them, regardless of the alien threat, are generally classed as at best misguided or at worse, villains (indeed the primary opposition is from one of the book's biggest villains). Kratman (Ringo appears to have been very hands-off on the novel, going from the authorial afterword included with the book) ultimately seems uninterested in this argument, consistently portraying every SS character as mostly apolitical, with little interest in any aspect of Nazi ideology (the exception would have to be the vile Kreuger, who openly celebrates his service in the Totenkopf brigades, those parts of SS who served in the concentration camps). Most memorably, this occurs early on in the novel, when one of the old SS encounters an Israeli army officer. It is the Israeli who is portrayed as being out-of-line, not the SS officer who barely seems to care. The few references to the SS's crimes are simply waved away with either a distinction of the Totenkopf's responsibility or the excuse of 'everyone did the same thing', an argument best saved for the schoolyard. To be blunt, Kratman simply doesn't care about the SS's crimes, paying mere lip-service to the pain that they have caused.

Unfortunately, if a mere inability to make a decent argument was the biggest problem with AWOTR that probably wouldn't have made the book as bad as it is. No what really picks the book up and slaps it out of the park is Kratman's political axe-grinding on top of the sensitive subject matter. Remember that villain I mentioned above, the one opposed to the resurrection of the SS? He is the leader of a cabal of left-wing and green (he's the leader of the Greens in the Bundestag)politicians who assist in an alien conspiracy to weaken Germany's defences in before the invasion, in an effort to ensure humanity's downfall. His explanation for this when confronted? He's 'protecting' the Earth by using the Posleen to wipe out the excess population, planning to return with his evacuated family and do things 'right' after the Posleen have been eradicated. The entire speech where this is admitted is gloriously over-the-top and ridiculous, sounding as if he's ad-libbing the villain from Moonraker. What of course makes this all the more laughable is that the Posleen are known for destroying the worlds they conquer, breaking out into nuclear infighting as their population spirals out of control. The protests he organises earlier on are just as ridiculous, with SS characters musing about the hypocrisies evident within the crowds and the protesters being portrayed as brain-washed and clueless(crowning this is the protester who is so impressed by the SS riot police that he immediately goes off to a recruiting station). Most disturbingly, this gives a creepy moment in one scene, where the German chancellor orders the SS to arrest all of the members of the conspiracy to weaken the defences, implying to the reader that the SS are occupying the same quasi-political position they had in the Third Reich, acting as the muscle for those hunting 'enemies of the state'.One cannot help, but get the feeling that Kratman views the liberal characters as more evil than the Posleen, who are often treated with more empathy than the humans (please note that these are the aliens who make use of human shields and make a quilt of human hair during the course of the book).

These issues unfortunately overshadow the book's actual plot. Not that that isn't a good thing. There's very little coherence to the book's set up and Kratman is very bad at setting the scene for all of the action sequences. The narrative is spread over about five years, covering the preparation for the first and then second waves of invasion as well as the battles fought during them, but there seems to be little development during the time-skips (most notably, the few 'new' SS characters don't seem to receive any sort of promotions during the book, despite being veterans of the first wave). The book is also achingly non-canonical, frequently violating many of the setting's rules (Ringo constructed an alien force for which the best counter is infantry supported with artillery, while Kratman instead plants the SS forces in supertanks). Perhaps worse is the actual reason given for the necessity of resurrecting the SS. The stated rational is that Germany needs everything it can get, that its own military lacks the training cadre needed for the massive expansion necessary. It all rings a little hollow. Kratman consistently portrays the regular German army as weak and cowardly, crippled by political correctness. The SS are necessary because Kratman makes them necessary, effectively writing them in by authorial fiat. There's little consideration given to the repercussions, nor are the German opposition portrayed as anything other than clueless. Grotesquely, the book's epilogue has the surviving characters engaging in what is implied to be genocide in the future, deliberately attacking a planet of the alien species which has been playing the Posleen against the humans with the intention of destroying their entire species.

Most laughable is Kratman's big theme of 'Survival overrides programming'. He tries to make the argument that the modern military is not ruthless enough and that modern sensibilities are to blame. Unfortunately, the theme is shoehorned into the book, primarily with a French woman who is a liberal stereotype as only Kratman can write them, ie clueless. In a poorly thought out scene near the end, her son fails to demolish a crucial bridge during battle. Kratman would like you to believe that it his liberal 'programming' that is to blame, but unfortunately that's about the last conclusion the reader is likely to draw. The boy in question is a child soldier in his first battle, who's placed in a position of utmost importance. The bridge in question is packed with human refugees at the time, being used by the Posleen as human shields. As far as can be seen, Kratman decides that mere human compassion is an obstacle that can be blamed on liberalism. Disturbingly, his authorial afterword suggests that he considers this to be a major problem in the War on Terror.

Watch on the Rhine is not a good book. The arguments made within are hollow and self-serving, the story is instantly forgettable and the characters are weak. Kratman seems to think that the SS's talent for ruthlessness forgives all of their sins, when he is not drawing false equivalences between their crimes and the Allies'. His personal politics colour the narrative, with left-wing politics being made out to be the biggest threat to the cast. This is unfortunate, given that he is essentially writing in support of one of the greatest right-wing perversions in history. Watch on the Rhine is at its core a poorly thought out polemic which, given its sensitive subject matter, is all the more appalling. One of the worst books I've ever read.

X-men Misfits

Authors:Dave Roman, Raina Telgemeier and Anbu
Publishers: Delrey Manga
Quick Synopsis: Girl finds she is the only female student at a school for mutants
Quick Review: Entertaining take on the classic series with a nice story

It's one of those rules of law that any comic book series will have multiple reinterpretations. This goes doubly so for the big classics, like Superman, Spiderman and X-men. Still, to say X-Men: Misfits is an odd approach to the classic comic books is a little bit of an understatement. The authors take the X-men cast and put them into probably the least expected situation: A Shoujo-manga love triangle. I'm pretty sure that's the strangest thing to have ever happened to a comic book series, excepting perhaps Marvel Apes.
Plot: Kitty Pryde (better known to the wider world as Shadowcat, a mutant with the ability to walk through walls) leaves her school to escape the anti-mutant bullying and enrols in Xavier's Academy for the Gifted. Unfortunately for her, her dreams of fitting in are quickly dashed when she discovers she's the only girl in the school. Things only improve when she is befriended by the Hellfire Club (Angel, Havoc, Pyro, Forge and Quicksilver), a group for the most popular and powerful students in the school.
Misfits presents an unusual take on the X-men franchise. There are no megalomanical plots, no crazed mutant hunting warmachines and no costumes. Indeed, this book is so far away from the standard comic book plots you might be expecting that many of the cast do not even have their callsigns. Case in point: the character that invites Kitty to the school is Eric Lensherr. Yes, that Eric Lensherr, better known as Magneto (it's also the most mellow take on him I've ever seen).
Instead, the story's a gentle love story. Kitty's relationship with the members of the Hellfire Club primarily centres around her romance with Pyro (it should be noted that the only people to use their mutant names are the Hellfire Club members). This relationship is nicely written, with Kitty finding the attention enjoyable, while having difficulty asserting herself against the strong personalities of her friends. This proves to be an interesting plot line, with Kitty acting in a highly believable fashion, enjoying their company while still being put out by their actions, especially their open contempt for 'human' learning. The ending is a little bit jarring as it suddenly descends into a fight between the Hellfire Club and several other students. The fallout from this leads into the next book, as well as establishing several other parts of the series' own version of the X-men mythology.
The art work is definitely far into the 'shoujo' realm, full of large numbers of androgynous men and sparkles. Not that this does work. The few female characters (notably Storm and Kitty) are clearly so without exaggeration and there's little doubt as too who's a guy and who's not. It's of a consistently high quality, with both good character designs and detailed backgrounds. The few action sequences are well laid out and clear, far less confusing than many other manga I've read. The authors make usage of a certain amount of character deformation (instant cat-ears and chibi mostly) for comedic scenes, which works well. Virtually every character is prettied up for the book, with occasionally jarring moments (Nightcrawler manages to be handsome, despite being blue and having his tail and all).The only art issue I have isn't to do with bad art, rather bad design. The non-human designs (for Beast and Colossus) are, to be frank, laughable. Beast looks like something akin to the famous Totoro of Ghibli fame (think large, fat cat thing) while Colossus is so unrecognisable transformed that I originally didn't recognise him until his name finally sank in.
The script of the book is tight and genuinely interesting. Kitty works well as central character, fitting into the misfit theme well. Her battles with her phasing power prove interesting and defining (the pearl is either her flight with Angel, which consists of her desperately thinking 'please stay solid, please stay solid' or how she learns she can hold her breath for longer than normal). There's no cheap 'aha' moments as she works through her issues, but she's clearly a different person by the end of the story. Most of the characters fit in well, with little jarring. However, the introduction and placement of a few characters feels a little forced. Notable is Gambit's introduction which consists of a two page scene of him cooking for Kitty in silence. There seems to be a deliberate effort to make some characters' identity a little unsure. Most notably is Gambit, who's identity is entirely based off his dark corneas and his constant playing with cards, and someone I hope is The Blob, mainly because I can't think of any other mutants who can absorb enemy attacks and are over-weight. There's a nice vein of humour running through the book, mostly thanks to Kitty's thoughts and observations (her mental image of Professor X is the funniest page in the book).
Misfits is a strange book and I won't deny that I bought it purely out of morbid curiosity. However, it's a nice story and one I enjoyed far more than similar shoujo novels. It's sufficiently interesting and well written that it could stand alone without the X-men label. The guessing game played with the characters' names provides an entertaining meta-diversion through out the book and is often amusing (showing X-Men fans random pages from the book and saying 'that's X' never gets old). It's definitely worth a read, with a fresh interpretation on the old favourites.