Unintended Consequences
by John Ross
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Book Reviews of Unintended Consequences
Book Review: Don't read this if you're from California
Summary: 4 Stars
I've noticed an interesting trend- this book is getting 4-5 stars from most of America with the exception of California readers who consistently rate it with 1 or 2 stars. Being from Boulder, CO. a place similar to California in many ways (we call it The People's Republic of Boulder)-I've seen similar trends locally-with a bit more realism due to our 'middle America' geography. A liberal Boulder reader would complain about style and content as much as a CA. liberal, but would at least give this book 3 stars due to the depth of knowledge conveyed to the reader.If the readers of this book in CA. are paying attention to what's going on with our civil liberties, they'd think twice about bashing this book. Is it overdone? Yes. Was there a reason? Of course... Mr. Ross wanted this book to sell so he used many of the tools common in popular fiction and he inserted one hell of a history lesson as well.
Call me opinionated (I spent 10 years in California, so know it reasonably well) but anyone who gives this book 1 star doesn't understand what America is about and how unique and special a place it is. Ross get's across all of that and more. The good AND the bad.
My suggestion to those who found this book lacking is they travel the world a bit more and visit places like Sao Paulo Brazil where upwards of 3 million children (according to city officials) live as 'packs' on the street looking for food, or almost any city in China where breathing the air requires a mask just to walk around the city (any city). They are very lucky to have been born in a country that is based on the principles America is based on.
We American's have it better than anyone in the world, and it's because we believe in our freedom and we protect it as something near and dear to us. Those who don't know better, really, should get out of their manicured lawned homes in gated communities or their bohemian 'flat' and all black wardrobe's and look around a bit.
Interestingly, being involved in the free radio movement, I have friends deeply steeped in the far left and the far right. It's surprising how similar they are in many ways-although they would all passionately deny it. This book is for both ends of the spectrum, and everyone in-between.
What I would like to see from Mr. Ross next is an updated version of this book that takes into account all that has happened to our freedom and civil liberties since 911. I'm sure the Bush administrations intent is good, but the results of our 'security' are appalling. Ben Franklin himself said that you can have security or freedom, but not both (heavily paraphrased). Ah so true.
I'm sure Mr. Rosses next book will be an exceptionally interesting (and equally scary) read.
Book Review: A novel that seduces you, and then poisons your drink
Summary: 2 Stars
John Ross has written two novels here. The first several hundred pages are very serviceable historical fiction: entertaining, informative, and quite readable. Then, the setting changes to the "present day", and the work gradually unmasks an implicitly racialist POV, rapidly devolving into a "Turner Diaries"-style orgy of cleansing violence.
In the first half of the book, we meet the protagonist's father, an eminently likeable and supremely competent Naval Aviator during the Second World War. We flash forward and watch his son, Henry Bowman, grow up with a love of aviation and marksmanship. Along the way, various vignettes serve to both illuminate key historical events and introduce the supporting cast of characters. There's sometimes an overdose of foreshadowing, but by and large, it's an enjoyable and rewarding read.
Then, the author springs his trap. The wary reader saw the warning signs early in the book: the omniscient narrator earnestly highlighting, without a trace of irony, that Randy Weaver was not a White Supremacist, but merely someone who, "like many", had "no great affection for Blacks, Jews, or big government"; the breezily rosy depiction of Rhodesian "democracy", where only landowners could vote. But now, in the latter half of the book, subtlety is no longer the order of the day, and the message is no longer veiled. Having lured the reader this far, the author slams the doors shut and drops in the gas pellets.
Now, finally, the author feels free to use the term "Jewish" as a near-complete physical description for a character, as in "[he is]talking to the bald Jewish guy." The implicit prejudice just keeps getting worse, like listening to David Duke slowly get drunk. The novel's most carefully drawn Black character is a hastily sketched minstrel-show parody, an overweight female BATF agent who -- unlike every other character in the book -- speaks her lines in misspelled words connoting a ghetto dialect; her name is jarringly played for laughs, as the punch line after her summary execution: Gonnorhea Gaily Jackson.
Adding insult to injury, a parade of tin-foil hat conspiracy theories are portrayed as fact: Oswald was framed, the new 20-dollar-bills are designed to be detected by magnetometers, and the Jews pull secret levers of power in Washington. As the Maraschino cherry on top of this grotesque vanilla cream confection, the book concludes with the graphic depiction of the "good guys" murdering a former government official who bears striking -- but undoubtedly coincidental -- similarities to Janet Reno.
At the end of this book, you will feel used and dirty.
Book Review: It would get no stars, but that isn't an option.
Summary: 1 Stars
A bad joke has been foisted upon firearms enthusiasts. Based on this book, we are all now associated with Timothy McVeigh, militia whackos, anti-government lunatics, and all the other reprehensible human detritus that brought about (or at least support) the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. I strongly resent any association with the afore-mentioned ilk that are the obvious target audience for "Unintended Consequences". From the cartoonish rendering on the cover of this 800-page boat anchor, it is quite obvious what the author has to say. Comparisons to "Atlas Shrugged"? Only in terms of physical size. This goofy, anti-everything mess is nowhere near being in the same league as Ayn Rand's classic, which at least had constructive social commentary and solid writing going for it. This monstrosity suffers from restrained, or non-existent, editing. It veers from well researched historical accounts that are presented in a biased, inaccurate and slanted way, to raw, sophomoric and gratuitous sex scenes, and through to the comic book fantasy of a "plot" wherein the hero exacts his revenge against the cliched, evil government conspirators. Apparently it is okay to trash the constitution in the name of protecting it if one is a gun owner. Is that the message the author intended? And, getting back to the sex passages--I am dismayed that this silliness, which, if they had at least advanced the plot would only have served to add to the already excessive length of the book, but instead only succeed in confirming the suspicions of the anti-gun crowd that firearms enthusiasts are socially retarded misfits who are unable to get dates and therefore are reduced to substituting their adoration of firearms (phallic symbols) and reading stuff that is as imaginative and as credible as the letters sections in men's magazines instead of developing meaningful human relationships. It must be so much more fun to believe that there is an organized conspiracy afoot than to realize that the so-called erosion of our rights is merely the result of inept, desperate politicians who can only deal with the frightening rise in violent crime by enacting more, sometimes poorly drafted laws. In fact, two government employees couldn't conspire to take an extra-long lunch break without one snitching the other off. This book shames me from wanting to associate with those who share my interest in firearms and in sport shooting. Make no mistake that this book is dedicated to political extremists and holds no legitimate interest for honest gun owners.Book Review: Mixed Bag But Overall A Pretty Fun Read
Summary: 3 Stars
Well.... this book is a pretty difficult one to rate. It is a real mixed bag from my personal perspective.The Good:
Okay I'll admit it.. the book is fun. I am an admitted member of the Gun Culture (as defined by the author) and Unintended Consequences leans toward that segment of the population who understand firearms as something more than evil tools of criminals.
I also very much enjoyed the historical aspects of this book. The author could easily be accused for starting a new genre "contemporary-futuristic-historical fiction" hahahaha The book is set in the past, present, and future - and is made much more believable by referencing things of the past including, laws, people, personalities, and events. I found myself going to the web numerous times and looking up this or that from the book. I found most of the things noted in the book are directly historical or very close. This made it a lot more fun.
The story is done very Tom Clancyesque... that is to say, there is a gradual and in depth development of the characters using a timeline and time stamps. This allows an in depth understanding of character motivation and some rather cool fore-shadowing. Like Clancy the author also uses past historical events and on-the-money technical descriptions to add believability to his story.
The Bad:
There were a few things I did not like about this book. The first was that the ending was short and anticlamactic. After a detailed build up of the personalities involved the ending came abruptly, without the depth expected, and with a quaint little quote that did not do the rest of the book justice.
Also on the negative side of the house, the technicalities of certain reloading data will be over the heads of most readers. It was over mine for sure. I skimmed through a paragraph here an there.
The Ugly:
The reason that this book did not get 5 stars was that I was not at all thrilled with the morality of the main character. If gun-owners are to be portrayed in a positive light then why make liars out of them and add some unusual sexual proclivities to them. The details of cetain sexual encounters and or the sexual lives of the 'heroes' were present in too many places for me to highly reccommend this book. Sadly, the moral failings of the hero were a real detraction from the story.
Still - this is a 'good' book. While I'd not call it great it was entertaining and if you can get past some of the details that do not move the story along, and if you can empathize with a hero who uses women to gain political (and probably psychological) goals then this is worth a read.
Book Review: A more or less anti-gun type reviews a gun-lovers' book
Summary: 5 Stars
I really didn't expect to like this book as much as I did - after all, I'm one of those people who's more likely to fly to the moon than actually pick up a gun and learn how to use it.The author realized that it was a great challenge to reach people like me. He knew that gun lovers are popularly thought of as people with very little brain who sit around and idly plink at cans or kill innocent bambis. The technical detail in the book shows that many gun lovers - especially the intense hobbyists portrayed in the book - thrive on mastering difficult skills and love their weapons as the masterpieces of brilliant craftsmanship they often are. In short, gun lovers are no different than boat lovers and their boats, or computer lovers and their SGI workstations. Despite the massive carnage they are capable of, they are essentially harmless.
Unless, of course, you try to take their guns away from them. Then, they get mad.
Particularly interesting in my view was the scene where our hero turns from a harmless gun owner to a brutal revolutionary. The BATF stages a raid on his best friend's home, and he happens to be the only person there. The BATF behaves like the jackbooted thugs they are, and our hero treats them just like that; the upshot is that they all wind up dead, and Henry is in the fight of his life. I thought it was a very plausible transformation for our hero. He might not have taken that step if he'd known they were BATF agents instead of random intruders.
This book is really better on history than it is on future events, but I found it totally gripping and read it straight through to the end. The author reminds us subtley of one other important thing: Gun owners are not the only people treated unjustly in this country by law enforcement. Even innocuous boat owners are not immune: Check out the "zero tolerence" policies and the Coast Guard's search and seizure policy. There are similar laws lurking in all sorts of places; read the book and be enlightened.
An important and fascinating book. Read it whether you care about guns or not.
Oh, the person who complained about the cover art was right on. I was embarassed to be seen with the book, the cover art was so ... um ... tacky might be the right word? In the current edition, I didn't notice any typos, but that embarassing "read page 175 next, this is page 176" thing was still there on one of the pages. They really should bite the bullet and re-typeset it.
But don't prevent that from buying the book. It's worth it, especially at the Amazon.com discounted price.