Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

For me, the only good thing about this novel was the consistent, "wake up and see what your government is doing" message. As a cautionary tale, it served its purpose, but as a novel, it left me stone cold. My first problem with this nearly 700-page story was its hero, a man who: ........was physically perfect (massive shoulders and tree trunks for limbs) ........had a touch of metaphysical/magical ability (he had "The Sight") ........was brilliant ........had vast wealth ........turned down a career as an NFL quarterback to become a mega-rockstar ........was expert in all forms of weaponry, both modern and antique ........could get it up four times an hour and keep that up all night In short, I'm convinced the hero was nothing less than a Marty Stu (for those unfamiliar with the term, a Marty Stu/Mary Sue is a fictional character who is portrayed in an idealized way and who is lacking any noteworthy flaws -- a character made in the image of how the author sees himself in his fantasies) Some of my other issues with the story involved: ........A cast of supporting characters so one-dimensional and boring that I never cared a whit about any of them ........Pages and pages of weapons description ........An absurd and pointless paean to Eric Carmen as the most underrated "rocker" ever ........Many equally pointless insertions of bad song lyrics ........An obsession with babies -- This obsession was so great that not only did our hero refuse to have sex with women who didn't want children, but all the "good" female characters wanted children immediately, the more the better, and brought up the subject with great frequency (here again, I became convinced that I was seeing little more than a projection of the author's wishful thinking, bordering on desperation) To top it all off, I was supposed to believe that assassinating a few low-level government flunkies was somehow going to wake people up, change their minds, and set them on the path to righteousness. It was depressing, because even though the message of the novel was serious and the author had some valid points to make, they became tainted by the unbelievability of the characters and the story. Maybe it shouldn't be that way. Maybe the ideas stand on their own as incorruptible. But if I have trouble taking the messenger seriously, how much credence am I going to give to the message itself? All in all, this book had so much less impact on me than it could have. I purchased it because I'm concerned about government abuse and because I believe in reason, individual responsibility, and self-determination. But I also like my books to be well written, with fully realized characters, interesting dialogue, and a story that goes beyond the feel of a clichéd action movie. I didn't find any of that here.