State of Emergency

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, thought provoking book written ahead of its time.
Review: The book is extremely close to forecasting the consequences of the festering unease of the American public. Steve Pieczenik has always been a man ahead of his time and has continually written books that look, and accurately predict, five to ten years in the future. Doctor Pieczenik has sensed the growing unrest in the nation and is aware that the fundamental manner in which our country is run will have to change. The American people are no longer satisfied and Steve Pieczenik has been the first to record an omen of our future path. Obviously, Kurview Reviews have short sited half-wits as their reviewers. The book is a fast read that prompts a quick turn of every page. Our country is in turmoil, and at least some men like Steve Pieczenik, have the foresight to warn the American people of the consequences of our actions.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting premise, but sloppily written
Review: The idea of four western states seceding from the Union is fascinating, but I was frequently distracted by poor writing. The most glaring error is that Pieczenik apparently thinks Lake Powell is below Glen Canyon Dam; either he doesn't understand how dams work, or he never did on-site research. In another geographic error, Al Carter and Cheri flee the secessionists by floating down the Snake River from Grand Teton to Yellowstone--a gravity-defying feat, since the Snake rises in Yellowstone and flows from there to Grand Teton before turning west into Idaho. Another major distraction was the very simple French-language dialogue between the between the French Prime Minister (or perhaps Foreign Minister--Pieczenik isn't clear on this point) and Al Carter. Pieczenik provides translations, and in at least one instance, I needed his translation, because the verb "se renconter" does not exist in French--I think the word Pieczenik was looking for was "se rendre compte". In any case, two people who are both presumably fluent in French would not be using such simple construction and vocabulary to speak to each other. Bottom line: I'm glad I borrowed this book from the library, rather than buying it.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting premise, but sloppily written
Review: The idea of four western states seceding from the Union is fascinating, but I was frequently distracted by poor writing. The most glaring error is that Pieczenik apparently thinks Lake Powell is below Glen Canyon Dam; either he doesn't understand how dams work, or he never did on-site research. In another geographic error, Al Carter and Cheri flee the secessionists by floating down the Snake River from Grand Teton to Yellowstone--a gravity-defying feat, since the Snake rises in Yellowstone and flows from there to Grand Teton before turning west into Idaho. Another major distraction was the very simple French-language dialogue between the between the French Prime Minister (or perhaps Foreign Minister--Pieczenik isn't clear on this point) and Al Carter. Pieczenik provides translations, and in at least one instance, I needed his translation, because the verb "se renconter" does not exist in French--I think the word Pieczenik was looking for was "se rendre compte". In any case, two people who are both presumably fluent in French would not be using such simple construction and vocabulary to speak to each other. Bottom line: I'm glad I borrowed this book from the library, rather than buying it.

Rating:
Summary: Badly written, highly racist, bigoted book with silly plot
Review: The is one of those reviews where it is difficult to know where to start. It is a very stupid story in which the governors of Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming try to secede from the union. The first plot problem is the people of these states would never go along with it. However, the author explains that since the population of these states is highly Christian, they'll just follow along like sheep. As a matter of fact at one point, the author goes so far as to say that since Christians believe Christ will return at the time of the final battle between good and evil, they actually would want a civil war. At another point, he lumps the Christian Coalition in with the neonazis and skinheads as hate groups who want a war. Excuse me, but if such terms were used against Jews or Moslems, the author would be considered to be bigoted against those religions; the same goes for his views against Christians(and I, for the record, am an agonistic). Secondly, a civil war between the US and these states would last about 5 minutes. Now I must go on to my second point. I don't care what race or sex characters have, as long as this is not used for an excuse for bigotry in the popular literature. This book, is, in my opinion, as bigoted against caucasians as "the Turner Diaries" is against blacks and Jews. All the "bad guys" in the book are caucasian(though at least they are both male and female), and the author goes out of his way to stress this. At one point, it mentions that the black secretary of state has had to "clean up" the errors of the unfeeling protestant white males who proceeded her in the job. It is stressed that the FBI group moving against the secessionists are 60% minority and gay and then stresses that this is not because of affirmative action. It stresses that England, France and Germany are pushing secession because they want to recreate their old worldwide empires iwht white domination of the world(wouldn't China or one of the Middle Eastern countries be a more probable enemy). I'm not nitpicking on this issue, race and religion are stressed throughout this book! To sum up: Christian and White are bad; minority and gay are good! It is fearful when such a hate filled book enters the popular literature. Bottom line:this book isn't fit to be used as toilet paper!

Rating:
Summary: Badly written, highly racist, bigoted book with silly plot
Review: The is one of those reviews where it is difficult to know where to start. It is a very stupid story in which the governors of Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming try to secede from the union. The first plot problem is the people of these states would never go along with it. However, the author explains that since the population of these states is highly Christian, they'll just follow along like sheep. As a matter of fact at one point, the author goes so far as to say that since Christians believe Christ will return at the time of the final battle between good and evil, they actually would want a civil war. At another point, he lumps the Christian Coalition in with the neonazis and skinheads as hate groups who want a war. Excuse me, but if such terms were used against Jews or Moslems, the author would be considered to be bigoted against those religions; the same goes for his views against Christians(and I, for the record, am an agonistic). Secondly, a civil war between the US and these states would last about 5 minutes. Now I must go on to my second point. I don't care what race or sex characters have, as long as this is not used for an excuse for bigotry in the popular literature. This book, is, in my opinion, as bigoted against caucasians as "the Turner Diaries" is against blacks and Jews. All the "bad guys" in the book are caucasian(though at least they are both male and female), and the author goes out of his way to stress this. At one point, it mentions that the black secretary of state has had to "clean up" the errors of the unfeeling protestant white males who proceeded her in the job. It is stressed that the FBI group moving against the secessionists are 60% minority and gay and then stresses that this is not because of affirmative action. It stresses that England, France and Germany are pushing secession because they want to recreate their old worldwide empires iwht white domination of the world(wouldn't China or one of the Middle Eastern countries be a more probable enemy). I'm not nitpicking on this issue, race and religion are stressed throughout this book! To sum up: Christian and White are bad; minority and gay are good! It is fearful when such a hate filled book enters the popular literature. Bottom line:this book isn't fit to be used as toilet paper!

Rating:
Summary: When the writer knows not whereof he writes.
Review: The town of Page, AZ sits 300 feet on the mesa above Lake Powell. Flooding of Page is impossible even if Glen Canyon Dam were to be blown in an instant. It behooves a writer to be at least minimally knowledgeable of the area of his setting, otherwise his story is foolishness, as this one is.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth the paper it's printed on
Review: There is a word in Spanish that perfectly describes this book, "caca". Don't waste your money, just ask me for my copy if you really want to read it. Of course, several other reviewers have liked it, so maybe you just have to be tolerable of sickeningly syrupy sweethearts, ridiculous assumptions (the governor of Arizona is going to kill the population of one of his cities???), complete disregard to geography EVEN WHEN IT IS A CORE ELEMENT OF THE PLOT, hypocritical heroes, complete lies about the Mormon church, and a total lack of understanding of the mentality of the West. The publisher sucked me in with the interesting premise, but I sure do regret the time and money that I spent.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, prescient, enlightening and entertaining book.
Review: This book opened up and explored ideas and trends that are happening all around the United States in a provocative and challenging plot. It made me think hard about the trends toward gated communities, suburbs becoming cities, everyone seeking autonomy and separatism. I applaud Pieczenik for having the courage to grapple with this crises of commmunity. It is frighteningly relevant to the current events in Servia, Macedonia and Kosovo. Critics have been so shortsighted as to have missed the insights in the thesis that illuminates the path we are taking toward not only to a divided U.S., but to a possible World War III.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting topic, shallow analysis
Review: This novel had promise, but failed to deliver. It deals with corrupt federal government officials in conflict with corrupt state government officials. I found it difficult to identify with any of the politically correct cast of characters. The evil secessionists and militia are crushed by deceptive and unconstitutional actions by the federal government (perhaps the author expects the reader to cheer for the federal agents). The author provides a generally "liberal" perspective that fails to examine the realities of the broken contract between the people and their federal government. A work of fiction provides an excellent platform to investigate the likely outcome of our country's experiment with a "living constitution." Unfortunately, this book failed to rise to the challenge. I had hoped to find a better work.

Rating:
Summary: Improbable, inaccurate, implausible, and shallow
Review: This subject had promise, but the book failed to deliver, big time. It is full of inaccuracies and rediculous scenarios. The author claimed to have researched it in Page, Arizona - but he apparently failed to realize that if he could look down on the lake from town, it was improbable that the water would run uphill several hundred feet to flood the town. In fact, the whole scenario of washing away a bunch of towns by opening Glen Canyon Dam is rediculous, as the Colorado River is almost entirely contained within canyon walls all the way to the next dam. He comes up with a really strange mixture of every hate group, the Mormon church, the French government, militias, left wing radicals, farmers, etc etc and pits them against a federal government that is apparently totally controlled by the Secretary of State. He seems to find it justified that the constitution is tossed out the window by the feds. There are dozens of minor but obvious inaccuracies that would have taken only a few seconds to check on the internet - M15 rifles (which never existed)is only one example. Several statements about "Pagenites" (a non existant term)and similar run throughout the book. The characters are shallow and every stereotype seems to be represented as common. I am still trying to figure out how the town of Page was evacuated by federal troops without anyone in the press noticing it - despite the fact that there are typically 50,000+ tourists there on the 4th of July weekend (he only encounters about 20, and the lake appears to be empty, despite the presence of 22,000 boats at the various marinas). In short, good only for an example of how bad a book can be.