This is the story of a group of left wing militants who try to take of the US with high tech weaponry.

This book was not very good. Card is a good writer, but this is not his best writing. The characters are static and unbelievable. It reads like a script to an action movie: it is fast paced and there is a lot of action.

Also, this book is fair and balanced like fox news. The left wing extreme in this book holds beliefs that only a small, unmobilized percentage of the population of America holds. The right wing extreme of this book is also, some what exaggerated, however they never take any action in the book. The war/uprising is entirely started and perpetrated by left wing militants. Also, the book openly states that the present administration are moderates who are widely supported. I am not going to claim that the present administration are right wing extremists, but they are hardly moderate, and they are also not widely supported, not now and not when this book was written and published.

This book makes excellent points about the political dialog in America today: people need to stop characterizing the other side as stupid or crazy just because they don't agree. There has been very little party cooperation lately, and that needs to improve. However, to deny that this book has a right leaning bias would be irresponsible.

I read this book because I like Orson Scott Card and thought this book looked interesting. Also, my Mom got it for me for Hanukkah.

1.5 stars. Easily my least favorite book by Card. It wasn't horrible but it also wasn't very good (so I rated it somewhere between "I didn't like it" and "it was ok" hence the 1.5 to 2.0 stars). The premise was interesting and one that I thought could have made into a really good story. Unfortunately, I think Card let his desire to write a "conservative-friendly" thriller get in the way of just telling a good story. I applaud the attempt but the execution was lacking.

I was really getting into it right before the big sifi reveal, up until then it’s a great who-done-it, who killed the president, who passed on the assassination plans that were cooked up in an effort to prevent terror? Who’s the traitor and what’s the truth? But when mechs and hover bikes and EMP lasers appear overnight in essentially modern day New York, its jarring and out of place and the real world becomes increasingly repulsive as it spins into what I can only assume is a complete caricature of both sides of the political spectrum. Although there is one big twist I didn’t see coming, the ending is linear and predictable a lot of big questions are left unanswered.

2 stars for the generals bad acting.

Ah, now that's what I'm talking about. I should have quit reading what I was reading before and switched to this book. It's intelligent political near-future sci-fi. I got a kick out of the references to other sci-fi / fantasy...