Product Description

Arslan is a young Asian general who conquers the world in a week without firing a shot and shortly thereafter sets up his headquarters in a small town in Illinois. A masterpiece of political science fiction and a book to challenge such works as Ursula K. LeGuin's The Dispossessed, Arslan is a book that others are now measured against. "It's about fathers and sons, about power, about a genuinely ruthless (but not unfeeling) mind in pursuit of a practical solution to the world's problems." So M. J. Engh describes Arslan. This is a novel of power and depth that is unforgettable.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1526839 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
"This is wonderful and terrifying SF--terrifying because its premise, the takeover of the United States by a third-rate world power, is at once so preposterous and yet, in the hands of this highly skilled writer, so stupefyingly believable. Certainly "Arslan" is the best political novel I've read in more than a decade."--Samuel R. Delany
"Engh creates a truly shocking situation, introduces a monstrous character, and then refuses to satisfy any of the emotions he has aroused . . . Engh's performance is as perversely flawless as Arslan's."--"The New York Times"
""Arslan "is an astonishing novel--not just for its strange and uncompromising content, but as well for the unforgivable passing of a decade before its being published in a permanent edition. This phantasmagorical vision of an America occupied by a foreign power is a tour de force. It is shocking, chilling and thoughtful."--Edward Bryant
"Arslan's goal is not merely to conquer the world, but to destroy it. Just by chance, it seems, he has chosen a small Illinois town to be the capital of his all-embracing empire. Yet this is not really the tale of great world events. It all comes down to a handful of unforgettable men and women, whose pain and cruelty and compassion shine a spotlight on human nature. What makes Engh's novel extraordinary is her perfect understanding of power, how it grows out of the heat between people who hate and fear each other. Arslan makes Khomeini look wishy-washy, as he takes ordinary people and tears at them until they die, or become strong enough to be his rivals. "Arslan" starts with a strong science fiction premise--and then raises it to the level of the greatest tragedies. You will findsurprises almost from the start, as Engh shatters the tired cliches of the genre. And by the end of the book, exhausted and fulfilled, you will realize you have read something that stands head and shoulders above the other fiction of its time."--Orson Scott Card

Customer Reviews

Bad in almost every way
I bought this book from a recommendation in Orson Scott Card’s book ‘How to write Science Fiction and Fantasy’, along with another called Wild Seed. Card called it a masterpiece, and I presumed he was recommending it as an example of great science fiction. The central premise, that of a dictator taking over the entire world, I found fascinating.

My conclusion is that this book demonstrates the importance of reading those ‘How to’ books, for any aspiring author. It seems to me that this novel is an example of what can go wrong if you ignore advice on plot and characterisation.

For a start, it was boring. I struggled to get to the end, and I only persisted in the hope that it would reach some dramatic conclusion. It wasn’t even an anticlimax, the story just withered away to a sorry end. There just didn’t seem to be any plot, a reason to keep reading to find out what happens. I read with more interest at the start, to find out how Arslan took over the world. But even that was a pretty pathetic explanation.

The characters were interesting, but they often seemed to act out of character. The young lad musing on latin translations, for example. They often spoke to each other with cryptic comments, leaving me puzzled. Do these get explained later? Not that I could tell.

The worst of all is the way the author parades their literary credentials at almost every opportunity. Perhaps someone who is well read in Literature will find this interesting. I felt like I was stuck listening to a bore.

So I can only imagine that Orson Scott Card wants us to read this as an example of how it should not be done. It almost put me off reading the other book, which surprisingly turned out to be very good.