Greensword: A Tale of Extreme Global Warming [Hardcover]

Don Bingle is an excellent wordsmith who tugs at your emotions . . . anger, sadness, fear, and above all tickles your sense of humor. I fell in love with Zeke and Milo, and I enjoyed every page of the book. This tale has the potential to come true. But I hope not!

Thanks, Don, for giving me such an excellent read.

The overwhelming fact about GREENSWORD is that it will make you smile and laugh even as you turn each page wanting to find out what happens next. This is not by accident but rather is the intent and the talent of its author. Significantly, along the way, the dialogue and action will make you pause and think, "Huh," about your own opinions on global warning. With a deft hand, Bingle comes down evenly, challenging the cliches spoken by both sides of the issue, and does so not by being preachy, but through the action of the story that weaves in scientific fact to add to the author's respect for the reader and the story. With GREENSWORD's combination of humor and honest, intellectual challenge, this story accomplishes what books should accomplish: nutritious thought for the brain along with the sugar of pure fun. It doesn't hurt, either, that the focus of the book is also our society's current focus, and will be for decades to come. A special note - don't skip over the Acknowledgments section of the book or you'll miss part of the pleasure.

What if you had to save the planet? Not next century, not next decade, but now. What would you do? How far would you go?

A small environmental group, funded by a wealthy actor, is threatened by losing all their funding unless they do something NOW to stop global warming, so the actor's beachhouse doesn't slide into the ocean. There's only one plan that would work - but is it worth it?

GREENSWORD (subtitled "A Tale of Extreme Global Warming") explores this kind of fanaticism in a darkly funny - and appropriately horrific - kind of way. And risks pissing off a lot of people along the way. I'm going to take a look at the plot, the characters, and the philosophy of the book.

The plot is just intricate enough to keep it from being predictable, the pacing is spot-on. I found myself wanting to find out what happened next throughout the whole book. I really can't say more than that without spoilers; let's just sum up by saying that this book really could happen.

The main characters - the members of GreensWord - are only slightly exaggerated cariactures of some "socially conscious" media stars and activists. Zeke is a zealous (wannabe) leader fed up with the sellout lobbying environmentalists, Milo is fervently anti-capitalist (unless they make good first person shooters), and Brandon is very much the geeky number-crunching vegan environmentalist. They are to real environmentalists I've known like Beavis and Butthead were to my metalhead friends when I was growing up. And true to that comparison,
there's quite a bit of humor throughout. Some of it is through the characters, but there's also a few Easter eggs for the observant reader. I had more than a few LOL moments as I was reading.

The secondary characters really shine; we get to know quite a few other characters throughout the book. They're all quickly characterized - and done well enough that they're all distinct. There are no "extras" in this world. In many ways, I know as much about Dalton, Malbranche, Maggie, and unlucky Guiterrez as I do about Zeke, Brandon, and Milo.

And that might be the weakness of the book. Brandon is easily the most sympathetic of the protagonists, but not that's not saying much. I found myself more emotionally invested in the stories of the secondary characters - even ones that were "onscreen" for just a few pages - than in the members of GreenSword.

That also explains why I don't have as much of a problem with the philosophy of the book. In the acknowledgements, Mr. Bingle asks "Can you make fun of the guys on your side of the debate too?" I don't think the members of GreenSword *are* on my side of the debate; they're selfish people using the green movement for personal gain. In that way, they're just as bad as any corporate "greenwashing" campaign. For example, I saw a cafeteria recently reducing the number of napkins given to customers in order to "go green"... while still serving food on styrofoam plates. Canada made impossible commitments with the first round of Kyoto talks - thus making everyone question their level of real committment. This book is not a panacea to the "Drill Baby Drill" contingent either. I suspect Mr. Bingle would be easily capable of skewering the fallacies of their arguments as well.

Until he does so, I recommend the graphic novel _Concrete: Think Like a Mountain_ as an equally powerful counterpoint to GREENSWORD.

GREENSWORD serves as a cautionary tale of letting one's dogma get in the way of thinking things through. It is a darkly humorous, plot-driven book that can make you seriously think about the way you view the environment and environmentalism.

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