The Holy Land [Paperback]

Adult/High School-A satiric tour de force. After the Minervan people are nearly wiped out in a distant war, the Western Galactic Empire generously grants them sanctuary in the Minervans' ancient homeland-Kennewick, WA. Unfortunately, the United States, a "Christian" theocracy, does not welcome the "pagans." Government authorities round up the former American inhabitants of Kennewick, isolate them in refugee camps, and teach their children to be martyrs in a propaganda war, assassinating Minervans and carrying the terror to distant planets. The advanced galactic civilizations are not without faults of their own, including an inability to respect Earthlings as equals. When a Minervan captures an American soldier for scientific observation, she is surprised to discover promising "protohuman" traits, while he learns that the Minervans are not quite the monsters he had believed them to be. And this is just the beginning as Zubrin holds up a mirror to the perpetual Middle East crisis, the current "War on Terror," and many aspects of humanity and modern life. In less-inspired hands, such an extended satiric treatment might pall, but the author fleshes out this novel of ideas with intriguing characters, delightful twists, skillful plotting, and, above all, humor-all kinds, and lots of it. The satire bites as satire should, but the story also satisfies. This is an engaging romantic fable of interspecies misunderstanding and discovery, and a grand adventure that takes readers all the way to the galaxy's highest court and back home again to a planet much in need of a fresh perspective.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Something like the subtlety of the Great Wall of China informs this satire on fundamentalism, the premise of which is that the alien Minervans, whose ancestral home is called Kennewick, have been relocated in the U.S. by the Western Galactic Empire, and the U.S. government is less than tolerant of these "pagans," who worship Minerva rather than the rest of the empire's triumvirate of goddesses. Ex-soldier Hamilton is a study specimen for Minervan scientist Aurora, who believes that earthlings might be protohuman. The U.S. government, with an eye to the highest profit, creates a huge refugee issue and recruits children as suicide bombers to create galactic sympathy for removing the Minervans. U.S. fanaticism doesn't make any friends, however, and when the U.S. blows up entire planets, the empire sends a fleet to deal with the Earth problem. The outcome could be disastrous, given superior empire firepower, but, fortunately, some earthlings (protohumans?) haven't fallen for the fundamentalist propaganda. Unfortunately, the yarn's satiric potential isn't always realized. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

To save the Minervans from oppression in the central galaxy, the liberal Western Galactic Empire relocates the sect to their ancient homeland of Kennewick, Washington. But for the fundamentalist fanatics ruling the USA, the presence of pagans in the holy city is intolerable, and they launch an interstellar campaign of destruction in protest. A madcap role-reversed War on Terrorism ensues.