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The General's President
At last the generals were going to get their kind of President. At least that's what they thought...
The stock market crash of 1994 made 1929 look like a minor market adjustment...the rioters of the '90s made the Wobblies look like the country-club Republicans...the Vice President of the U.S. resigns in a cloud of scandal--and when the military hints that they may let the lynch mobs through anyway, the President resigns as well.
But the President must first propose a new chief executive to succeed him--one approved by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Thus the generals get to pick a President. Imagine their surprise when the President they pick turns out to be his own man...
The General's President
The stock market crash of 1994 made 1929 look like a minor market adjustment...the rioters of the '90s made the Wobblies look like the country-club Republicans...the Vice President of the U.S. resigns in a cloud of scandal--and when the military hints that they may let the lynch mobs through anyway, the President resigns as well.
But the President must first propose a new chief executive to succeed him--one approved by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Thus the generals get to pick a President. Imagine their surprise when the President they pick turns out to be his own man...
The General's President
- GenresFictionScience Fiction
420 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1988
6 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
John Dalmas
50 books33 followersJohn Dalmas—pseudonym for John Robert Jones—wrote many books based on military and governmental themes throughout his career. He grew up in Minnesota and Michigan and resided in Spokane, Washington. He was a parachute infantryman in WWII and was discharged in 1946 without ever being put seriously in harm's way. He has worked as a longshoreman, merchant seaman, logger, construction worker, and smokejumper. He attended Michigan State University, majoring in forestry, but also took creative writing.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 5, 2012
I see a lot of 4 and 5 star reviews of this book. It does not deserve them, it is a bad book.
I am very aware of when the book was written and my comments fully take that into account.
The author supposedly did a great deal of research prior to and during the writing of this book. Which is strange as it is not reflected in the actual book, which contains so many factual errors it is a disaster. The White House, Washington in general and the American political system, the USSR and it's military and intelligence systems, and general world politics, all have gross errors of fact which cannot be explained away as necessary to the book. The list is not exhaustive by the way! This is just bad writing, sloppy writing, from an author who should know better.
The book also has large tracts of polemic from the main character on how to improve America. If the author wanted to write a book of essays on how to improve matters then more power to him, I advise reading the non-fiction output of Harlan Ellison and Robert Heinlein for examples of how it can be done. But in a fiction book this should be undertaken either to move the plot forward or to improve our understanding of the character. Very little of the pontificating in the book does either.
And so to the actual story. Or rather four stories. The story of a man who has the Presidency of the USA thrust upon him at a time of national crisis, and how he deals with this in his personal life and how it changed him. The story of how America was dragged back from the brink of disaster. The story of an internal plot to turn America into an oligarchy. And the external plot of an USSR in disarray, lead by a madman, pulling the world into war. Behind that fourth plot is a bunch of scientific breakthroughs that turn this novel into a science fiction novel by the skin of its teeth, and some passing references to UFO's being real to explain away the breakthroughs, that are unnecessary and are taken nowhere. Again sloppy writing.
The problem is that looked at hard none of the plots are done particularly well. In order to cram everything in character development is poor, with most characters left hanging in mid air as the story veers elsewhere suddenly. Points are raised and then completely ignored. If taken out and looked at in isolation huge plot areas are brushed over in only 2 or 3 pages.
The sheer amount of plot in the book could fool you into thinking this was a good novel. And I admit that there are a lot of ideas here. Some even might be original! But good ideas do not make a good book. How you then deal with those ideas, how you structure the narrative, develop the ideas and the characters, build suspense and drag the reader from page to page, that makes a good book. And all of that is missing. How you deal with the plot and sub-plots to bring them all to a satisfactory conclusion (except for those signalled as giving you hooks for the sequel!), that makes a good book. And that is missing too, as none of the plots are really dealt with at any real depth.
I cannot recommend this book. The author has thrown it together, badly, and achieved nothing. A great disappointment.
I am very aware of when the book was written and my comments fully take that into account.
The author supposedly did a great deal of research prior to and during the writing of this book. Which is strange as it is not reflected in the actual book, which contains so many factual errors it is a disaster. The White House, Washington in general and the American political system, the USSR and it's military and intelligence systems, and general world politics, all have gross errors of fact which cannot be explained away as necessary to the book. The list is not exhaustive by the way! This is just bad writing, sloppy writing, from an author who should know better.
The book also has large tracts of polemic from the main character on how to improve America. If the author wanted to write a book of essays on how to improve matters then more power to him, I advise reading the non-fiction output of Harlan Ellison and Robert Heinlein for examples of how it can be done. But in a fiction book this should be undertaken either to move the plot forward or to improve our understanding of the character. Very little of the pontificating in the book does either.
And so to the actual story. Or rather four stories. The story of a man who has the Presidency of the USA thrust upon him at a time of national crisis, and how he deals with this in his personal life and how it changed him. The story of how America was dragged back from the brink of disaster. The story of an internal plot to turn America into an oligarchy. And the external plot of an USSR in disarray, lead by a madman, pulling the world into war. Behind that fourth plot is a bunch of scientific breakthroughs that turn this novel into a science fiction novel by the skin of its teeth, and some passing references to UFO's being real to explain away the breakthroughs, that are unnecessary and are taken nowhere. Again sloppy writing.
The problem is that looked at hard none of the plots are done particularly well. In order to cram everything in character development is poor, with most characters left hanging in mid air as the story veers elsewhere suddenly. Points are raised and then completely ignored. If taken out and looked at in isolation huge plot areas are brushed over in only 2 or 3 pages.
The sheer amount of plot in the book could fool you into thinking this was a good novel. And I admit that there are a lot of ideas here. Some even might be original! But good ideas do not make a good book. How you then deal with those ideas, how you structure the narrative, develop the ideas and the characters, build suspense and drag the reader from page to page, that makes a good book. And all of that is missing. How you deal with the plot and sub-plots to bring them all to a satisfactory conclusion (except for those signalled as giving you hooks for the sequel!), that makes a good book. And that is missing too, as none of the plots are really dealt with at any real depth.
I cannot recommend this book. The author has thrown it together, badly, and achieved nothing. A great disappointment.
July 24, 2022
I finished it so it can't be that bad? If I would have read it upon release (1988) when I was 21 I may have thought it was some groundbreaking stuff but as a 55 year old (2022) I had to chuckle at the over-simplilfied 'solutions' to problems. Nothing really felt 'solved' and almost every plot point would have been better expanded.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 7, 2012
I was a little unsure about this one in the begininng. I really had to talk myself into reading it. The more I read the I enjoy the novelty of a president who spoke his mind and actully got things done! He was exactly who he appreaded to be. An Honest Man. One of the best books I have read in a long time.
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February 25, 2012An interesting political commentary about a civil engineer who is chosen by a friend who is a US General to fill a vacant Vice President job and is then elevated to the office of the president. The book talks about what he does as president.
March 16, 2013
This book is well worth reading. It strikes very close to home given our present political climate. Unfortunately, I suspect that the processes described by the author would never be put into place because they can make too much sense.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews