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Empire City
“Empire City is a dark, nimble book that pulls no punches. While the novel tracks an alternate historical reality, time and again I found myself taken aback at just how prescient and applicable its insight is to our very real present. Gallagher once again establishes himself as a preeminent voice in American writing.” —Sara Novic, award-winning author of Girl at War
“A brilliant and daring novel. Gallagher’s prose is sharp, energetic and witty, his characters are fiercely alive, and the cracked vision of America he creates is a monstrous thing of beauty.” —Phil Klay, award-winning author of Redeployment
The author of the “urgent and deeply moving” (The New York Times) Youngblood returns with this bold and provocative novel following a group of super-powered soldiers and civilians as they navigate an imperial America on the precipice of a major upheaval—for fans of The Fortress of Solitude and The Plot Against America.
Thirty years after its great triumph in Vietnam, the United States has again become mired in an endless foreign war overseas. Stories of super soldiers known as the Volunteers tuck in little American boys and girls every night. Yet domestic politics are aflame. Violent protests erupt throughout the nation; an ex-military watchdog group clashes with police while radical terrorists threaten to expose government experiments within the veteran rehabilitation colonies.
Halfway between war and peace, the Volunteers find themselves waiting for orders in the vast American city-state, Empire City. There they encounter a small group of civilians who know the truth about their powers, including Sebastian Rios, a young bureaucrat wrestling with survivor guilt, and Mia Tucker, a wounded army pilot-turned-Wall Street banker. Meanwhile, Jean-Jacques Saint-Preux, a Haitian-American Volunteer from the International Legion, decides he’ll do whatever it takes to return to the front lines.
Through it all, a controversial retired general emerges as a frontrunner in the presidential campaign, promising to save the country from itself. Her election would mean unprecedented military control over the country, with promises of security and stability—but at what cost?
Featuring Gallagher’s “vital” (The Washington Post), “evocative” (The Wall Street Journal) prose, Empire City is a rousing vision of an alternate—yet all too familiar—America on the brink.
“A brilliant and daring novel. Gallagher’s prose is sharp, energetic and witty, his characters are fiercely alive, and the cracked vision of America he creates is a monstrous thing of beauty.” —Phil Klay, award-winning author of Redeployment
The author of the “urgent and deeply moving” (The New York Times) Youngblood returns with this bold and provocative novel following a group of super-powered soldiers and civilians as they navigate an imperial America on the precipice of a major upheaval—for fans of The Fortress of Solitude and The Plot Against America.
Thirty years after its great triumph in Vietnam, the United States has again become mired in an endless foreign war overseas. Stories of super soldiers known as the Volunteers tuck in little American boys and girls every night. Yet domestic politics are aflame. Violent protests erupt throughout the nation; an ex-military watchdog group clashes with police while radical terrorists threaten to expose government experiments within the veteran rehabilitation colonies.
Halfway between war and peace, the Volunteers find themselves waiting for orders in the vast American city-state, Empire City. There they encounter a small group of civilians who know the truth about their powers, including Sebastian Rios, a young bureaucrat wrestling with survivor guilt, and Mia Tucker, a wounded army pilot-turned-Wall Street banker. Meanwhile, Jean-Jacques Saint-Preux, a Haitian-American Volunteer from the International Legion, decides he’ll do whatever it takes to return to the front lines.
Through it all, a controversial retired general emerges as a frontrunner in the presidential campaign, promising to save the country from itself. Her election would mean unprecedented military control over the country, with promises of security and stability—but at what cost?
Featuring Gallagher’s “vital” (The Washington Post), “evocative” (The Wall Street Journal) prose, Empire City is a rousing vision of an alternate—yet all too familiar—America on the brink.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published April 28, 2020
24 people are currently reading
1298 people want to read
About the author
Matt Gallagher
14 books152 followersMatt Gallagher is a US Army veteran and the author of four books, including the novels Youngblood and Daybreak. His work has appeared in Esquire, ESPN, The New York Times, The Paris Review, and Wired, among other places. A graduate of Wake Forest and Columbia, he is the recipient of the Tulsa Artist Fellowship, a Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference Fellowship, a Sewanee Writers’ Conference Fellowship, and was selected as the 2022 Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum Writer-in-Residence. He lives with his family in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
January 26, 2020
Empire City
I read Gallagher’s first two books and enjoyed them. His 1st, Kaboom: Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War, is a nonfiction account of his time serving in Iraq and his 2nd, Youngblood, is a fictional story set in Iraq and reminiscent of the movie, Platoon. This one is a definite change of pace. It's an alternate history, one of those “What if” stories that imagines how the world would be different if certain past events had a decidedly different outcome. Often, alternate history tales are big and bold: the Axis powers won WWII (The Man in the High Castle) or the asteroid that took out the dinosaurs never collided with Earth (West of Eden). They’re fun house mirrors that distort the here and now into something unrecognizable. Gallagher doesn’t go for anything that big and bold here. If you were to wake up one morning in this world, it would be awhile before you realized that things had changed. The divergence appears to have happened in the late 60’s where, like some Roger Stone wet dream, Nixon was never impeached. In fact, he won a 3rd term and went on to win the war in Viet Nam by making a secret deal with the Chinese. Yet present day America is still involved in military conflicts around the globe, including a decade’s long war on terror caused by a terrorist attack on Palm Sunday instead of 9-11. If anything, the military conflicts are more extensive in this world, with references to a Mediterranean War and military conflicts in over 20 countries.
Gallagher spends a lot of time setting things up and introducing his characters in the first 1/3 or more of the novel and, honestly, that’s one of the novel’s weaknesses. The pace dragged and I was close to shelving the book as Gallagher brought his characters on stage and sprinkled enough references to past events to give a back-story to what was happening. The set up goes on too long. The reader wades through 8 chapters and about 130 pages before the story takes off. In addition, it’s hard to incorporate history lessons into a story without some degree of awkwardness and that awkwardness plagues the early portions of the novel.
Did I mention yet that there are superheroes in the book? After an experimental bomb went off on a military mission, the five survivors each gained a super power. To some extent, the book reminds me of HBO’s Watchmen. There’s even a domestic terrorist group that plays a major role. However, in the novel, the terrorists are bitter and disillusioned vets instead of white supremacists. There is something of a mystery as to why those five people gained their super powers and it’s probably not much of a spoiler to say that a government conspiracy is at the heart of it. The powers themselves are relatively mundane (for super powers). There’s super strength, super speed, teleportation, flight, and invisibility. Not that I wanted something that read like a novelization of an Avengers’ movie, but for a book with superheroes, there’s not much superhero action in the novel. Saying someone can teleport and never actually having him teleport just makes it seem like an odd quirk instead of a superpower. It’s like someone mentioning in passing that they can tap dance and you think “well, that’s different” and then don’t think anything else about it.
After the long set up, the novel turns into a political thriller with several conspiracies and twists along the way. There is also an element of satire in the novel, but it isn’t as sharp as I would have liked. The second half of the book is better and I became more engaged in the story and where Gallagher was going with it. He is a good writer and did a great job of creating fully realized characters. There's a lot going on in the novel and not all of it is handled successfully.
I read Gallagher’s first two books and enjoyed them. His 1st, Kaboom: Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War, is a nonfiction account of his time serving in Iraq and his 2nd, Youngblood, is a fictional story set in Iraq and reminiscent of the movie, Platoon. This one is a definite change of pace. It's an alternate history, one of those “What if” stories that imagines how the world would be different if certain past events had a decidedly different outcome. Often, alternate history tales are big and bold: the Axis powers won WWII (The Man in the High Castle) or the asteroid that took out the dinosaurs never collided with Earth (West of Eden). They’re fun house mirrors that distort the here and now into something unrecognizable. Gallagher doesn’t go for anything that big and bold here. If you were to wake up one morning in this world, it would be awhile before you realized that things had changed. The divergence appears to have happened in the late 60’s where, like some Roger Stone wet dream, Nixon was never impeached. In fact, he won a 3rd term and went on to win the war in Viet Nam by making a secret deal with the Chinese. Yet present day America is still involved in military conflicts around the globe, including a decade’s long war on terror caused by a terrorist attack on Palm Sunday instead of 9-11. If anything, the military conflicts are more extensive in this world, with references to a Mediterranean War and military conflicts in over 20 countries.
Gallagher spends a lot of time setting things up and introducing his characters in the first 1/3 or more of the novel and, honestly, that’s one of the novel’s weaknesses. The pace dragged and I was close to shelving the book as Gallagher brought his characters on stage and sprinkled enough references to past events to give a back-story to what was happening. The set up goes on too long. The reader wades through 8 chapters and about 130 pages before the story takes off. In addition, it’s hard to incorporate history lessons into a story without some degree of awkwardness and that awkwardness plagues the early portions of the novel.
Did I mention yet that there are superheroes in the book? After an experimental bomb went off on a military mission, the five survivors each gained a super power. To some extent, the book reminds me of HBO’s Watchmen. There’s even a domestic terrorist group that plays a major role. However, in the novel, the terrorists are bitter and disillusioned vets instead of white supremacists. There is something of a mystery as to why those five people gained their super powers and it’s probably not much of a spoiler to say that a government conspiracy is at the heart of it. The powers themselves are relatively mundane (for super powers). There’s super strength, super speed, teleportation, flight, and invisibility. Not that I wanted something that read like a novelization of an Avengers’ movie, but for a book with superheroes, there’s not much superhero action in the novel. Saying someone can teleport and never actually having him teleport just makes it seem like an odd quirk instead of a superpower. It’s like someone mentioning in passing that they can tap dance and you think “well, that’s different” and then don’t think anything else about it.
After the long set up, the novel turns into a political thriller with several conspiracies and twists along the way. There is also an element of satire in the novel, but it isn’t as sharp as I would have liked. The second half of the book is better and I became more engaged in the story and where Gallagher was going with it. He is a good writer and did a great job of creating fully realized characters. There's a lot going on in the novel and not all of it is handled successfully.
May 30, 2020
So many thoughts on this one... I didn't love it, but I enjoyed it ... and it raises a lot of interesting, critically important, potentially thought-provoking social issues.
Service, the military, the draft, citizenship, forever wars, government credibility (and transparency), post-tramautic stress disorder (PTSD) and TBI (traumatic brain injury), public responsibility to our veterans, duty, sacrifice, etc... and that's all before you get to the superhero sub-theme, which, frankly, for this reader, was the least interesting (and least developed) aspect of the book, and I'm a massive superhero, graphic novel, comic novelization consumer....
OK, lemme get my (unique, individual) critiques out of the way. I think my primary criticisms here were that (1) the prose didn't sing. It was sufficiently workmanlike, and no doubt competent, but it didn't sing... Hmm, by analogy, this was more Lee Child (Jack Reacher) and less Tana French (Dublin Murder Squad) or Jamie Lee Burke (Dave Robicheaux) .... (2) none of the characters fully animated for me ... I know, I know, it was a superhero novel, but I've read enough superhero novelizations to want more from character development; and (3) given the (more than adequate) pacing, I could have easily dealt with another 50-100 pages to flesh any number (let's say at least three) of the sub-plots that ultimately became loose ends....
As for the more positive, I love the themes that book introduces ... even if, in the end, they weren't fully fleshed out (at least to my mind).... Then again, I'm a veteran, the son of a veteran, whose professional life intersects with the military, and I read a lot of military-related stuff.
Let's start with the elephant in the room. It's 2020, and it's a crime ... seriously, ... it is just plain wrong ... it's unacceptable that, from 2006-2016, there were more than 6,000 Veteran suicides each year, averaging 17 Veteran suicides every day. If you haven't read David Finkel's powerful Thank You For Your Service, that's a good place to start.... While I have little idea what the author was really after, I applaud any effort to get our government, elected officials, and the public to think more about what our obligations are to our veterans (and those that support them - side note: we take better care of our veterans than we do of the contractors that support them, even if they take similar risks and suffer similar fates, but I digress....)
Also, in a nation where an unrepentant draft dodger is president, and military service is much less common, ... and too many Americans don't even know someone who serves or has served ... what it means to serve ... and who serves (and, frankly, who doesn't or who doesn't have to) is a significant issue. At least the federal government is re-thinking our approach to this issue... See, for example: The National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service, at https://inspire2serve.gov/ .... Along those lines, classic sci-fi aficionados will hear powerful echos from Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Scalzi's Old Man's War - and, if you're unfamiliar with them, one of the themes is that citizenship is tied to service (far more directly than in our current experience).
As alternative histories go, this was interesting but, I have to admit, the alternative history (TV show) within the alternative history (novel) was a bit much for me. But that's a minor point.
Glad I read it.
Service, the military, the draft, citizenship, forever wars, government credibility (and transparency), post-tramautic stress disorder (PTSD) and TBI (traumatic brain injury), public responsibility to our veterans, duty, sacrifice, etc... and that's all before you get to the superhero sub-theme, which, frankly, for this reader, was the least interesting (and least developed) aspect of the book, and I'm a massive superhero, graphic novel, comic novelization consumer....
OK, lemme get my (unique, individual) critiques out of the way. I think my primary criticisms here were that (1) the prose didn't sing. It was sufficiently workmanlike, and no doubt competent, but it didn't sing... Hmm, by analogy, this was more Lee Child (Jack Reacher) and less Tana French (Dublin Murder Squad) or Jamie Lee Burke (Dave Robicheaux) .... (2) none of the characters fully animated for me ... I know, I know, it was a superhero novel, but I've read enough superhero novelizations to want more from character development; and (3) given the (more than adequate) pacing, I could have easily dealt with another 50-100 pages to flesh any number (let's say at least three) of the sub-plots that ultimately became loose ends....
As for the more positive, I love the themes that book introduces ... even if, in the end, they weren't fully fleshed out (at least to my mind).... Then again, I'm a veteran, the son of a veteran, whose professional life intersects with the military, and I read a lot of military-related stuff.
Let's start with the elephant in the room. It's 2020, and it's a crime ... seriously, ... it is just plain wrong ... it's unacceptable that, from 2006-2016, there were more than 6,000 Veteran suicides each year, averaging 17 Veteran suicides every day. If you haven't read David Finkel's powerful Thank You For Your Service, that's a good place to start.... While I have little idea what the author was really after, I applaud any effort to get our government, elected officials, and the public to think more about what our obligations are to our veterans (and those that support them - side note: we take better care of our veterans than we do of the contractors that support them, even if they take similar risks and suffer similar fates, but I digress....)
Also, in a nation where an unrepentant draft dodger is president, and military service is much less common, ... and too many Americans don't even know someone who serves or has served ... what it means to serve ... and who serves (and, frankly, who doesn't or who doesn't have to) is a significant issue. At least the federal government is re-thinking our approach to this issue... See, for example: The National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service, at https://inspire2serve.gov/ .... Along those lines, classic sci-fi aficionados will hear powerful echos from Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Scalzi's Old Man's War - and, if you're unfamiliar with them, one of the themes is that citizenship is tied to service (far more directly than in our current experience).
As alternative histories go, this was interesting but, I have to admit, the alternative history (TV show) within the alternative history (novel) was a bit much for me. But that's a minor point.
Glad I read it.
May 6, 2020
About five chapters into Matt Gallagher’s Empire City, I set aside my Kindle and took a breath, and in that moment concluded this brilliant sci-fi / alternate history / political thriller was the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) era’s Watchmen. Maybe it’s the Seven Days In May, too.
At that point I broke my own rule of not recommending a book before finishing it, and tweeted out a suggestion for everyone and anyone to pick it up. Empire City clicked for me on several levels: as a fast-paced and twisty thriller with interesting and well-drawn characters, some who are super-powered; as a cautionary tale about the importance of history; and as an introspective examination of the military-civilian divide through the lens of veterans of the ‘Forever Wars.’
The latter was fascinating to me because having retired from active duty about a year after 9/11, I am as far removed from today’s vets as I was from the Vietnam veterans still serving when I first enlisted in 1982. The history you live certainly affects your perception. My generation was born into the Cold War, knowing we could be nuked to ash at any moment. We also watched the Vietnam War on our TV sets every night at dinnertime, and later the Watergate hearings pre-empted our regular programming. No wonder we drifted a bit in the 70s, turning inward and away from the institutions our parents had put so much faith in. In due course the 80s followed, a decade of rampant materialism well described by the movie line “Greed is good.”
In Empire City, we don’t give up the fight in Vietnam, finally winning the war in 1981 when the “International Legion” (a way for non-Americans to earn US citizenship through military service) helps capture Hanoi. The Watergate break-in either doesn’t occur or doesn’t lead back to Nixon, who in turn is succeeded in the White House by his VP, Nelson Rockefeller. Warfare is a constant, including a simmering insurgency in the north of Vietnam, which has become an American Territory.
Mr. Gallagher posits these ‘what if’ scenarios and then fills in what second- and third-order consequences may entail, creating a fascinating ‘mirror universe’ America where the often-trite “thank you for your service” heard by every veteran at one time or another is replaced by “Praise to the Victors” and “America honors the Warfighter” (to which the only proper response is “The honor is ours.”)
The America of Empire City bears a frightening resemblance to any number of authoritarian states, right down to the reeducation camps (here called rehabilitation colonies) where ‘troubled’ vets are sent by the order of tribunals. That so many of the younger characters in the book don’t realize how far wrong things have become isn’t a reflection of their goodness or badness; they are merely the product of the history they’ve lived, a history written (or re-written as necessary) by the victors.
You know that fable about how to cook a frog? How you can’t just throw the frog into boiling water because it’ll just jump out? Instead, you put the frog in tepid water and then slowly raise the heat; by the time the frog realizes the water is boiling, it’s too late. Those frogs are the citizens and Warfighters of Empire City: for the most part blissfully unaware they’ve been cooked during the long slide into something less than democracy.
Empire City is an exceptional book. Enjoy it as simply fiction, if you prefer, or delve into the ideas and concepts. There is much to consider, to ponder, and comparisons to present day are inevitable. And unsettling, to say the least.
At that point I broke my own rule of not recommending a book before finishing it, and tweeted out a suggestion for everyone and anyone to pick it up. Empire City clicked for me on several levels: as a fast-paced and twisty thriller with interesting and well-drawn characters, some who are super-powered; as a cautionary tale about the importance of history; and as an introspective examination of the military-civilian divide through the lens of veterans of the ‘Forever Wars.’
The latter was fascinating to me because having retired from active duty about a year after 9/11, I am as far removed from today’s vets as I was from the Vietnam veterans still serving when I first enlisted in 1982. The history you live certainly affects your perception. My generation was born into the Cold War, knowing we could be nuked to ash at any moment. We also watched the Vietnam War on our TV sets every night at dinnertime, and later the Watergate hearings pre-empted our regular programming. No wonder we drifted a bit in the 70s, turning inward and away from the institutions our parents had put so much faith in. In due course the 80s followed, a decade of rampant materialism well described by the movie line “Greed is good.”
In Empire City, we don’t give up the fight in Vietnam, finally winning the war in 1981 when the “International Legion” (a way for non-Americans to earn US citizenship through military service) helps capture Hanoi. The Watergate break-in either doesn’t occur or doesn’t lead back to Nixon, who in turn is succeeded in the White House by his VP, Nelson Rockefeller. Warfare is a constant, including a simmering insurgency in the north of Vietnam, which has become an American Territory.
Mr. Gallagher posits these ‘what if’ scenarios and then fills in what second- and third-order consequences may entail, creating a fascinating ‘mirror universe’ America where the often-trite “thank you for your service” heard by every veteran at one time or another is replaced by “Praise to the Victors” and “America honors the Warfighter” (to which the only proper response is “The honor is ours.”)
The America of Empire City bears a frightening resemblance to any number of authoritarian states, right down to the reeducation camps (here called rehabilitation colonies) where ‘troubled’ vets are sent by the order of tribunals. That so many of the younger characters in the book don’t realize how far wrong things have become isn’t a reflection of their goodness or badness; they are merely the product of the history they’ve lived, a history written (or re-written as necessary) by the victors.
You know that fable about how to cook a frog? How you can’t just throw the frog into boiling water because it’ll just jump out? Instead, you put the frog in tepid water and then slowly raise the heat; by the time the frog realizes the water is boiling, it’s too late. Those frogs are the citizens and Warfighters of Empire City: for the most part blissfully unaware they’ve been cooked during the long slide into something less than democracy.
Empire City is an exceptional book. Enjoy it as simply fiction, if you prefer, or delve into the ideas and concepts. There is much to consider, to ponder, and comparisons to present day are inevitable. And unsettling, to say the least.
November 16, 2019
I love sci-fi and futuristic storytelling. Empire City was a little closer to reality than most, creating a bit of a mind-f*ck for me. This book to longer than usual for me to get into; in fact, I had decided to give it 10-20 more pages then call it good. And something happened. It clicked all of a sudden and I could hardly put it down. Once I got into it, I was in 100%. It is an alternate look at a pretty effed up world not so far from the one we live in, and a few people who are still fighting to do the right thing, secret superpowers and all.
November 11, 2019
Fair warning: I won a free ARC of this book in a Goodreads giveaway.
Hmmmm … how to approach this? This book is almost more about the setting than the story. Yes, there is a story: the Volunteers gained superhuman abilities during a hostage rescue mission during which an experimental cythrax explosive device was detonated. They're currently on leave--awaiting orders--in Empire City, and start to get drawn into a web of events involving an aspiring presidential candidate …
The characters and the plot are interesting, sure, but what I found most fascinating was the world that Gallagher has created. It's an America similar to our own, but with stronger military overtones. Events are set during 2011, the 30th anniversary of America’s victory in the Vietnam War. The US flag has sixty stars. Empire City is essentially New York--there are references to the Flatiron building, Wall Street, and a rusted, falling apart Statue of Liberty among others. There is a popular TV series, Utopia, which seems to be about events from the late 60's, but OUR timeline. Of course, in the book, it's perceived as fiction ...
It's a fascinating exercise in world building, and I’m fairly certain that that's what's going to linger in my memory long after the characters and the story have faded. Recommended!
Hmmmm … how to approach this? This book is almost more about the setting than the story. Yes, there is a story: the Volunteers gained superhuman abilities during a hostage rescue mission during which an experimental cythrax explosive device was detonated. They're currently on leave--awaiting orders--in Empire City, and start to get drawn into a web of events involving an aspiring presidential candidate …
The characters and the plot are interesting, sure, but what I found most fascinating was the world that Gallagher has created. It's an America similar to our own, but with stronger military overtones. Events are set during 2011, the 30th anniversary of America’s victory in the Vietnam War. The US flag has sixty stars. Empire City is essentially New York--there are references to the Flatiron building, Wall Street, and a rusted, falling apart Statue of Liberty among others. There is a popular TV series, Utopia, which seems to be about events from the late 60's, but OUR timeline. Of course, in the book, it's perceived as fiction ...
It's a fascinating exercise in world building, and I’m fairly certain that that's what's going to linger in my memory long after the characters and the story have faded. Recommended!
November 9, 2019
Was really surprised by this novel. It hit the vibes of the Watchmen while feeling very modern. It touched on very relevant topics. Such as America being mired in an endless war overseas, and the glorification of war as a way controlling the population (that's what I took away anyways). Gallagher also sheds light on how America is built on fighting wars, but wants hides the returning warriors in rehabilitation centers, and away from the civilians. All of the characters felt realistic, even with being imbued with super powers.
This novel could have easily gone off the rails with a bunch of military jargon, and over the top action. But Gallagher does a wonderful job keeping this novel grounded in it's reality. It takes a bit o understand what is happening in this world. But the pacing and storyline unfolds in such a way that i never felt lost on what was going on. Would love to see more of this universe that Gallagher has created.
This novel could have easily gone off the rails with a bunch of military jargon, and over the top action. But Gallagher does a wonderful job keeping this novel grounded in it's reality. It takes a bit o understand what is happening in this world. But the pacing and storyline unfolds in such a way that i never felt lost on what was going on. Would love to see more of this universe that Gallagher has created.
May 27, 2020
EMPIRE CITY brilliantly tackles one of the most important questions today in American society: the role of the military. That Matt Gallagher does so with irony and great imagination makes this book entertaining and essential reading for everybody from genre sci-fi readers to civ-mil scholars.
June 3, 2020
Whenever there's a book requiring a lot of worldbuilding, you tend to get a lot of reviews saying too much time is spent on it. The alternative is "not enough worldbuilding, it was confusing." I think Gallagher found a good balance here. He introduced the world and characters before getting into the meat of the story. It's an excellent Alternate History-slash-superhero story. I thought the powers were used really well. Think HBO's Watchmen mixed with Amazon's The Boys for the range of how people treat their superhero-ness. Powers were used, or not, they were just part of the fabric of the story.
November 30, 2020
I loved Youngblood so much, but Empire City left me disappointed.
It's a quasi-dystopian novel, more of a "reimagined history" than straight 1984. There are also superheroes, which is okay--but maybe weird, especially since their powers weren't fully explored or explained.
Ultimately, the book had the makings of something interesting, but it never sprouted wings for me. The writing that I loved in Youngblood just wasn't here. Instead, the story felt preachy, kinda scattered, and a little boring, honestly.
It's a quasi-dystopian novel, more of a "reimagined history" than straight 1984. There are also superheroes, which is okay--but maybe weird, especially since their powers weren't fully explored or explained.
Ultimately, the book had the makings of something interesting, but it never sprouted wings for me. The writing that I loved in Youngblood just wasn't here. Instead, the story felt preachy, kinda scattered, and a little boring, honestly.
November 16, 2019
Full disclosure: I received a free ARC from a Goodreads giveaway.
At a glance, "Empire City" shows powerful shades of George R. R. Martin's "Wildcards" anthologies. Both books use alternate history to re-contextualize superheroes. While "Wildcards" focuses on the birth of superhumans post-WWII, "Empire City" shows the birth of superhumans following an American victory in Vietnam - and the results are fascinating. Without a stinging loss in South Asia, America has developed into the eponymous Empire City, a sprawling, imperialistic city-state.
Gallagher's world-building is top-notch, reinforced by clever bits of in-world media and propaganda sprinkled between the chapters. Similarly, his characters are all troubled individuals affected by Empire City in different ways - and desperately trying to find their role within it. Therein lies Empire City's one issue - each one of said characters are interesting in their own right, but at just over 300 pages, their individual narratives feel uneven. While each protagonist certainly has an arc, they ultimately feel outdone by a larger character - the atmosphere and culture of Gallagher's world itself.
I certainly can't wait to read more of Gallagher's work. I'd definitely would like to see more stories set within Empire City itself. Despite its flaws, Empire City has a sprawling amount of potential not unlike Martin's own "Wildcards" anthologies.
At a glance, "Empire City" shows powerful shades of George R. R. Martin's "Wildcards" anthologies. Both books use alternate history to re-contextualize superheroes. While "Wildcards" focuses on the birth of superhumans post-WWII, "Empire City" shows the birth of superhumans following an American victory in Vietnam - and the results are fascinating. Without a stinging loss in South Asia, America has developed into the eponymous Empire City, a sprawling, imperialistic city-state.
Gallagher's world-building is top-notch, reinforced by clever bits of in-world media and propaganda sprinkled between the chapters. Similarly, his characters are all troubled individuals affected by Empire City in different ways - and desperately trying to find their role within it. Therein lies Empire City's one issue - each one of said characters are interesting in their own right, but at just over 300 pages, their individual narratives feel uneven. While each protagonist certainly has an arc, they ultimately feel outdone by a larger character - the atmosphere and culture of Gallagher's world itself.
I certainly can't wait to read more of Gallagher's work. I'd definitely would like to see more stories set within Empire City itself. Despite its flaws, Empire City has a sprawling amount of potential not unlike Martin's own "Wildcards" anthologies.
November 2, 2019
A cool fusion of 1984 and Watch Men,this novel represents a big step forward for Matt Gallagher. I've been following the "new veteran" writers for a few years now, and Gallagher always struck me as having a lot of potential: big ideas and more willing to take chances than some of his peers.
Empire City breaks through. It is a strange, thrilling trip to an alternate United States, different enough from ours that you want to learn about it but still similar enough you can see it all happening. The best character is the Wall Street banker Mia Tucker, who used to be a veteran and lost a leg in a helicopter crash. Another good one is the maybe good, maybe bad General Collins, who wants to be President. This book is a slow burn, starts off good, gets better, then finishes with a wallop.
Getting away from "reality" seems to have freed Gallagher up to tell the story his way. Highly recommended.
Empire City breaks through. It is a strange, thrilling trip to an alternate United States, different enough from ours that you want to learn about it but still similar enough you can see it all happening. The best character is the Wall Street banker Mia Tucker, who used to be a veteran and lost a leg in a helicopter crash. Another good one is the maybe good, maybe bad General Collins, who wants to be President. This book is a slow burn, starts off good, gets better, then finishes with a wallop.
Getting away from "reality" seems to have freed Gallagher up to tell the story his way. Highly recommended.
February 1, 2020
All I’m going to say here is that if you’re a fan of The books/movies Man in the High Castle, The Boys, Watchmen, Avengers, and Dark Knight, then you are going to want to pick up a copy when it publishes.
February 25, 2020
**won this via Goodreads giveways**
Maybe a 3.5
Solid, interesting characters. I enjoyed jumping from different points of view. However, I was disappointed in the ending. I'm slightly confused.
Maybe a 3.5
Solid, interesting characters. I enjoyed jumping from different points of view. However, I was disappointed in the ending. I'm slightly confused.
June 5, 2020
In "Empire City," Matt Gallagher asks an interesting question: what would America be like if it had won the Vietnam War? Unfortunately, his answer is kind of boring. He makes the obvious if entirely believable choice that the US would become a hyper-militarized society, and allows the reader to figure out why a 1981 triumph in Hanoi would have meant River Phoenix, Tupac Shakur and Lehman Brothers would have survived deep into the 21st Century. I was enjoying the lack of exposition until page 100 or so, when four of the main characters sit around debating the history of the previous three decades, as if Mr. Gallagher didn't want to risk confusing readers who wondered why there was a Nixon Memorial and a Kissinger Square. (Cute touches, but they fall a little flat.) There's also the fact that at this point in his career, Mr. Gallagher is much better at characters and atmosphere than he is at plot, or at least the kind of thriller plot he attempts here. When his characters are wandering through the uncanny valley that is the re-christened New York City in this parallel universe, it's riveting: you see through their eyes, you hear with their ears. When he involves these characters in a sinister conspiracy to elect an ambitious lady General to the Presidency, it's silly: the three central characters all have . . . man, this is painful . . . superpowers thanks to a bomb fueled by radioactive material from another planet. (Almost no exposition on that bit of speculation, and it could have used someone.) It's as if DC Comics bought the rights to "The Manchurian Candidate" instead of Frank Sinatra (who was Vice-President at one point in Mr. Gallagher's world. Now, a little exposition there could have been funny). A disappointing book from a talented writer.
June 13, 2020
Quite an undertaking to create a new world from scratch. A truly unique concept, and a take on the superhero genre that rings original. Let’s start with the things Gallagher gets right. He nails America veteran culture, especially the one that exists here in 2020 in social media, politics, and pop culture. Not too hard to see the world through his eyes as self-styled masters of the actual, IRL veteran universe become characters that pop off the page. He creates a mirror NYC, with slight of hand applied to the alternate reality the book is set in. Some have complained that the book spends too much time in character development. There are quite a few, to be certain. I could have used so much more time for him to create a new world. He does some explaining with pages created as found documents or excerpts from manuals and literature from the new reality of the future. Many scenes felt like loose disjointed framework at times or an unfinished scene and I certainly wanted more time for them to develop. The book’s finale ends somewhat abruptly and without clear explanation. In the end, I really liked the characters and just wanted to spend more time with each of them.
October 13, 2021
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. On the surface, Empire City is an entertaining read set in an alternate future where the U.S. won the war in Vietnam (and kept on warring) and super soldiers are a reality. But underneath, you pick up the author's dark undertones and subtle (and sometimes not subtle) nudges that perhaps we're not so far from this reality after all, with our perpetual state of conflict in the Middle East or the lip-service paid to veterans without addressing their true needs. Empire City feels like it's half entertainment and half cautionary tale. Gallagher's descriptions of Empire City are vivid and detailed which lend to the book's authenticity, along with his first-hand knowledge of the inner workings of the military. Readers will also enjoy picking up on fabricated "new history" and pop culture facts sprinkled throughout the book. SPOILER ALERT: River Phenoix is still alive and Frank Sinatra is a former President!
Highly recommend this book!
Highly recommend this book!
November 24, 2020
The first thing I think to note about this book is that it took a while to get going, it took a while for it to feel like things were happening, and then they happened all at once rapidly and then the book was over. Which, I suppose, could be a personal choice. Hurry up and wait and all that, but it was also frustrating because the first half of the book sometimes felt like a slog.
That's not to say that I didn't enjoy it though, because I really did. I just don't entirely know how I feel about it now that I have finished it. Technically speaking, maybe it could have been a little bit better. Despite taking so long to explore its characters, I often didn't understand why they made the decisions they made, which was also frustrating.
That's not to say that I didn't enjoy it though, because I really did. I just don't entirely know how I feel about it now that I have finished it. Technically speaking, maybe it could have been a little bit better. Despite taking so long to explore its characters, I often didn't understand why they made the decisions they made, which was also frustrating.
July 18, 2020
If you like superheroes, and you like the military, and you like counterfactual history—if, in other words, you like being transported into another world—you'll love Empire City, by Mat Gallagher. A biting critque of our own culture, seen through the prism of a world where super-powers are possible, Empire City describes an America that sank into oligarchic capitalism or perhaps fascism sometime in the 1970s, and has been coasting ever since. It's not pretty—but also, remarkably similar to the America of today.
Gallagher is a great writer, and he's written a fun book. Read it!
Gallagher is a great writer, and he's written a fun book. Read it!
September 3, 2020
Empire City is a plausible look at an unapologetically imperialist United States, complete with state-approved media releases and 10 new states strewn across both oceans. Everything seems to run back to a 1981 victory in Vietnam, after the loss of hundreds of thousands, in a war remembered not as a political and military failure but a might victory for the forces of democracy. Repeated images of an American flag with sixty stars in the Union is chilling enough to give this novel an air not just of plausible dystopia but an overt call to think about what could have been.
February 5, 2023
Empire City by Matt Gallagher
This was an excellent novel. It was so good that I "read" it in combination of audible and hardcover. I couldn't get enough of these superior/super characters as they tried to navigate the new lives they didn't ask for. The addition of the fictional TV universe in Utopia was an added benefit. I dropped a star because there were a few editing issues that didn't make sense to me, even in the audible. But I will think of this, and its open ending, often. I have never wanted a sequel more.
This was an excellent novel. It was so good that I "read" it in combination of audible and hardcover. I couldn't get enough of these superior/super characters as they tried to navigate the new lives they didn't ask for. The addition of the fictional TV universe in Utopia was an added benefit. I dropped a star because there were a few editing issues that didn't make sense to me, even in the audible. But I will think of this, and its open ending, often. I have never wanted a sequel more.
July 29, 2020
One of the best works about contemporary American war culture in years. Gallagher's eye for the relationship between the military and American society is unmatched in this novel, and it's a touch ironic that the alternate history timeline feels so chillingly relevant. EMPIRE CITY makes you think and reflect on the consequences of American foreign policy for the last twenty years as well as what happens when few people seem to really notice. Don't expect easy answers in this one.
July 29, 2025
Wow. This book was fascinating and challenging. Even when I tried to read it blithely without thinking, I found myself contemplating the consequences of the nation created by American “winning” the Vietnam war. Also, super-soldiers. That was pretty cool. I feel simultaneously disappointed and ok with the ending.
Spoilers: I want to know what happens next, but the book is not written to seem as if there will be a sequel. Also, not having resolution fits with the real-life connotations.
Spoilers: I want to know what happens next, but the book is not written to seem as if there will be a sequel. Also, not having resolution fits with the real-life connotations.
July 11, 2020
I'm generally not a fan of alternative history stories but this one really did it for me. It touched on some very relevant issues in today's world as well as being a compelling thriller. A good and interesting read that left some unsettling thoughts about what might be ahead.
I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway for this honest review.
I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway for this honest review.
July 1, 2020
The history’s different, there are more stars on the flag, and some folks have superpowers... But there’s something just familiar enough about this alternate version of America that makes this story both chilling and really fascinating to read. I loved it.
August 15, 2020
Fascinating premise for a book, but it needed more depth/meat on the bones to be great. Still, an engaging and thought-provoking story that puts into focus the concepts of duty, mission, and what it means to be a “hero.”
September 4, 2020
Just ended...
Great premise and solid writing but the plot just rolled forward until it stopped. A minor mention of future but absolutely no wrap up.
It’s worth the read but be forewarned that you will finish with many questions.
Great premise and solid writing but the plot just rolled forward until it stopped. A minor mention of future but absolutely no wrap up.
It’s worth the read but be forewarned that you will finish with many questions.
November 22, 2020
Author # Matt Gallagher has a new novel #' Empire City. The novel has alternate historical reality,and it's insight is interesting. It's really hard to put down.
Thank you,*No spoilers!!
#Netgalley, # Matt Gallagher, and # Atria Books for the advanced copy
Thank you,*No spoilers!!
#Netgalley, # Matt Gallagher, and # Atria Books for the advanced copy
October 15, 2020
Interesting political story. I like the writing. The ending was abrupt and a bit of a letdown, but I guess it fits the world.
November 30, 2020
counterfactual military history with superheroes, yea, I'm in
January 10, 2021
A promising alternative-history novel that petered out toward the end. Scenario: U.S. won the Vietnam War; militaristic society ensues. Some interesting passages, but ultimately just ran out of steam.
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