The Holy Land

by Robert Zubrin

What if Americans were the terrorists, and a more civilized superpower found it necessary to put us down? What if contemporary Christian ministers preached salvation through murder of non-believing foreigners, and the US government recruited child suicide-assassins for this purpose? If you were an American living in such a crazed society, what would you do? If you were a civilized outsider, how would you deal with these insane savages? The Holy Land poses such predicaments, and more. In an attempt to save the Minervans from oppression in the central galaxy, the liberal Western Galactic Empire has relocated the sect to their ancient homeland of Kennewick, Washington. The fundamentalist fanatics ruling the USA find the presence of pagans in the holy city intolerable, however, and they launch an interstellar campaign of mass destruction in protest. Now, cast in a universe gone mad, the primitive Earthling POW Sergeant Hamilton and his case officer, the sophisticated Minervan priestess (3rd class) Aurora, must find the way out, or neither side will survive. In this madcap role-reversed science-fiction satire on the Mideast crisis and the War on Terrorism, the gloves come off. Written with wit and verve by Heinlein Award winner Robert Zubrin, the author of The Case for Mars, Entering Space, and First Landing, The Holy Land takes science fiction back to its Swiftian roots. Rarely since Czech humanist Karel Capek aimed his 1936 War with the Newts at fascism and appeasement has the medium been mobilized to such pointed effect. "A satiric tour de force" - School Library Journal "The duplicity, mendacity, and hypocrisy that characterize the present predicament in the Middle East are laid bare in Zubrin's engaing romp, with verve and biting wit." - National Review Online "Nothing is spared from Zubrin's satiric religion, politics, economics, sex, war, psychology, philosophy - all are the objects of his barbs....The Holy Land is a surprisingly fine follow-up to Zubrin's other fictional and non-fiction works." - The Rocky Mountain News "It's a hoot." - The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Judaism, Space

312 pages, Paperback

First published September 3, 2003

About the author

Robert M. Zubrin is an American aerospace engineer and author, best known for his advocacy of human exploration of Mars. He and his colleague at Martin Marietta, David Baker, were the driving force behind Mars Direct, a proposal in a 1990 research paper intended to produce significant reductions in the cost and complexity of such a mission.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

So a friend of mine recommended this book to me saying that this was one of his favorite books and he thought it was quite amusing. I, however, had a different experience...

This book basically beats you over the head with satire as it tries to present the Iraq war in a sci-fi sort of way. In this universe, the US is considered to be a primitive nation (compared to all the highly intelligent alien races) with stereotypical tea party, Jesus loving, republicans leading it. The citizens are either so brainwashed that they can't possibly understand that their leaders are corrupt or they're powerless to do anything about it. The "invaders" are a peaceful scientific race who purchase land in the US. The leaders of the US try to murder them all after finding out they're alien - but proceed to get rekt. The media is totally corrupt and spins this as the aliens fault despite the fact the US attacked first. You have the super powered galactic races that just want the oil - er - I mean "natural resources" that power spaceships found primarily in the US. These races are *totally* ok with selling the US people all sorts of "bad things" so long as they get to keep getting the resources.

Even the relationships in the book are presented in a super stereotypical / satirical way that I just found kind of sad. The US guy falls in love with an alien and eventually takes her home to his family. She's horrified by their customs and strange behaviors but eventually comes to accept it. His family is all like "those dang aliens - we should kill them all," but then are also totally like "oh but if you *were* an alien we'd be cool with you because our son loves you" (which would *definitely* happen, of course).

I wish I could say I found this book funny - especially considering that I believe this book is targeted towards me (a liberal who does not approve of all the middle east wars). Maybe I just read this book at the wrong point in time or maybe I just can't appreciate this type of satire - but I generally just felt similar to how one feels when a friend cracks a joke you don't find funny and you awkwardly sit there twiddling your thumbs saying, "ha ha..."

[Will · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found this on a list of "21 Conservative Authors to read at the beach."

Apparently this is supposed to be a "funhouse mirror" portrayal of TheMiddleEast and the War On Terror. In that case, it is bound to misfire. The "liberal" public will see the book's "ChristianFundamentalistTerrorists" as not stand-ins for al-Qaeda, but as an accurate portrayal of Christians. And "the idiot who praises in enthusiastic tone/ All continents but this, and every culture but his own" will see the arrogance and snobbery of the galactics as only deserved by whitemale humans.