Army @ Love #9 - DC

I really do like this book. I do! It's topical, satirical . . . and . . . it makes you think. You think about what could be. You think about what would happen if nations started looking at war as a vehicle for finance and profit, rather than the atrocity that it is. You think about what would happen if a war were sponsored by big business, rather than a governmental budget. What would happen to the systems of checks and balances? What if war were marketed . . like a video game, or a lifestyle . . . and recruitment was handled like a sports draft? Like this story, if there became a new branch of defense called Motivation & Morale . . . whose sole purpose was recruitment, retention and changing the way the soldiers, and the world, felt about the war and it's ramifications . . . what would that do to government plans like . . . oh, I don't know . . . exit strategies maybe? I mean, look at the cover. It's an obvious take on the Abbey Road cover, but more than that . . in the world that is created in this book . . . I think it's almost akin to an advertising campaign. And to me, that's why this book is so hard to review. I really do think it's brilliant. And it's full of very distinctive characters who are going through a myriad soap-opera of story lines. However, the most important part of this book is the story-line. And the ideas that it represents. Which is also the scariest part of this book . . the story-line and the ideas that it represents. Because in all honesty . . . we're really only a hair's breath away from this reality. I'm not a big horror movie person. And it's not the blood and guts. If it's a drama, that just happens to have some gore in it for story motivation, I'm fine. But the slasher movies? The movies filled with gore, just for the sake of gore? I don't ever have to see one of those, if it's my choice. And the reason is, the ideas it represents. It bothers me that someone could think of the ideas in those movies, and put them to script and screen. And it bothers me that there may be people out there, on the brink of destruction, that maybe hadn't thought about those ideas . . yet! Well . . . I almost feel that way about this book. But, on the same token, it's like a car wreck that you just can't look away from. It disgusts you, but at the same time peaks your curiosity. I know that this story is so far out there, that it's almost inconceivable. But, it's the almost part that worries me. But, at the same time, if a book can prompt this much synaptic activity in my head . . . then it must be doing it's job. And after all, that's what these stories are here for.