Her Majesty's American

Having read this book, I put it down and laid back to reflect on it. I am not sure what to make of it. There is some alternative history here with a twist on reality having to do with U.S. history being completely different so the colonies do not actually separate from the British Empire in 1776. There is some muddled science fiction with faster than light travel in the future and encounters with an alien race. And there is a dashing British male spy who gets to work with an attractive female counterpart in unraveling all kinds of plots within plots within plots. Can romance be far behind? Is this merely a reboot of some kind of James Bond fantasy set in the future?

With all of these done rather poorly, haphazardly, and hurriedly, I was not thrilled by any of it. The book was a very quick read and I finished all two hundred plus pages in a few nights. This is actually not a recommendation – it was not that it was hard to put down, it was because it was rather amateurish in tone and easy to get through. Do you want more stereotypes than boy agent meets girl agent and immediately starts thinking of bedroom scenes? How about naming all the starship classes in terms last used during the Age of Sail? Or, having a British Naval Captain be starched? How about a moslem terrorist going berserk at the site of a competent woman operative since she is obviously not fit for anything by tending the flames of the kitchen at home? Do I need to go on?

The science was poorly thought out as well. We have our spy coming up with all kinds of ideas and plots that strain credulity and having him manage to baffle his pursuers by doing things that make his co-conspirators look at him with amazement, but that were obvious to me as the situation was being set up – and I am not a science fiction writer.

Even the interactions with the aliens and the bloodbaths between the humans were poorly described. We have a highly competent man, who has managed to mislead multiple law enforcement agencies for years go crazy and weave in and out of crazy states when he is facing our British spy. Oh, this happens twice – with two different characters. Our female lead decides to act as the minx – and gets to play that role – and have her boyfriend, maybe ex-boyfriend, and another man, believe her – for just long enough to be distracted and thereby disarmed or killed. Really?

So, at the end what do we have? An interesting alternate history with a poor sci-fi story latched on to it, with unbelievable characters and a poor plot. Okay, that’s a two star rating.

While some might take it as a kind of a slapshot against American Exceptionalism if you do a cursory reading of it, because it portrays an English Monarchy dealing with a movement inspired by the Sons of Liberty, but if you actually understand it it makes the point that North America produces some of the best citizens of the Government. Mostly because of the ideals which I believe contribute to American Exceptionalism.

In other words, the American Colonists did not lose the Revolution, but won their rights as Englishman.

I think the setting was something akin to "Victorian Space Opera", which is kind of unique. I did enjoy it, overall, it worked.