Rage

July 6, 2015
Shufeldt’s attempt at a tense near-future political thriller (with a drizzle of the paranormal) is instead a banal, shallow mess. When the newly elected president of the U.S. goes missing during a mission to negotiate peace between Israel and Palestine, his vice president, war hero Victor Garcia, has to assume control of the country. However, a deep-rooted international conspiracy has corrupted nearly every level of the government and is manipulating events in multiple countries to bring terror to the U.S. and the Middle East. Garcia has to guide the country through terrorist attacks and natural disasters, while narrowly dodging assassination attempts, even as he and the few people he can trust root out a nest of traitors and killers. Shufeldt (Rebellion) skimps on details and complexity, opting instead for a just-the-facts recitation that fails to convey the impact of the events as they unfold. Nuclear strikes and killer tsunamis are mundane; the death tolls and destruction are mere numbers. The characters primarily serve as mouthpieces for Shufeldt’s own political and social agendas: the solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, for example, involves both heavy-handed threats and massive arms deals. Between bland prose and an over-the-top story line, there’s very little to recommend.