Faction 9: A Novel of Revolution by James Firelocke

James Firelocke, 2018

ISBN-13: 978-0999568293

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition.

On the surface, it seems like a great plot.  The future United States still operates under our current political system, but has been fully hijacked by evil capitalistic pig warmongers who have made serfs (or slaves) out of most of the population.  Small groups called ‘factions’ are fighting back behind the scenes, trying to take America back for the people, and stopping the enslavement of the population.  If the idea had stopped there and been better written, this could have been a good book.  However, Faction 9 makes for a lackluster reading experience.  The plot is part of the problem: it is cluttered with unneccessary and distracting ideas, such as alien metallic insects and humans with feline DNA. These add nothing to the basic premise, and strain the story’s credibility.It will appeal to a select crowd, but would have been better suited to a comic book or graphic novel format.

The use of elaborate language and cartoonish portrayals of the characters also detract from the story.  One notable example of the language problem is saying that a character ‘strained to achieve colonic climax’ when sitting on the toilet. Character development is minimal at best, and cartoonish in the case of the villains.  The author throws in every cliché when describing the money-loving evildoers.  Gold toilets, eating only steak and lobster, toilet paper with the Constitution printed on it, seeing every female as a sexual target, all people are their slaves, money is God…you get the idea.  You can’t even hate the villains in this: they are so laughable you don’t feel any emotion about them.  The protagonists aren’t much better. There is little backstory on how they became revolutionaries fighting for the people, and you wind up not caring what happens to them.

The author does have skill, but it only comes in flashes.  The time spent describing the foolishness of government hurdles when trying to do something as simple as changing a computer password was excellent, and his description of prisons in the future showed good imagination.  But, those moments were too few, and it’s not enough to save the story. While most readers won’t want to slog through this, the book could find a place among YA readers, or people looking for any story that involves despising conservatives, in terms of politics. It will appeal to a select crowd, but would have been better suited to a comic book or graphic novel format.

Contains: mild violence and profanity

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson