Robert Zubrin The Holy Land

The Holy Land

Robert Zubrin

Polaris, 2003, $14.95, 298 pp.

ISBN: 0974144304

The space wandering Miniervans claim that Kennewick, Washington is their ancestral holy land that they still own. They hope to finally live in peace after a galactic empire tried to exterminate them. Instead of finding a land of milk and honey, the American government begins a campaign to kick the Miniervans off the continent partly because the "outsiders" behave with an attitude of superiority and racism towards others.

The ensuing war fails to evict the Miniervans from their new home. Frustrated the Fundamentalists running the American government force the dislocated Kennewickians into squalid camps where the young are trained in guerilla tactics and hatred towards the usurpers. The other galactic races are appalled by the constant deaths of the Kennewickians at the hands of the technological superior Minervans though the latter merely defend themselves from suicide assaults encouraged by the US government. The superpower the Western Galactic Empire demands human rights for the displaced. That changes when helicity is discovered on earth as that valuable resource is more important than an individual's dignity.

THE HOLY LAND is a powerful science fiction political satire that relocates the players in the Arab-Israeli dispute inside a galaxy filled with plenty of nations and one superpower. The story line cleverly rips all sides in the real world maelstrom though the Miniervans come off a bit less shredded. Fans who appreciate a strong lampoon of the inanity of the United States, Israel, Palestine, and the other Arab nations for what they have done to people in the invoking of an ism (ideologically stupid morons) will enjoy this tale that feels like Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal placed in a future context.

Harriet Klausner