State of Emergency

From Library Journal

It's almost the Fourth of July, 2010, and the governors of four Western states wish to secede from the United States in their fury over the federal government's takeover of land for environmental purposes. To make their point, they organize their national guards and evacuate citizens so that they can blow up the huge Glen Canyon Dam and draw attention to their cause. Secretary of State Barbara Reynolds sends her personal envoy and negotiator, Alison Carter, to handle talks with the alienated governors and find out what is really behind their desire to secede. Carter does indeed ferret out the "bad guy" with a secret agenda. Pieczenik (Pax Pacifica, Warner, 1995) crafts an excellent story with well-developed characters, lots of action, and a pleasant writing style, and he includes well-integrated historic material on states' rights and early federalism. Recommended for libraries where Joseph Heller and Harry Turtledove are popular.?Alice DiNizo, Raritan P. L., N.J. Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From AudioFile

This rigorously detailed exploration of a hypothetical scenario leading up to a second American civil war sits somewhere between a novel and a think-tank exercise. The sheer volume of exposition, either narrated or in the mouths of two-dimensional characters, makes the story move at a glacial pace with little dramatic tension. The writing is consistently good as exposition, and Adams Morgan makes the best of it. But at the end of the day, this is more essay than novel; as such it gains little by being read aloud. A print reader primarily interested in the movement of the story would probably skip or skim a good deal, which cannot be done with a tape. J.N. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the

Audio Cassette edition.