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Caliphate | 
 enlarge | Author: Tom Kratman
Publisher: Baen
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy Used: $12.89
You Save: $11.11 (46%)
New (28) Used (12) from $12.89
Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 214854
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 400
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.4
ISBN: 1416555455
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9781416555452
ASIN: 1416555455
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: light shelf wear on DUST JACKETno marks pages look great (SHIP SAME OR NEXT BUSINESS DAY AFTER ORDER 6 DAYS A WEEK BUBBLE MAILER AND TRACKING)
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Product Description
"Slavery is a part of Islam...Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam."
-- Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan, author of the religious textbook At-Tawhid Demography is destiny. In the 22nd century European deathbed demographics have turned the continent over to the more fertile Moslems. Atheism in Europe has been exterminated. Homosexuals are hanged, stoned or crucified. Such Christians as remain are relegated to dhimmitude, a form of second class citizenship. They are denied arms, denied civil rights, denied a voice, and specially taxed via the Koranic yizya. Their sons are taken as conscripted soldiers while their daughters are subject to the depredations of the continent's new masters. In that world, Petra, a German girl sold into prostitution as a slave at the age of nine to pay her family's yizya, dreams of escape. Unlike most girls of the day, Petra can read. And in her only real possession, her grandmother's diary, a diary detailing the fall of European civilization, Petra has learned of a magic place across the sea: America.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 29 more reviews...
 Superb techno-horror story March 28, 2008
Geoffrey Kidd (Berkeley, CA USA)
43 out of 52 found this review helpful
I'll say only two things about this book.
1. It gets five stars because it is a superbly written and horrifying techno-thriller that I just had to finish to see how it came out.
2. Don't go in unless you're prepared to meet people who consider child abuse and human slavery, two of mankind's oldest evils, to be religious duties.
Item 1 means it's very enjoyable reading. Item 2 means it will take a little time to recover equilibrium after finishing it.
It was worth the trip.
Unable to put it down March 28, 2008
Elliott L. Starr (Bloomingburg NY USA)
28 out of 33 found this review helpful
I read the book in one day, it was just so compelling. The scenes of slavery under Muslim rule were reminiscent of a book I read in the '70's(I think) written by(IIRC) Kyle Onstott, which is why those scenes were so realistic(other people writing the same kind of thing would reinforce the descriptions).
I really got into the characters' heads, and could understand them. The plot moved and didn't get bogged down in details.
The contrast between the US as we are today, and what we (will) become under such an attack is one of my worst nightmares, and I hope, but am not very confident, that we can avoid it. I guess that will require a big change in our current political culture(not very likely at this time).
 One view March 28, 2008
D. Campbell (Dallas, TX USA)
23 out of 27 found this review helpful
Caliphate focuses on politics, islam, and the societal clashes that governments and people face without cultural assimilation. There are a lot of different views on how Europe is going to deal with their population integration problems. This one seemed very well thought out, looking at likely long term impacts of making 'easy' or 'comfortable' decisions.
I almost gave the book a 5 star for the way Kratman did his interludes. I loved them. Be prepared to get two stories out of this book. The main story takes place roughly 100 years from now. The interludes are their own story taking place from 2003 through roughly 2020. The two stories are tightly connected and get the reader involved in both. Many authors hop around in time within their stories, but the way Kratman did so was easy to follow and enjoyable as opposed to the normal tedium I experience trying to keep the hops straight.
Whether or not the course of history Kratman describes comes to pass, it should give anyone pause to consider the possibilities he lays out. He seems to ask you to take off the rose colored glasses and weigh decisions based on likelihoods instead of hopes. It's nice to see an unvarnished view that isn't candy coated by today's media. Give people the information and let them make their own decisions.
An all too possible horrifying future March 29, 2008
Ofer Imanuel (NJ, USA)
18 out of 22 found this review helpful
Like other Kraftman's books, it has a political message (in line with traditional American values, and against Tranzis), However, this book differs - it is much more closely related to reality, and the author takes quotes from leading Muslim figures (Sheik Saleh Al-Fawzan, for example).
The book is about Islam run amok, due to the weak character and wishful thinking of our European brethren, and to a lesser degree U.S liberals. In addition, it is well written, and keeps the suspense.
It is not an easy book.
 Disappointing April 12, 2008
Elaewin
16 out of 28 found this review helpful
I was disappointed in this book, because it spent too much time pontificating and not enough telling a story.
This book consists of five different parts. The prologue is a heavy-handed analogy about willful ignorance. The main plotline is interesting, well written, speculative fiction story set in a detailed and often horrific distopian future. Then there are "interludes", telling the story of the female protagonist's several times great grandmother. These are combined with a, again very heavy-handed, message about idealism and it's lack of connection with reality. The fourth portion of the novel is a very awkwardly inserted history showing how the world of the book came to be. Finally, there is a nonfiction "afterward" in which the author chooses to hold forth about his view of where the world is going.
If this book had consisted wholly of part 2, it would have been amazing. The world is well realized, the writing is good, the characters are, if a bit cardboard, still engaging, and the plot (of that portion) keeps things moving nicely along. Unfortunately, the author chose to clutter up an otherwise enjoyable story with the overly moralistic "interludes" and "excurses" that slowed down the pacing and made me wish that he'd get back to the action, already. It was a bit like watching an exciting movie on tv, but being forced to periodically change the channel to either a horribly overdone soap opera or a dead boring documentary on the History Channel.
I'm not going to go much into the afterword, other than to say that he puts forward a number of alarming statistics and facts, but provides absolutely no references, only a few inadequate citations, and expects the reader to take him seriously. It's expostulation without any visible foundation.
My recommendation is this: if you want to read a great story, ignore the prologue, skip any interludes or excursus, and avoid the afterword. If you do that, you'll have an enjoyable read. If you want moralizing with your distopia, try Nineteen Eighty-Four, or Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited. You'll be much more satisfied.
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