Kick ass and take no prisoners. Bust their chops. Let's Drop the Big One and See What Happens.
Welcome to Cowboy America. You might think you live in some other version of America, and maybe that's the case – at least in Paul McAuley's 'Cowboy Angels' (Victor Gollancz/ Orion Books ; September 2007 ; £18.99 HC / £12.99 RPB). McAuley's taken the good ol' multi-universe concept and used it to send more Americas than you’d care to imagine through the wringer. 'Cowboy Angels' is a fascinating exercise in dueling cowboys. On one side of the equation, you have Adam Stone and the Cowboy Angels, the men who essentially ride herd on the multiverse, protecting alternate versions of America where things don’t look so hot. At least according to the Cowboy Angels and the last three Republican presidents who took a little program involving Turing Gates and used it to spread democracy throughout the alternate Americas.
But as the novel starts, there's a new game in town. The last election brought a very different kind of gool ol' boy into power. Jimmy Carter, and he's not into any of this democracy as peanut butter bullshit. He's spreading peace through the multiverse, and the black ops folks that had their heyday helping foment revolution in an America where the god-damned Commies took over 1929 are finished.
Or are they? Imagine if the CIA had access to the multiverse, and was able to tweak history to its liking. That'll give you a sense of the plot at work here. They're not going to give it up without a fight, and you know, the word "fair" ain't a part of the word "fight". Mysteriously, the word "dirty" is. Who would have thought? Well probably your local spook recruitment outlet. I don’t recommend going there to ask.
Now you know earlier on I mentioned that this novel is cowboy vs cowboy, and I mentioned those on one side – the butt-kickin' bravos bringin' Democracy with a capital "R" to the multiverse. Those are the American characters in the novel. Set up against them is another sort of Cowboy Angel. That would be the all-powerful author, Paul McCauley, who has his own fish to fry, most of them American, most of them deserving the fryolator or something worse. One of the most delightful aspects of this novel is the cowboy sensibility of the writer, who pulls no punches and is not averse to kicking some self-satisfied American asses. The trick here, and McAuley mostly pulls it off, is to create characters who seem real enough to be likable in spite of the fact that they're essentially fascist pigs wearing the stars'n'bars. Well, you know, fascist pigs, they always have the same fashion sense, eh?
McAuley's other strength is of course the crackerjack plot he's devised. He's given himself so many U-turns, secret portals and popup whack-a-moles that the most surprising thing is how effectively and sparsely he uses them. Oh, there's plenty of fun to be had here. This is a thriller with a mirror-maze twist. It's also the kind of book that would be absurdly easy to make into a movie, and it really plays like one in your head. Perhaps somewhere out there in the universe, in the sheaf where Alan Turing nailed quantum computing and emigrated to America, they're watching it now.
I mean, gee. Jimmy Carter? This being Jimmy "I fucking lurve terrorists man. Lets not talk to the moderates, the realists and the nice people but to the fuckwits." Carter. Sure, America did a lot of dodgy stuff during the Cold War- who didn't? Sure they've got a lot of problems as a country- who doesn't? Can't we have criticism of someone else please? I'm bored of America this, America that when in reality there are much, much worse countries out there.
How about China for instance? They have the death penalty and kill hundreds a year. They censor the internet. They abuse the poor in record levels. They are committed to non-stop build of their military. Elections and multiple political parties are unknown. They have sponsored terrorism. They support many of the worst regimes in the world. They are a major arms manufactorer. They use torture. Etc.
Just makes me sad that some people spend so long looking at America they miss all the other nasty shit out there.
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