Book 51: Shooting War

TITLE: Shooting War
AUTHOR: Anthony Lappe
STARTED: October 2, 2008
FINISHED: October 4, 2008
PAGES: 192
GENRE: Graphic Novel

FIRST SENTENCE: My name is Jimmy Burns.

SUMMARY: [From barnesandnoble.com] The global war on terror is raging out of control. The president is popping Prozac. And the #1 selling videogame in 2011 America is the terrorist-simulator Infidel Massacre: Los Angeles. On the streets of gentrified Brooklyn, videoblogger Jimmy Burns' latest anti-corporate rant is cut short by a terrorist bombing of a Starbucks...but his live feed isn't. When his dramatic footage is uploaded by Global News ("Your home for 24-hour terror coverage") and rebroadcast across the planet, the obscure blogger is transformed into an overnight media sensation. The next thing he knows he's on a Black Hawk helicopter inbound for Baghdad, working for the same mainstream media monster he once loathed. Burns soon finds that everyone from his ratings-ravenous network overlords to Special Ops troops with messianic complexes to a charismatic band of tech-savvy jihadists all want to make him their pawn.

THOUGHTS: This novel was terrifying. It was fantastically good... but terrifying. Lappe offers a "What if?" future of the Iraq conflict - a future that is all to easy to imagine. What if McCain becomes president and views Iraq as a way to win in Vietnam? What if Iran intervenes? What if McCain's soldier son is kidnapped? What if there are suicide bombers in New York City? Lappe covers all of these stories and more in Shooting War. It's a gripping read that is only made more intense by the bold art of the book. I would read it again... but if Obama becomes President.

RATING: 8/10 [Terrific]