Tag: Book Review

Book review: Cuckservative

The Essential Malady reviews Cuckservative: How “Conservatives” Betrayed America:

One of the most ferociously written (and critical) broadsides hits
what Day often calls “Churchianity”. It is well known by those who care
to find out that church groups have a huge hand in assisting mass
immigration – often absurdly of non-Christians that have no intention of
converting. This is facilitated by the state and as I understand it,
quite lucrative for all involved except the native population. This
chapter deals more with the perversion of Christianity towards earthly
ends than with this fraud though and the generally touchy, feely and
ultimately suicidal niceness of committed Christians especially of the
Evangelical persuasion. This has hopefully reached peak insanity with this couple but I’m not so sure. Christ wants us to bring other nations to him not other nations to us.

On a personal level, I can relate to the term and I would say that
for a long time I was myself a “cuckservative”. I knew deep down in my
gut that what I wanted to preserve as a conservative was white Christian
society but knew that openly stating such would get me called a racist
and worse. Part of the reason for this is I was cultured to think so and
the only mainstream voices available tripped over themselves often
embarrassingly to avoid being called racist. Yet, if they’re honest with
themselves, that’s where the conservative instinct should lead.

The racial equalitarians, particularly in the Christian churches, need to be called out and held accountable for their treason. If you’re going to claim “there is neither Greek nor Jew, neither American nor Chinese, in Jesus Christ” means that no one has any more right to live in the magic dirt of the United States than anyone else, that’s fine from a free speech perspective, but you should probably also be considered an open and avowed enemy of America and of the Christian church.

You’re also a liar. The Churchians who sell that line are perfectly happy to welcome the immigration of animists, Muslims, demon worshippers, Hindus, and every other form of religion under the guise of Christian equality. Like all deceivers, they rely on bait-and-switches, they hide behind rhetorical fogs, and they deny the obvious consequences of their actions.

If you are an elder in a Christian church, you must expel the churchians and cuckservatives from your midst whenever they reveal themselves. They are deceivers and destroyers, and they do not serve that which they claim to serve.

Book review: A Throne of Bones

Given that I’m plugging away at the sequel, it’s encouraging to see that people are still discovering, reading, and enjoying A Throne of Bones. A book review by the Witchfinder General:

‘A Throne of Bones’ is superior and intelligent fantasy. It is like a novelisation of ‘Julius Caesar’, with a serious tone and detailed exposition – then with the acid trip of high fantasy. Where it differs from the works of the bard to Vox’s detriment is that this is not tabloid entertainment. Shakespeare is remembered precisely because he was producing the tabloid mass market entertainment of his day. Being considered vulgar by the so-called great and good did not stop the masses flocking to his plays.

‘A Throne of Bones’ has the sophistication but not perhaps the populist appeal. Intelligent, educated people who enjoy fantasy may appreciate the detailed rendering of ancient pseudo-Rome and the classical references. That will certainly stand him in good stead in parts of the fantasy niche market but does not have the sales reach of Mills and Boon or Conan the Barbarian.

Even so the writing is clear and sharp. There is no problem here with quality, exposition or characterisation. A strength of Vox’s writing is to create a cast of believable characters each with their own strengths and flaws, goals, passions and fears.

Despite its intellectual depth Vox’s work certainly appeals more than the loathesome, deathly dull cookie-cutter work of his rivals in which historical accuracy and human nature are often cast aside to match the narrative. Many people would rather read ‘Summa Elvetica’ fifty times over than have to struggle through ‘The Subtle Knife’ by Philip Pullman.

Indeed, to some extent Vox appears to benefit from the relatively unique political and religious perspectives of his work. The historic depth and reach of fantasy unconstrained by the politics of identity is (as Vox himself has argued) a rarity amidst the modern staple of virtue signalling fantasy fiction.

It’s going to be interesting to see what the reaction to A Sea of Skulls will be later this year. I think I can safely say that the cultures are deeper, the action is more intense, and there is less coming-of-age and more philosophy. But then, the author is seldom a reliable judge of his own work.

What I can say is that there will be orc, elf, and dwarf perspective characters in addition to the human ones. And I will also note that I am very conscious of the problem George RR Martin created for himself by allowing his perspective characters to grow from 9 to 22.

Fourmilog review of Cuckservative

It is good to know so many intelligent people think well of Cuckservative: How “Conservatives” Betrayed America. From the Fourmilog review:

This is an excellent book: well written, argued, and documented. For those who have been following these issues over the years and observed the evolution of the conservative movement over the decades, there may not be much here that’s new, but it’s all tied up into one coherent package. For the less engaged who’ve just assumed that by voting for Republicans they were advancing the conservative cause, this may prove a revelation. If you’re looking to find racism, white supremacy, fascism, authoritarianism, or any of the other epithets hurled against the dissident right, you won’t find them here unless, as the Left does, you define the citation of well-documented facts as those things.

What you will find is two authors who love America and believe that American policy should put the interests of Americans before those of others, and that politicians elected by Americans should be expected to act in their interest. If politicians call themselves “conservatives”, they should act to conserve what is great about America, not compromise it away in an attempt to, at best, delay the date their constituents are delivered into penury and serfdom.

Read the whole thing there. And if you haven’t read it yet, read Cuckservative.

Book of the Week

War to the Knife is the first volume in the Laredo Trilogy, and it is a fascinating tale of a war that is already lost before the book even begins. The author, Peter Grant, is a fascinating man of much wider experience than most, having been a member of the South African Defense Forces with combat experience in various African nations prior to becoming a pastor.

In War to the Knife, he draws upon aspects of both his past professions; unlike many authors of military science fiction, he truly knows whereof he speaks, both in terms of the technical issues as well as the emotional costs that affect victor and defeated alike.

The trilogy begins with the defeated military remnants of the planet Laredo coming to terms with the fact that their resistance movement is on the verge of being wiped out by the occupying forces of the much wealthier, and more technologically advanced Bactrians. They decide that rather than surrendering to the merciless occupiers, they will attempt to go out in one last defiant bang that will give cover to their attempt to break through the planetary blockade and get the evidence about the Bactrian occupation out to the rest of the Thousand Worlds, who have been kept largely ignorant and misinformed about the true state of affairs.

Grant is a good writer, and the unusual situation he presents, in which the good guys are beaten from the very start, is given additional depth by Grant’s South African perspective. And yet, War to the Knife is not even remotely depressing, it is rather optimistic and inspiring, being a testimony to the indomitable human spirit and its ability to defy even the certainty of death as well as an intriguing war novel full of intrigue and action.

For those who find the name familiar, Peter Grant is, in fact, the leader of the Tor Books boycott. He blogs as Bayou Renaissance Man, a not unreasonable description given his wide range of life experience, and is not a Rabid Puppy, being too fundamentally decent a man to run with our slavering pack of virulent slaughterhounds. But one might not unreasonably describe him as being sympathetic to Puppydom, as well as fully cognizant of the true nature of the SJW enemy.

The Last Days of Cuckservatism

The New American reviews Cuckservative:

Cuckservative is co-written by Vox Day and John Red Eagle. Vox Day is the pseu­donym of a video game designer who has amassed quite a following in the online world with his often-controversial views. Day’s high IQ and technical approach to problem solving is felt throughout Cuckservative. Much effort is given to making the book’s main argument that immigration is the most important issue of our day and that “cuckservatives” are on the wrong side. “Thanks to their cuckservative ideology, America’s self-styled conservatives have literally betrayed the entire purpose of the Constitution of the United States, and in doing so, they have put the very survival of the nation at risk,” the authors charge.

Reading the book, one might easily feel reminded of two earlier books by Pat Buchanan: Where the Right Went Wrong: How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency, and State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America. The first book detailed the neoconservative infiltration of the conservative movement, and the latter detailed the demographic destruction caused by our immigration policy. Day, much like Buchanan before him, takes the GOP and the conservative establishment to task, but Day comes at it with an almost scientific approach. Cuckservative recounts how, almost from the beginning, the conservative movement was all too willing to purge elements that it feared might hurt its respectability in the eyes of its opponents. These “purges,” which have continued throughout all of the conservative movement’s history even to this day, “indicated a cowardly and submissive willingness to surrender when faced with public criticism.”

The vast majority of the book makes arguments against open immigration and goes into detail on the errors of the pro-immigration arguments espoused by the cuckservatives in the conservative movement. As the book explains, open immigration has been and will continue to be disastrous for anyone looking to secure political victories for the Right. The cuckservatives fail to realize this and routinely label any opponents of open borders and amnesty as “racist” or “xenophobes.” As a matter of fact, the book explains, “Today’s cuckservatives appear to be in a competition with the left to see who can open the borders wider, provide amnesty for more aliens, and add greater incentives for immigrants to retain their own culture in the place of American traditions and values.”

The cuckservative view on immigration is dismantled across multiple chapters. The “Melting Pot” is exposed as a myth. The idea that immigrants from nations with historically leftist governments will somehow miraculously become limited-government Republicans is ridiculed as the “Magic Dirt Theory.” Cuckservative explains that the “extremely high preference for expansive government among Hispanic immigrants is consistent with traditions of government in Latin America since the days of the Spanish Empire.”

These concerns are not just limited to the political realm for, as Cuckservative explains, “import people and you import their culture.” The discussions in the book are especially timely considering the refugee crisis currently unfolding in Europe.

Reading the comments of some of the commenters over there, I can’t help but think some of them don’t so much need to read Cuckservative as they desperately need to read SJWAL.

If you still think that a civil debate where the facts are thoughtfully articulated and the other side’s arguments are humbly but keenly dismantled, you’re not only wrong, you’re 2,400 years behind the times.

Book of the Week: Son of the Black Sword

When I first heard that Larry Correia was dipping his toe into “epic fantasy”, I have to admit that I rolled my eyes a little. How, I wondered, was he going to transform his patented gun porn, in which he lovingly chronicles every detail of a firearm, right down to the special blend of custom gunpowder that was formulated by the gunsmith for maximum impact, and which is of particular appeal to his core audience, into faux medieval terms?

I had visions of entire chapters being dedicated to the forging of Very Special Swords, and frankly, I doubted it was going to be as entertaining; a portrayal of a man testing the heft and balance of a sword just isn’t the same as one competitively testing out the accuracy of a firearm at a firing range. Also, no vampires, werewolves, or Agent Franks.

But I should have known better. The most recent Monster Hunter International book showed how Larry has improved as a writer, both in terms of conceptual originality and characterizations. Son of the Black Sword represents another step forward for him; Correia may be a bestselling author, but unlike other bestsellers in the SF/F field, he has not been content to stand pat and keep churning out the same sort of thing over and over again, he has instead continued to refine his craft.

Son of the Black Sword is not, strictly speaking, epic fantasy. Neither is it high fantasy. I would describe it more as high sword & sorcery as there is a distinct flavor of REH about both the hero and the world, neither of which owe anything at all to JRR Tolkien, much less Robert Jordan, or, some political machinations aside, GRR Martin.

While I was less impressed with the worldbuilding than John C. Wright was, it is a competent use of the seldom-seen-in-fantasy Indian caste system and lends itself nicely to several key aspects of the plot. As you’d expect from Correia, there is a lot of action and the story never bogs down from start to finish. What you might not expect from him is some better-than-average characterizations, and the tale of the protagonist, Ashok, is gradually unveiled in a remarkably sensitive, even touching manner considering that he is a nigh-unstoppable killing machine with no more inclination towards mercy than the average Terminator.

And what you definitely won’t expect from Correia is an intelligent subtext running throughout the novel providing a subtle metacommentary on the civilization-scale challenge facing Western society today. It is so subtle, in fact, that I’m not entirely certain Correia actually intended it, but regardless, it gives Son of the Black Sword an amount of the melancholy depth that endows the Conan stories with enduring power.

Although it will come as unwelcome news to some, Son of the Black Sword shows Larry Correia in the process of transformation from a popular author to a very good author who merely happens to be popular. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys action-fantasy, martial arts revenge thrillers, political intrigue, sword & sorcery, or in particular, RE Howard’s Conan.

New American reviews Cuckservative

The title of the magazine is a little ironic in light of the views expressed in Cuckservative, but it’s a good, substantial, and relatively positive review of the book nevertheless:

Cuckservative is co-written by Vox Day and John Red Eagle. Vox Day is the pseu­donym of a video game designer who has amassed quite a following in the online world with his often-controversial views. Day’s high IQ and technical approach to problem solving is felt throughout Cuckservative. Much effort is given to making the book’s main argument that immigration is the most important issue of our day and that “cuckservatives” are on the wrong side. “Thanks to their cuckservative ideology, America’s self-styled conservatives have literally betrayed the entire purpose of the Constitution of the United States, and in doing so, they have put the very survival of the nation at risk,” the authors charge….

The chapter “Christianity and Cuckservatism” went into depth on the strange decline into far-left racial politics that we’ve witnessed in modern Christianity. As churches across the country lecture their members on the lessons of “white privilege” and “institutional racism,” Cuckservative points out the blatant hypocrisy: “It never seems to occur to these white guilt-trippers that holding today’s white Christians responsible for the sins of their 18th-century or 1960s counterparts is no different than blaming today’s Jews for crucifying Christ.” Christians, both Left and Right, who have bought into the egalitarian premises of the Left and support open-border policies are described as “Churchians” who have nothing in common with traditional Christianity. “The false fruit of Churchian multiculturalism can be recognized by what is happening to Christian churches everywhere from Europe to the American Midwest. So-called Christians are not only actively welcoming those who do not worship Jesus Christ to invade their nations, they are also watering down Christian theology and in some cases, literally tearing down the symbols of Christian worship.”

Overall, the book provides a sound explanation of what’s wrong with the conservative movement, as well as why open immigration policies will spell certain political doom for our side. As an eBook, it’s very affordable and well worth the price. It’s a good book for anyone not familiar with the type of issues regularly covered by The New American, especially for
younger readers who are looking for a primer on the main issues facing us today. Readers with a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) background should appreciate the book the most, owing to its technical and analytical dissection of the issue.

The Amazon reviews remain very positive too:

A Must-Read Book!

This book pulls back the covers from the greatest lie of modern politics, the imaginary “benefits” of mass immigration and multiculturalism. Using historical examples, economic evidence, and plain logic, the authors show that our current globalist outlook is nothing more or less than a recipe for conflict and decline throughout western civilization.

I very much enjoyed the section dealing with dishonest “christian” arguments regarding immigration. I am not personally religious, but I am a product of a largely Christian society, and not entirely biblically unlearned. It has been frustrating to me to see so many self-proclaimed “Christians” argue that we must betray our own society, our own children, and hand our entire civilization over to whoever demands it, in order to be good Christians. This section gives a biblical and common-sense answer to such feeble and self-righteous do-gooderism.

If I have any complaint, it is that the authors could have spent a little more time illustrating the economic effects of mass immigration, both the harm done to citizens, and the almost unimaginable greed it takes to sell out one’s own people for cheap labor. Billions of dollars are being made by a tiny number of people, at the expense of an increasingly poor and insecure public. Those profiteering from globalist nation-wrecking are traitors in the strongest sense of the word, and deserve to be treated as such. Whether a globalist capitalist profiteer, a sincere leftist seeking an imaginary multicultural “utopia”, or a false christian peddling white guilt to feel righteous, these deluded people are dangerous to civilization itself.

Interesting that even the non-Christians are capable of seeing the problem with societally destructive Churchianity. And the reviewer is right, the economics chapter is generally abstract and heavily technical, so the impact is perhaps less powerful than if we’d taken Red Eagle’s more storytelling-oriented approach. Mea culpa.

Don’t forget, Cuckservative is now out in audiobook as well.

Reading List 2015

Of the 63 books I read in 2015, the one I enjoyed most was Haruki Murakami’s A Wild Sheep Chase. Brilliant, mind-bending, and quintessentially Japanese. The
worst book I read this year was, again, Iain Banks’s The Wasp Factory, although The Spider’s Web, a cheap rip-off written by Charles Osborne that uses an Agatha Christie play as an outline, gave it a run for its vile money. The
most disappointing book was Charles Stross’s The Annihilation Score. I like his Laundry Files but Stross can’t write women to save his life; the story would have been more credible, and more entertaining, if the protagonist had been Bob in a dress rather than his nominal wife.

On the non-fiction side, two Martin van Creveld books were excellent. Castalia published A History of Military Strategy, and van Creveld’s Technology and War is a must-read for anyone interested in history. On
the downside, J.B. Bury’s A History of Freedom of Thought was little more than a historical prelude to the tawdry philosophical works of the New Atheists and its perspective has been rendered irrelevant by subsequent events. The book was particularly disappointing because I am a big fan of Bury’s great editorial work, The Cambridge Medieval History Series.

Keep in mind these ratings are not necessarily statements about a book’s
significance or its literary quality, they are merely casual observations of my personal tastes and how much I
happened to enjoy reading the book at the time. A five-star book is one that I recommend without any reservations, while three-star or above is likely going to be worth your while. As always, I have read more books than are on this list, but I only rate books that I have read cover to cover.

FIVE STARS

A Wild Sheep Chase, Haruki Murakami
Demian, Hermann Hesse
The Book of the Damned, Tanith Lee
65 Short Stories, W. Somerset Maugham
If Symptoms Still Persist, Theodore Dalrymple
A History of Military Strategy, Martin van Creveld
Technology and War, Martin van Creveld

FOUR STARS

Against a Dark Background, Iain M. Banks
Gorilla Mindset, Mike Cernovich
Danger & Play: Essays on Embracing Masculinity, Mike Cernovich
The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu
The Book of the Beast, Tanith Lee
The Book of the Dead, Tanith Lee
The Complete Stories, Evelyn Waugh
After the Quake: Stories, Haruki Murakami
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, Haruki Murakami
The Changing Face of War, Martin van Creveld
Armageddon, Max Hastings
Japan 1941, Eri Hotta
Carthage Must Be Destroyed, Richard Miles

THREE STARS

Seveneves, Neal Stephenson
Somewhither, John C. Wright
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Dorothy Sayers
There Will Be War, Vol. III, Jerry Pournelle
There Will Be War, Vol. IV, Jerry Pournelle
There Will Be War, Vol. V, Jerry Pournelle
There Will Be War, Vol. VIII, Jerry Pournelle
Imperial Stars, Vol. I, Jerry Pournelle
Imperial Stars, Vol. II, Jerry Pournelle
Faces Under Water, Tanith Lee
Saint Fire, Tanith Lee
A Bed of Earth, Tanith Lee
Venus Preserved, Tanith Lee
Pirates of the Levant, Arturo Perez Reverte
Purity of Blood, Arturo Perez Reverte
The Sun Over Breda, Arturo Perez Reverte
Captain Alatriste, Arturo Perez Reverte
Back From the Dead, Rolf Nelson
The Sorcerer’s House, Gene Wolfe
Churchill, Paul Johnson
The Fountains of Paradise, Arthur C. Clarke
History of the First World War, Basil Liddell Hart
The Shepherd’s Crown, Terry Pratchett
Railsea, China Mieville
How to Deal with Narcissists, Michael Trust
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick

TWO STARS

The Annihiliation Score, Charles Stross
Lord Valentine’s Castle, Robert Silverberg 
Hallowe’en Party, Agatha Christie
Murder is Easy, Agatha Christie
Three Act Tragedy, Agatha Christie
Methuselah’s Children, Robert Heinlein
Farnham’s Freehold, Robert Heinlein

The Peril at End House, Agatha Christie
Steppenwolf, Hermann Hesse
Year’s Best SF 18, David Hartwell

ONE STAR

Spider’s Web, Agatha Christie (Charles Osborne)
The Wasp Factory, Iain M. Banks
Hero in the Shadows, David Gemmell
A History of Freedom of Thought, J.B. Bury
Grumbles from the Grave, Robert Heinlein

The Chrishanger reviews Cuckservative

Chris Nuttall, the bestselling SF author, reviews Cuckservative: How “Conservatives” betrayed America:

If there is nothing else that can be said about Vox Day – and a great deal of nonsense has been written about him – it is that his mere existence is a testament to the damage done to free speech and common sense by the politically-correct. To try to avoid giving unnecessary offense is a laudable goal, but to declare whole fields of study verboten because of the potential for offense is just plain stupid. Worse, perhaps, when the difference between words and reality becomes impossible to avoid, it undermines faith, the faith we need to keep our society running. Reality does not change on command.

After the runaway bestseller SJWs Always Lie (reviewed here), Vox Day tackles two subjects that don’t, on first glance, seem to go together. On one hand, there is the tidal wave of immigration pouring into America (and Europe) and, on the other hand, there is the supine surrender of American Conservatives to liberal thoughts and ideals that have very little relationship to reality. These people have become known as ‘Cuckservatives’ – a combination of ‘cuckoo’ and ‘conservative’ and the fact that the word itself has been declared offensive tells you a great deal about its power.

While Cuckservative has sold well, it hasn’t taken off the way SJWAL did, despite the fact that immigration is the only serious issue in the presidential campaign and the European migrant crisis has been the primary news item for the last six months.

I think this tends to indicate that many people are still holding out hope that the immigration issue will somehow sort itself out, that it’s not something with which they actually have to come to terms. This is unlike the situation with SJWs, who cannot be avoided in the media, at school, at work, or even, in too many cases, in the family.

“The Most Important Book of 2015”

The Most Important Book Of 2015: SJWs Always Lie

As someone who has been the target of SJW attacks for years, and who has helped bring awareness to their totalitarian interpretation of “justice,” I began reading Vox Day’s SJWs Always Lie with enthusiasm. Not only does it go into depth about what SJW’s think and how they behave, it also gives you a strategy for fighting back when they come after you or your organization.

SJW’s have so infected Western institutions and corporations that it
is inevitable you will come face-to-face with an SJW who hopes to harm
you and your livelihood. For that reason, SJWs Always Lie amounts to essential reading for all men. It’s the most important book I read in 2015.

In the universities, in the churches, in the
corporations, in the professional associations, in the editorial
offices, in the game studios, and just about everywhere else you can
imagine, free speech and free thought are under siege by a group of
fanatics as self-righteous as Savonarola, as ruthless as Stalin, as
ambitious as Napoleon, and as crazy as Caligula. They are the Social
Justice Warriors, the SJWs, the self-appointed thought police who have
been running amok throughout the West since the dawn of the politically
correct era in the 1990s.

Vox methodically breaks down the enemy that we have been fighting for
years, including their strengths, weaknesses, and modes of attack.
While information on fighting SJWs are available on various sites and
forums, this is the first time it has been assembled in one cohesive
work.

I very much appreciate the distinction. Regardless of what you might think of him, Roosh has been on the front lines of the cultural war and he has fearlessly continued to stand up for men, even men who disdain and disavow him.

Roosh knows, much better than most of us, the lengths to which SJWs are willing to go to disqualify, discredit, and destroy a man. That is why his praise for the book is so meaningful, and so significant.