The Caliphate

I read this ebook written by one Thomas/Tom Kratman April. I'm telling you, I must be quite crazy myself to be able to read through the whole novel. It is a fiction all right but I think with this kind of style, this novel should instead be categorized as "one man's dreams". Everyone writes, fiction or non fiction for some reasons. And usually the most likely reason is either to share your thoughts and sentiments about something. I was no doubt attracted to start reading because of the title. "Hey, this is one story about Islam and Muslims written by a non Muslim, should be interesting to see his points of view" I thought. And I have good faith in him. When I finally finished reading the last page, I thought, this author is just sick but hilariously funny. I pity him though, such a dented mind. It is in short about Hans, Petra, Hamilton, Thomson, Ling, Mahmoud and Gabi. I am so not in the mood to explain further about the story as I think it is quite a sickening effort by Mr Kratman to share his sick ideas of why Muslims should never be let to live and why the US should be allowed to terminate any country who shows the slightest inclination to tolerate Muslims. He writes how scientists Sands, Johnston and Meara are paid by the Caliphate to create virus which would one day be released to kill all non-Muslims and how they use human beings as the live experiments. He makes a hero out of one President Buckman, who took over from a weak female President, with mandate from almost all sides and parties in the US for his Armageddon plan, to bomb to non-existence 55 major Islamic cities with many more minor cities with warheads, including Mecca, Cairo and Medina because he thinks that those countries play a role in bombing three American cities. This mad man also obliterated North Korea and Pyongyang for not showing enough respect for the US. This author lets this President die a peaceful death. Hahaha. Check this out "Afterword: It would be pleasant to report, had it come to pass, that President Buckman had somehow been overthrown, and that he had been tried for his many crimes and hanged. Sadly, this was not to be. Rather, he passed away quietly one night in 2036, leaving us his legacy: an empire we don't want to get rid of, the enmity of most of the world, a crushing military burden, and damage to our traditional civil liberties that has yet to be fully undone and may never be." I think that Kratman tries to let us see that he is normal by writing "an empire we don't..." but based on my reading of the whole book, this is not likely. Kratman is actually a lunatic who deep in his heart hopes and prays that one fine day, a President Buckman would really lead USA. Checking out on his public profile, I can easily understand how he become the monster that he is. Or probably he's more a victim of the dark cloyds surrounding some people full of hate where he lives. Pity. Based on what I read in this novel, I think the most apt character to reflect Tom Kratman is Meara, a fat ugly child molester who thinks that he is one special man and that the world should love him for who he is, and in the end, he is strangled to death by two kids he abused. Anyhow, I'd want to try and read at least one more novel by this lunatic called Tom Kratman, probably A State of Disobedience (December 2003) just to ascertain my thoughts on him.

The rain tree

It's a novel by Sylvie Phillips, a book I bought during this year's Big Bad Wolf. The cover synopsis says "Murder and deceit in Thailand; everyone has something to hide". I was sort of in the mood for a short retreat by the sea when I decided to pick up the book. Just te last three days were spent quite satisfactorily spent at Pangkor Beach resort. That is I think, the main reason why that book became a sensible companion. The cover picture is also quite alluring, two girls in swim suit seeming to have a sweet time on the beach in a tropical island. The main set is Koh Keo Island, whether this place actually exists, I dont know. The story is about a few people; Tom and Fiona who later found that they really belong to each other, Sally and Delphine, two sometimes awkward friends with a nice to contemplate love-hate friendship, Keng the slightly muscular nice to look at Thai guy who first enjoys the company of Sally but later fell in simple love with Delphine, Clive a good looking but rather shallow husband of Fiona who funnily thought he cannot do his wife because he carries an image of a goddess, and several others. Not bad really, I think the pace is actually just great. The way Phillips develops the storyline, the characters, how their paths of life entwined or crisscross and the suspense leading to quite an unexpected "what actually happened" is quite a thrill. I enjoy reading this book. Must say one of the expressions I truly can agree with is spelled out very clearly by Sally, "Danny, a craggy, blue-eyed Australian instructor .....had a scap of a Thai girl for a girlfriend...she simply refused to compete with a Thai girl. As far as she was concerned, they were mostly gold-digging bimbos and any man who actually wanted a Thai girl was simply ...."