Richard A. Clarke, THE SCORPION’S GATE

I love it when journalists say something is “anticipated” that I’d never heard of…

Unfortunately, this one sounds rather turgid. But I do like that he envisages the world as changing:

The book is set in the very near future. After a bloody but failed war in the Middle East, the United States is desperate for both oil and friends.

Postwar Iraq has thrown us out. Our former oil supplier, Saudi Arabia, is now called Islamyah. Although hostile to America, this new government does have democratic leanings.

The corrupt Saudi rulers have fled to the USA, where they plot their return to power. That they remain enormously rich helps them buy U.S. politicians and influence political campaigns.

Failure of imagination is a huge problem for novelists as well as politicians!