There is, of course, a strong element of ideological polemic in the book. Most of the time it fits in pretty well. Occasionally it's a bit ham-handed. Examples with obvious real-world parallels become familiar and fairly easy to relate to. Some of the measures Carrera condones are extreme and unappealing, but understandable. The reliance on torture and assassination as means to an end can be troubling, but it makes sense in context. Kratman wants us to see what a real war on terror would be like and the degree of ruthlessness it would require, and that's valuable, even if it makes the reader uncomfortable. His attacks on the transnational progressive elites of both Terra Nova and Earth still aren't terribly subtle, but they're well thought out and pretty convincing in context. Only a couple of the cheapest shots ring false, such as a brief dissertation on hostile alien plantlife like the Tranzi Tree and Progressivine which bear fairly contrived relationships to the groups he targets for criticism. Kratman's first-hand familiarity with the real-world cultures and regions on which he bases his settings helps make the whole book more convincing.

Reading the book as I did, while controversy was breaking about Blackwater's involvement in Iraq, added an interesting twist. The news was revealing the important role which mercenaries played in the real war at the same time that they played an even larger and more glorious role in Kratman's book. Carnifex also brought home to me even more than Kratman's previous book, the guilt which attaches to those organizations and individuals who for their own political advancement are willing to tolerate the barbaric behavior of terrorists and tyrants when they share a common enemy, especially when that enemy is individual liberty.

On the whole, Carnifex is a good read. It will offend some readers, but those readers probably wouldn't have made it through the first book anyway. For the rest of us it's a valuable combination of literary entertainment and thought provoking exploration of thinly disguised recent history. Kratman should get to work on a sequel, because I'm eager to see how Carrera and his followers deal with the decadent oligarchs of old Earth.