The Shell Game by Steve Alten

The Shell Game is a political thriller by Steve Alten. Having read one of his novels before, I picked up the book, not bothering to do more than scan the back and dust jacket of the novel, which I believe was likely a mistake. In the novel, oil consultant Ace Futrell becomes entrapped in a covert war between “freedom fighters” (read: terrorists) and greedy Neoconservatives funding the ridiculously rich Royal House of Saud.  After his wife, a former CIA agent writing a tell-all book, is murdered, Ace follows a path left by his deceased wife to Canada and the Middle East, trying to thwart a government-driven plan to destroy two United States cities with covert nuclear weapons.  The destruction of the cities would leave U.S. citizens craving for retaliation, opening a door to invade or bomb Iran. 

Critically, the book is simply a thriller, and not a particularly a good one.  I predicted the big twist before I even began reading.  More irritating, however, is the fact that the novel is filled with liberal-oriented propaganda.  If an adjective describes this book best, it would be the word “preachy.”  The portrayal of conservatives as greedy, murderous warmongers in the novel is insulting and simultaneously amusing. This book would make more sense as a humorous farce, rather than a “thriller.”  Much of the book reads like a slightly dull thriller with a cheap, paperback, conspiracy-based nonfiction rant interposed in massive chunks.  In many spots information is too abundant (and inaccurate), seeming like the author is attempting to show off the fact that he did research to write his novel.

America’s need to transfer from oil to green energy sources is a major point in the novel.  I agree with the value of using a less polluting fuel that will release our ties from the Middle East, however, it seems ridiculous to blame all negative events in the Middle East on oil. Almost comedic is a line spoken by the supposedly heroic Democratic candidate during a speech on page 273: “Imagine driving along our vast coastlines and seeing millions of brand-new, high-tech retractable windmills.” I’m not sure about anyone else, but giant windmills on the beach, retractable or not, do not sound attractive.  Regardless, a major point in the novel is the energy crisis.

Finally, one of the main problems in the book is the validity of information.  The novel itself would be a half-decent thriller had Alten not insisted that much of the information is true.  He was kind enough to leave a list of “references” at the end of the novel so readers are convinced that his information is correct. However, upon reading the list, I wasn’t sure whether it was meant to be a references section or part of the fiction itself. Most of the sources are from “confidential sources” or “numerous articles” which he refrained from identifying for logical reasons—however, there is no way to possibly check the validity of these claims. For example, under the “various sources” identification was a paragraph about the Mu chip, “a tiny invader the size of a grain of sand. Mu allows the government to scan you, track you, and determine what hazardous materials you’ve come in contact with.  The next generation Mu will enable Washington to eavesdrop on our very thought process.” I found the remark absurd, thus I looked up articles on the Mu chip and discovered that most articles have one thing in common: “the size of a grain of sand,” coincidentally the amount of Alten’s research that seems actually correct.  Other sources come from left-wing articles or strongly liberal authors writing political commentaries with no doubt similarly dubious reference lists.  All in all, the book was a rather frustrating read.  To put it simply, in this energy crisis, I can’t recommend that you waste any energy reading this novel.