The Mirage

A Novel

Paperback, 448 pages

Published Feb. 12, 2013 by Harper Perennial.

ISBN:
978-0-06-197623-0
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3 stars (17 reviews)

Wonderful alternative history (flipping a real tragedy on its head) where fundamentalist Christians bomb towers in Baghdad, Iraq. Mustafa Baghdadi is part of homeland security team in Iraq w. Salim and Amal-fighting Christian terrorism when the twin towers in Baghdad are attacked. Saddam Hussein is a gangster, Osama is a senator with evil intents. Mustafa's team travel to USA to find source of artifacts that suggest the world is a mirage and the U of Arab States is not real, but USA is a superpower, meet David Koresh, Tim McVeigh, Rumsfeld; at end mirage goes away leaving them facing an unknown world.

4 editions

Review of 'The Mirage' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

It’s not clear whether this is alternate-history science fiction or straight-up fantasy, but there’s no rule that says a book has to fit neatly into one category or another. In fact, it’s good to have books that resist pigeonholing.

Without revealing too much The Mirage is about a world in which the roles of West and Middle-East have been reversed; Baghdad is the cultural and financial center of the world, while North America is a collection of states led by one religious warlord or another. It takes place a decade after 11/9, when a group of Christian terrorists hijacked four planes and brought down twin towers above the Tigris and Euphrates.

The book is not without its flaws: it wants to present a vast world in just a few hundred pages, so there’s a lot of exposition. And the middle drags quite a bit, though it’s worth soldiering through until …

Review of 'The Mirage' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

An interesting idea, flipping 9/11 on its head, so to speak, and all of world history with it.
This book tries to be two things: the alternative history and a thriller.
The alternative history gets boring rather quickly, which is a shame, since all the details surely took a lot of work. USA→USA, bomb throwing radical Muslim Arab terrorists → bomb throwing radical Christian European terrorists &c. &c.
The thriller part, in the part that i managed to read, was OK, if you like that kind of thing. Only, i don’t, really. Good cops chase bomb throwing terrorist, one of the cops goes in alone “Leeee-rooy Jeeeenkiiins!!!” style and it works.

P.S. 1: Well, maybe there are some SciFi-ish plots twist later, but i got bored before i got there.
P.S. 2: I did read another “What if”-novel with The West not the dominant power, [b:The Years of Rice and …

Review of 'The Mirage' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

The problem with alternate reality stories -- especially ones that try to 'mirror' reality -- is that it can be too easy to get 'cute' with your ideas. The Mirage is a solid example of this. An abundance of tricksy bullshit almost derails what is otherwise a terrific central idea.

Review of 'The Mirage' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

The premise and world building were awesome: the United Arab States is a world superpower, and America a mess of warring factions. On 11/9/01, Christian terrorists crash a plane into the World Trade Center in Baghdad.
I really enjoyed the earlier parts of the book, but felt let down by later sections. I still recommend reading it, but wish it had held up all the way through.

Review of 'The Mirage' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

It's sort of an alternative history, in which the Arabs unify, push out the colonial powers, and industrialize. When the Europeans embroil themselves in two big wars, the power shifts to the middle east. In the present day, Christian terrorists have attacked Baghdad, and North America has been invaded to suppress terrorist training camps.[return][return]He slips in the occasional excerpt from the 'Library of Alexandria' wiki, which is really effective. There are big parallels between today's world and his mirage world, of course, but I'm loving the little, sly ones (and wondering how many I'm missing). My recent favorite, in a list of notable sites in Washington -- the Smithsonian Creation Science Museum. Oh, how the skin crawls. I also loved the Republic of Texas being a member of OPEC.

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