Review of “Traitor's Black Rose” by I.M. Stoicus

Score: 89+/100 (8.9+ out of 10)

Traitor's Black Rose by I.M. Stoicus presents a politically charged narrative set in a dystopian near-future United States and world, exploring themes of nationalism, globalism, and constitutionalism. The book intertwines fictionalized political intrigue, societal critiques, and futuristic advancements, creating a complex narrative that examines the consequences of ideological divides. The story's protagonist, President Marcus Baros, embodies traditional American values juxtaposed against a globalist movement, symbolized by the titular "Mr. Black Rose."

Like Stoicus's previous works, Another World and Humans' Enhancements, it has a very clear right-wing, nationalistic, Christian-conservative stance. In fact, it's so right-wing, nationalistic, and Christian conservative that the Christian fundamentalists and nationalists are the heroes of this book while the Marxists, atheists, and globalists are the villains. This is something that's sure to offend and/or put off some readers. Even being right-leaning centrists ourselves, this particular book was a bit much in terms of heavy-handedness and bias.

Heavy left-wing/Woke bias (like that found in William Thon's The Cottage or Policies and Pain by Dr. Spencer Dayton) can be incredibly annoying to read.

Well, heavy right-wing bias (like that found in this book) can also be incredibly annoying to read.

And we agree with some of this book (just like we agree with some of Thon's and Dayton's left-leaning books). However, when an author becomes overly fixated with propping up one end of the cultural spectrum (left or right) rather than telling a good story or being entertaining, it can be incredibly tiresome.

Similar to the portrayal in Another World, the good guys are comically good and the villains are comically evil. Remember in Another World when everything the good guys don't like was labeled SATANIC (in ALL-CAPS)? Well, this is more along the same lines.

It's hard not to feel like this book's sole purpose is to preach an ideology (rather than be entertaining), which is unfortunate. What happened to all the action scenes, fighting, and combat that we read about in the previous books?

A lot of this book reads like one guy talking about the world. It's basically a philosophical diatribe comparable to what the android (Brent) does in Edward and Brent Go to Mars by Richard Jeffery Wagner—going on and on and on about his thoughts about what is right and how the world should be. That's nice and all, but... can something else please happen? Can we get the plot moving in one direction or another?

It always seems like this book is standing still.

In fact—with the insertion of quotes by philosophers, religious leaders, and intellectual thinkers—this book almost reads a lot like someone's doctorate thesis, which you think would be awesome unless you came here to read a novel with action, explosions, and stuff like that. It almost reminds us of those YouTube videos of Anakin talking about his doctorate thesis in Duality and Dichotomy in the Legend of Darth Plageius the Wise. Would you rather have Anakin talk about duality and dichotomy or engage in a lightsaber duel? The answer is clear.

It doesn't help that the writing sounds robotic and stilted at times. Perhaps the worst line is when President Baros says: “Yes, I enjoyed watching the exciting game on the local broadcast network. I especially relished when Sean rushed fifty-two yards for the winning touchdown.”

Does that sound... human? Or natural at all?

Like Baros is supposed to be some well-spoken Air Force veteran, right? He's not a cyborg/android like Solon was in the previous book.

Speaking of which...

In the previous book, Solon was a really good and smart guy (similar to President Marcus Baros), but he was also a super cool cyborg/android with exciting and entertaining powers that aided him in fighting and surviving life-threatening situations. In other words, he was really fun to read about. President Baros was not.

Yes, there's a mystery about who Mr. Black Rose is and how the heroes might stop him, but it's like that whole thing just gets wrapped up and resolved in a flash.

And by the way, as you might expect, Mr. Black Rose is basically a fictitious version of George Soros—whom the right likes to think of as a left-wing puppet master who pulls the strings of the government and mainstream media from behind the shadows by controlling their finances.

Almost this entire book is a very white-washed telling of what the 2020 and 2024 elections ideally should've been like or what should've happened with President Marcus Baros serving as a much better-spoken version of Donald Trump while President-Elect/Senator Cain (yes, Cain like the first murderer)
is a really thinly-veiled version of Joe Biden. There's even a comment about him avoiding public debates and “hiding in his basement” during the election—things which are often talking points in Trump speeches. And, of course, his election was stolen because... of course it was.

Hey, at least the world-building is pretty interesting. The year is 2088. D.C. has moved to Kansas to protect it militarily (which is kinda cool and kinda funny). Inflation has led to decamillionaires and other astronomical financial figures/designations. There's a “Doggam Virus” from North Korea that supposedly infects 5-10% of the world, and of course it's a satire of COVID. Yes, North Korea is still somehow a rogue, evil nation nearing the 22nd century. There's a congressman named Drakos, a globalist marxist. Yes, his name is really Drakos. Of course, new energy initiatives were a scam and climate change was a hoax just like the election because... of course.

You know, this book is actually unintentionally hilarious when you think of it as heavy-handed satire.

So, you might not want to come into this novel expecting a novel. You kinda have to come into this book to read about philosophies and ideologies.

Check it out on Amazon!