Alex Morgan comes from a successful family, and he has every intention of being equally successful. By the time he’s in his mid-twenties, he has already made admirable strides in securing a name and a fortune for himself. But his position comes under fire when he realizes exactly what his father is using his own wealth for.
In a situation that mirrors the modern day very closely, a former president and businessman begins angling for power once again with the intent of turning warfare into a business. With help from the Russian government, pundits, and other businessmen, he begins putting his plan into action. One of those businessmen happens to be Alex’s father. When Alex begins putting the pieces together, he realizes he has to do something; but blowing the whistle on his own family, and indeed on some of the most powerful people in the world, could put both his freedom and his life in danger.
Written by Jack Brown, PROPHETS OF WAR in no way attempts to mask who and what it’s talking about. The political figures at its center are caricatures of the real people they inspire. Whether that’s a distraction or a necessity comes down to the individual reader. That said, the novel starts off as a cross between political-thriller and thoughtful analysis of the business of warfare. Alex’s discoveries lead to real drama and danger on his part, and the majority of the book is promising.
However, this momentum seems to fall apart in the third act. Like so many ripped-from-the-headlines works of political fiction, the final phase largely abandons the plot and sinks into manifesto. Rather than seeing the story through to a satisfying end, PROPHETS OF WAR instead presents an alternative to late-stage capitalism in the form of Alex Morgan’s own plan to ensure the future of humanity. It’s outlined only in vague enough details to insist that it would work, and the story seems to fade away in the face of pitching this system to the reader. It’s a strange sea-change, as there was so much excellent personal detail and character-building amidst the more obvious satire of the earlier parts. Watching it drop away with little attempt to couch the manifesto in the fiction itself, leaving the story open-ended rather than allowing Alex Morgan to have a truly adventurous and thrilling finale, sadly feels a bit wasted.
This doesn’t make PROPHETS OF WAR a bad book. The first two-thirds are extremely strong, and Jack Brown can weave an intriguing narrative. However, the ending may leave readers feeling that Alex Morgan deserved a bit more of a “bang” for his big finale.
While a bit on the nose in its barely-fictionalized antagonists and ending in a manifesto, Jack Brown’s PROPHETS OF WAR is a promising first novel.
~ Kara Dennison for IndieReader