“Fiction can often tell the truth better than nonfiction. And there is a lot of truth that needs to be told.” said the author, and given the positions he held in the US security apparatus, before retiring to the usual consultant-afterlife of politicians, he is certainly right. On the outside, the book is a well-written politico-military thriller. But the meat is in the details. Clarke tells a lot about one half of the massive foreign influence on US strategy – the saudi oil money interests. A lot of information is given on how the Pentagon leadership does what they are paid for by oil money interests, regardless of how many soldiers die. Thinly veiled hints point to real world events of the last months, and the overall scenario seems not too unrealistic (the house of Saud toppled by an internal revolution, US thrown out of Iraq, China trying to assert its access to the Saudi oil…).

In short: worth reading. Lots of information packaged in a fast-to-consume thriller set in a convincingly realistic scenario.