The Mirage

Oct 02, 2012 William rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nook, 9-11, iraq, islam, middle-east, political-fiction, saudi-arabia

The best parts of Matt Ruff's alternate War on Terror world are when the story seems like a waking dream: characters sense their version of events is not quite the reality, yet the scenes are infused with details too vivid to be anything less. These parts, especially during the first half of the novel, open the reader's eyes to new perspectives on what Americans must think of as an unchangeable cultural moment. But, also as with a dream, the longer the novel goes on, the more gaps appear to make...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Mike rated it 5 of 5 stars

I just wanted to let you know that I finished reading Matt Ruff’s new book, The Mirage, and I’m over the moon about it, it is so good! It kept me up reading long into the night!!! It begins on November 9, 2001. Members of the Halal Police force are rousting a smuggler of wines and spirits from his boat on the Tigris. Mustafa al Baghdadi is a member of this squad, enforcing Islamic rules against the selling of spirits. But this is a very different Baghdad than we are used to. This is a major metr...more I just wanted to let you know that I finished reading Matt Ruff’s new book, The Mirage, and I’m over the moon about it, it is so good! It kept me up reading long into the night!!! It begins on November 9, 2001. Members of the Halal Police force are rousting a smuggler of wines and spirits from his boat on the Tigris. Mustafa al Baghdadi is a member of this squad, enforcing Islamic rules against the selling of spirits. But this is a very different Baghdad than we are used to. This is a major metropolis of modern buildings, modern culture and modern crime. We find out Mustafa is upset. He and his wife Fadwa have had another argument. He suspects it might be over his second wife, who he regrets marrying. In a pique he has taken their only car to work, forcing her to take the El to the twin World Trade centre towers where she is meeting someone. As Mustafa and the rest of the Halal squad are standing over their prisoner they hear the roar of a passenger jet engine, impossibly close and incredibly loud, flying in the direction of the twin towers. An explosion is heard, followed minutes later by sirens. Mustafa know in his heart that Fadwa is dead.

The story skips ahead 10 years. The events of 11/9 are long past. The War on Terror against the Christian States of America is winding down. Mustafa is now a member of the AHS (Arab Homeland Security) the federal police force of the UAS (United Arab States) He is still mourning the death of Fadwa. When a Christian Crusader attempts to blow himself up in a crowded market square Mustafa almost gets himself killed. His boss suspects he may have done it on purpose. So he assigns a couple of members to his team-a former ABI (Arab Bureau of Investigation)agent named Amal and his old friend Samir, both to help him and keep and eye on him. As the AHS continues investigating how this Crusader managed to get past the now very tight security, Mustafa and his crew start hearing stories about the Mirage. When they capture a Crusader alive he begins ranting about how all reality is just a mirage-that in the 'real' world America is a superpower and the states of the UAS are just rag tag 3rd world countries. The Mirage, however, is a powerful story, for Christians and Muslims alike; and Mustafa finds out that powerful people like the gangster Saddam Hussein and his sons, and the UAS Senator Osama Bin Laden, are also interested in finding out the truth about it.

Matt Ruff weaves a very believable version of modern history, but from the other side of the looking glass; and in doing so exposes truths about the last 10 years. In its essence it is a great mystery or political thriller. It could also be seen as a fantasy. But whatever genre you may want to call it is one heck of a read!!
Christopher Moore is a huge fan as well, and recently was promoting this book on his website and FaceBook page.
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Jun 04, 2013 Nathan Huff rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: did-not-finish

I saw this in the kindle store for 2 dollars and usually when I see those books a red flag goes up. Sometimes, I may be missing out and that brings me to this book. I read the summary and thought, "You know this does sound interesting." It had an intriguing premise and I had never read an alternate history novel. I still haven't. The fact is, The Mirage just isn't a great novel. It's not bad, but it definitely isn't good. Most books about the premise of 9/11 have a sense of impending doom and su...more

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Feb 18, 2013 Peter Aarestad rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a very interesting book. It's a sort of "counter-history" imagining a world where the USA is a fragmented set of squabbling Christian-fundamentalist states, and Arabia is a united, modern country. In this alternative world, 9/11 happens to Arabia (striking the Twin Towers of Baghdad), and so Arabia declares a War on Terror on, of course, America. The fallout of that Second Gulf War (the Gulf of Mexico, naturally) sets the scene for the book. Naturally, this being a book about an alterna...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Jeremy DeBottis rated it 3 of 5 stars

After what I thought was Ruff's weakest book in "Bad Monkeys" he followed it up with a strong story that has some hits and misses. I'll start with the misses to get them out of the way, and finish on a high note with its strong aspects.
Ruff has a tendency to over think things sometimes and it has a tendency to draw things out a little far, and sometimes his characters can seem overly cliched. It's a story that if you were to ask me what happens I could tell you rather quickly, but the book can b...more

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Oct 28, 2012 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Mirage is a fascinating book. It takes a situation we are all familiar with and turns it on its head and inside out. The reader has to re-imagine the world, and every page seems to throw out some new twist to be absorbed. It’s one of those books that leaves you feeling like there are layers to the story you haven’t uncovered, while still being very readable and entertaining.

“11/9/2001: Christian fundamentalists hijack four jetliners. They fly two into the Tigris and Euphrates Word Trade Towe...more The Mirage is a fascinating book. It takes a situation we are all familiar with and turns it on its head and inside out. The reader has to re-imagine the world, and every page seems to throw out some new twist to be absorbed. It’s one of those books that leaves you feeling like there are layers to the story you haven’t uncovered, while still being very readable and entertaining.

“11/9/2001: Christian fundamentalists hijack four jetliners. They fly two into the Tigris and Euphrates Word Trade Towers in Baghdad, and a third into the Arab Defense Ministry in Riyadh. The fourth plane, believed to be bound for Mecca, is brought down by its passengers.”

What if America was the rogue terrorist nation and the Arab states were the world power? What if Osama bin Laden was a war hero and Dick Cheney was a terrorist? What would an Arab superpower look like? And what if none of it was real?

The story is centered around three Homeland Security Agents: Mustafa, still grieving a wife who was lost on 11/9; Amal, the daughter of a prominent politician, working in a country where women are still struggling for basic freedoms; and Samir, a good agent hiding a potentially deadly secret. They are involved in the War on Terror, as it exists in this alternate reality, and they are asked to help investigate a mystery: terrorists and militants have been arrested. All of them spoke of a “mirage.” They claimed that the world around them was an illusion, that in the real world, America was the superpower, Muslims had carried out the terrorist attacks, they have artifacts that back up their story, and it appears that the government may be making them disappear.

Despite the weighty subject matter, this is a very engaging, entertaining story about cops chasing bad guys. The setting and the rules are different, but it’s a familiar story. The characters are interesting and surprising, and I enjoyed seeing the ways that they reacted inside this reality. (Could you have a female police officer in a part of the world where women still veil their faces and aren’t allowed to drive?) There are colorful bad guys, a lot of old-fashioned police-work, following leads and interviewing suspects, and the agents are fully aware that there are things going on behind the scenes — the bad guys aren’t the only dangers. But there are also a lot of layers to this story, and I found myself often feeling like I was missing something, like there was something I hadn’t quite grasped.

A lot of the groundwork in the story is laid out in entries from this reality’s version of Wikipedia, The Library of Alexandria: A User-Edited Reference Source. The entries provide explanations, background, even maps to help you make sense of the story. Those are pretty fun, at least in the beginning, as are the appearances of a lot of well-known names, but by the time Dick Cheney makes an appearance, near the end of the book, it was beginning to feel like overkill. The ending of the story wasn’t completely satisfying, but I still had a good time getting there.(less)

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Aug 22, 2012 Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Blessèd peacemakers

Recommended to Alan by: The Ohio County Public Library in Wheeling, WV; subject matter and previous work

I've been reading a fair amount of heavy, serious literature lately—authors like Philip Roth, Lawrence Durrell and Alasdair Gray—so I thought I'd go back to something lighter for a change, like this novel... about 9/11/2001 and the ensuing War on Terror.

Or, rather, about 11/9/2001, the fateful day when a small group of fanatical Christian terrorists flew hijacked planes into Baghdad's twin Tigris and Euphrates skyscrapers, shaking the foundations of the sprawling Islamic republic known as the Un...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Avry15 rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: action, conspiracy, fiction

originally appeared on: Bookshelf Confessions

I’m not so sure what to think of the book ---The book make me feel like I was about to read something unforgivable - It also almost turned me away because of its premise, but because Matt Ruff is really famous for BAD MONKEYS , I took the risk. It also makes me laugh in a way, that it’s really a twist.. there are: the UAS (United Arab States) instead of US, ABI (Arab Bureau of Investigation) instead of FBI, 11/9 instead of 9/11.. there are a lot more....more originally appeared on: Bookshelf Confessions

I’m not so sure what to think of the book ---The book make me feel like I was about to read something unforgivable - It also almost turned me away because of its premise, but because Matt Ruff is really famous for BAD MONKEYS , I took the risk. It also makes me laugh in a way, that it’s really a twist.. there are: the UAS (United Arab States) instead of US, ABI (Arab Bureau of Investigation) instead of FBI, 11/9 instead of 9/11.. there are a lot more. And I wasn’t disappointed; I was in awe of how good that twist is, that I was actually beginning to think the world he created might be possible!

Matt Ruff has created his own story out of history. I wouldn’t go more into the plot, but I assure you, it will keep you on edge--- thinking what would happen next. I was up all night reading and contemplating the events unfolding in front of me. At first it’s hard to get into the story, because the book is an alternate reality..it would really take some time for a reader, to fully grasp the concept and be familiar with it. But once I’m in terms with the characters, the place, I finally realized how complicated and how much time and thinking this book requires the author to complete it. And the result- is a very interesting plot that might be condemned by some but admired by many.

The topic/theme of this book, is not easy, but if we just read the book as a work of fiction, let the author take us away from reality… then THE MIRAGE is really a brilliant one. The writing is very good, the Library at Alexandria (Wikipedia) is a good move to keep the reader up to date with the history, and the author’s right-in-time-humor is sufficient to make you stop and smile at the very concentrated moment,. He gives us enough details, enough to satisfy and make us curious altogether.

The characters are all significant on the story. We could even see in the picture the infamous Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. I enjoyed the journey to the truth with Mustafa, the hero, how he finds out about the Mirage, and discover things he thought far from possible.

The venue- Baghdad is totally different than we used to – it’s modern, with skyscrapers, modern culture, just think of anything that’s opposite. (Anyways, that’s what this book is.>:D). The author’s really good in describing the new face of the city, Mecca, every place in the story is a whole lot new than what we know, and yet, I could totally picture it. It’s vivid and complete.

One drawback I guess, is the end. I was expecting it anyways, but I’m thinking that there might be something more ( I’m confusing you, I know--- but I have really confused feelings about the book… )

Last words: It’s amazing… I didn’t even think one could rewrite 9/11 in such a flawless way that’s really believable.. I could already imagine a movie for this.>:D Good book, good plot, lots of characters more than needed maybe, good writing style, and maybe with little changes on the details of the story in between and at the end, this would make it to the top-rated political thriller of 2012. (I’ve written quite long—but trust me, YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS THIS BOOK!!!)

Very highly recommended to everyone who enjoys action/mystery/sci-fi stories.
I wouldn’t recommend this to children and culture-sensitive people, though.(less)

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Jul 18, 2012 Erik Owomoyela rated it 3 of 5 stars

The story takes a particularly self-aware approach to alternate history, which I wasn't sure I'd like at first, but it paid off in the end. It knows that it's set in a fantasy world that was created by an intelligence with a sense of irony, rather than any kind of historical what-if. But even so, it spent a lot of time exploring what a modern Arab superstate might look like, and that tension between realism and irony led to most of my complaints about the book.

Given how many ways a book with thi...more

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Jul 11, 2012 Jill rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book imagines an alternate history of the Middle East and United States. In The Mirage, 11/9/2001 is the date that Christian extremists hijacked jetliners and ran them into the World Trade Towers in Baghdad. The United Arab States declare a war on terror and invade territories of the North American continent. Arab Homeland Security agents discover Christian fundamentalists who have a different vision of the world: a world in which the territories of North America are united to form the Unit...more

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May 14, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Mirage is more than an alternate history novel. It’s a thought-provoking inversion that turns the world on its head, portraying a contemporary world in which the United Arab States—the UAS—is the dominant economic and military power, while North America is merely a collection of squabbling territories often divided along socio-religious lines. One of these states, the Rocky Mountain Independent Territories, is home to the World Christian Alliance, a terrorist organization responsible for the...more The Mirage is more than an alternate history novel. It’s a thought-provoking inversion that turns the world on its head, portraying a contemporary world in which the United Arab States—the UAS—is the dominant economic and military power, while North America is merely a collection of squabbling territories often divided along socio-religious lines. One of these states, the Rocky Mountain Independent Territories, is home to the World Christian Alliance, a terrorist organization responsible for the November 9, 2001 attack on the Tigris and Euphrates World Trade Towers in Baghdad.

I was fortunate to hear Matt Ruff discuss his book at the Tumwater Timberland Library. It was originally a television pitch commissioned by HBO. While they felt it was potentially brilliant, the likelihood of it being a hard sell to American TV audiences caused it to be shelved. Ruff parlayed his idea into a novel that is both inventive and gripping. The narrative follows a trio of detectives from Homeland Security whose investigation of a team of suicide bombers results in a surprising assertion: The terrorists all believe that what the detectives view as reality is in fact a mirage.

As the agents embark on their search to uncover the origin of these rumors—and the mysterious artifacts lending credence to them—the story accelerates, gradually metamorphosing from its thought-provoking premise into an action-filled finale. While this keeps the reader engrossed, it’s somewhat disappointing after such a high-concept premise.

Some revisionist histories try to deliver a heavy-handed message. However, I’ve always felt the genre works best when it’s merely a setting. Ruff successfully does this, resisting the urge to turn the book into a parable, though he does provide a scathing critique of religious partisanship. He wows with wicked creativity, filling the world with a number of clever details, and provides necessary background through a series of wiki articles entitled the “Library of Alexandria.” There is just enough to satisfy, even if you may not want to peer too closely at the details. This works to the novel’s advantage; the rules for building an ephemeral world are necessarily different than those trying to convince us of a hard-set alternate reality.

Ruff shows a deft hand with his subtle and nuanced portrayal of UAS societal dynamics, and his detectives are sympathetic and relatable. At times, though, his own cleverness turns into indulgence. Ruff fills his novel with several well-known characters; while some, like Saddam Hussein, have prominent (and plausible) roles, towards the end of the novel the amount of cameos shoehorned into the plot becomes overbearing—and somewhat cartoonish. Add a dollop of confusing metaphysics, shallow caricatures, and nebulous motivations, and the plot collapses under the weight of greater expectations.

Still, don’t let that dissuade you--The Mirage is definitely worth reading. It doesn’t open perceptions by superordinating the US or UAS, or placing anyone on a pedestal; instead, it depicts everyday people with everyday concerns. Even when forced to comprehend that the world may not be as it seems, they seem utterly and beautifully normal. In our post-9/11 world, we’ve been force-fed perceptions and rhetoric. This novel reminds us that no matter what religion, society, country, or region, there are not only plenty of extremists, but also plenty of regular people just trying to live their lives.

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Apr 07, 2012 Grady Hendrix rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm not sure why this book is getting dismissed left, right, and center (see the New York Times review for a sampling of this dismissal) but I thought it was far more thoughtful, well-written, and entertaining than a lot of what came out in 2011 and 2012 (so far) I'm a big China Mieville fan, but I thought that this was the book he was trying to write with The City and the City.

Face it, this isn't literary fiction, it's genre fiction that should be in airport bookstores. It's fast-paced, featur...more

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Apr 02, 2012 Jesse rated it 3 of 5 stars

sorta disappointing - what could have been an amazing novel, just reads like genre fiction, with a purported purpose. the characters are flat and police proceduralish. saddam and bin laden are evil and written with zero depth (and this is a trap many writers fall into - that evil characters should be written with no depth and complexity. but evil actions require the most complex motives, and yet writers settle for simple undiluted motivations: greed, jealousy, etc.) but the biggest letdown of al...more

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Mar 23, 2012 Guillaume Jay rated it 4 of 5 stars

Des chrétiens fondamentalistes envoient des avions dans les tours du World Trade Center de Bagdad, le 9 novembre 2011. Dix ans et une invasion des royaumes évangeliques nord américains par les Etats Arabes Unis après,une équipe antiterroriste empêche un autre attentat suicide d'un intégriste catholique. Lorsqu'ils l'interrogent, celui-ci leur parle d'un autre monde, ou l’Amérique domine le monde et l'Irak est en ruine. Cette légende est celle du Mirage, et Mustafa, Samir et Amal sont à présent c...more

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Mar 14, 2012 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: black-comedy, literature-disguised-as-science-fic, literature-fantastique, noir, spy-vs-spy

Matt Ruff is responsible for a series of topsy- turvy entertainments that have earned comparisons to Pynchon, Terry Gilliam, Stephenson, and Philip K Dick. This book of course resembles A Man in a High Castle for the war on terror, but also Borges, the TV shows Fringe and Lost, and Bruce Sterling’s many variations on Islamic themed alternative history. Ruff creates a world that is warped mirror on our own, showing what it contains and what made it. This makes it maddingly sad and funny at once....more

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Feb 19, 2012 Jill Heather rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: sff, alt-history

Overall, the book was okay, but problematic.

Some of the worldbuilding in this book was brilliant, from small funny details (CSI: Halal, Christianity for the Ignorant) to the large strokes of the way the UAS (United Arab States) and the alt-USA were set up. The general outlines of Europe -- mostly the eastern bit -- were also fun, though I think that the results of WWI that led to WWII in this world don't entirely fit, but no details were provided so I can make up my own reasons that alt-WWI led...more Overall, the book was okay, but problematic.

Some of the worldbuilding in this book was brilliant, from small funny details (CSI: Halal, Christianity for the Ignorant) to the large strokes of the way the UAS (United Arab States) and the alt-USA were set up. The general outlines of Europe -- mostly the eastern bit -- were also fun, though I think that the results of WWI that led to WWII in this world don't entirely fit, but no details were provided so I can make up my own reasons that alt-WWI led to alt-WWII (there are some reasons given in the book, but not exactly geopolitical reasons).

The first half of the book was fantastic. But as we got more and more into the alt-USA, it made less and less and less sense. If the USA is a bunch of independent countries, what about Mexico? (One state appears to be part of Texas.) What about the entire northern half of the US, which -- other than a brief mention of NYC and DC -- seems to not exist? Shouldn't it make a significant difference that North America is big, unlike the Middle East? If a US president/dictator is trying the "all of North America" manifest destiny thing, then Canada and Mexico should be mentioned. I just cannot imagine how different parts of the (southern) US are all at war and Mexico just stands by.

Another issue is that the UAS is in no ways better than the real-USA. Mostly they're the same, though pork is illegal (possibly other foods that aren't legal in the US are legal there), as is alcohol, though hashish isn't. It's fighting for gender equality and sort of succeeding, etc etc. Racism in the UAS is entirely ignored. It's virulently anti-gay. So the UAS is like the USA, except not as good. They also use the Gregorian calendar, for unknown reasons.

And, of course, the characters. Many of the main players' names will be familiar to you, and their personalities are much the same, though their circumstances are very different. The biggest problem here -- and this is a huge spoiler, so if you want to read the book without knowing this, beware, though I don't think you will actually lose anything if this single plot point is spoiled -- (view spoiler)(less)

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Feb 07, 2012 Gregory marked it as to-read

from boing boing review:

A dream of a different world. A topsy-turvy world. A world where a great power called America rules, where Arabia is a collection of squabbling dictatorships, where the atrocities of 11/9 happened on 9/11, and triggered a very different War on Terror. What's more, some of these Crusaders bear startlingly realistic artifacts from this strange world -- copies of an imaginary, long-defunct newspaper called The New York Times, military service records, Iraqi money bearing the...more

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Feb 03, 2012 J Edward Tremlett rated it 5 of 5 stars

On November the 9th, the United Arab States suffered the worst ever terrorist attack on its soil. Fanatical Christians from America hijacked several planes and drove them into high-profile targets, most notably the Twin Towers of Baghdad. The people's illusions about their nation's strength and security were wiped away by the flash of fire and the thunder of falling debris.

The resulting War on Terror has transformed the UAS, and not always for the better. In an age of "homicide bombers," suspici...more On November the 9th, the United Arab States suffered the worst ever terrorist attack on its soil. Fanatical Christians from America hijacked several planes and drove them into high-profile targets, most notably the Twin Towers of Baghdad. The people's illusions about their nation's strength and security were wiped away by the flash of fire and the thunder of falling debris.

The resulting War on Terror has transformed the UAS, and not always for the better. In an age of "homicide bombers," suspicion and distrust are now considered patriotic. The wheels of state are oiled by intrigue and influence, and too much power has clearly been given to the wrong people.

Mustafa al Baghdadi is, arguably, one of the right people: a decent but nowhere near perfect cop trying to walk the line between being a hardass and remaining human. The War on Terror moved him from vice detail to anti-terrorism, putting his feud with notorious Baghdad gangster Saddam Hussein on hold. It also destroyed both his marriages, one more forcefully than the other. His father is ailing, his coworkers are arguing, and he keeps having weird bouts of vertigo, as though the world were falling down around him in ways that only he can perceive.

It may very well be. A recent, disturbing trend has occurred - one that he's only now becoming aware of. Some of the would-be martyrs his team are busting are convinced that this world is a fantasy. In the "real" world, America is a great nation, and not some third-world, warlord-run backwater filled with homicidal Christian zealots and IEDs. This alternate America is currently embroiled in its own War on Terror against various members of the UAS -- and Muslims in general, to hear the terrorists say it -- following a terrible deed done to them by Muslim radicals.

One of the terrorists has "proof": a wrinkled, old copy of something called the New York Times. Apparently published on 12th of September, 2001, it shows planes crashing into a pair of towers the day before. That it's an eerie reversal of what happened in Baghdad, all those years ago, is not lost on Mustafa. But how can this object, and those like it, even exist?

Finding the answer won't be easy. It'll require dodging both the President's goons and the far-reaching, sinister influence of Senator bin Laden, and Al Qaeda. It'll also mean rattling the cages of Saddam and his genuinely evil family, who are clearly up to something, and could be hiding a lot more than usual.

It will also require a trip to war-torn America -- caught in a morass of seemingly futile nation-building, and laden with dangers both foreign and domestic. What they discover there will answer some things, but will also suggest new queries that no one could have seen coming.

The answers to those questions will rattle their notions of reality, free will, and destiny to the core. But will they have time to act on those answers, and save the UAS from a catastrophe even greater than 11/9?

Whose will be done, and in which world?

The dissection of consensus reality, our questionable perceptions of it, and our sometimes uncertain relationship with it are themes that Ruff has explored before. most notably in the excellent Bad Monkeys. But here, using the backdrop of alternate history, the idea has a lot more room to move and breathe. As befitting a thriller, the pacing is swift, and the use of intercalary snippets of media (such as The Library of Alexandria -- aka Wikipedia) to give backstory, and explain certain aspects of the world, is a well done move on the author's part. The characters are real, their hopes and failings believable, and their stories compelling and readable.

Certain persons of high patriotic gumption and moral turpitude will no doubt condemn The Mirage as anti-American, Anti-Semitic, or pro-terrorist. Doubtless they will not have even bothered to read the book before doing so, for this work is none of those things, but rather an exploration of perceived truth nestled inside a genuinely thrilling work of speculative fiction.(less)

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Apr 22, 2012 Thomas rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Do you remember where you were when the towers fell? Mustafa al Baghdadi does. He was busting whiskey smugglers on the Tigris River when he saw the planes, hijacked by Christian fundamentalist insurgents, crash into the Tigris and Euphrates Twin Towers, ultimately bringing them down. That act, on November 9, 2001, sent the United Arab States into a full-blown “War on Terror,” driven by President Osama bin Laden, against the struggling theocracy in America. The UAS military forces maintain a pres...more Do you remember where you were when the towers fell? Mustafa al Baghdadi does. He was busting whiskey smugglers on the Tigris River when he saw the planes, hijacked by Christian fundamentalist insurgents, crash into the Tigris and Euphrates Twin Towers, ultimately bringing them down. That act, on November 9, 2001, sent the United Arab States into a full-blown “War on Terror,” driven by President Osama bin Laden, against the struggling theocracy in America. The UAS military forces maintain a presence there for many years, suffering losses from the forces there, led by such terror masterminds as Donald Rumsfeld, “The Quail Hunter” (a man who gets rid of his opponents by inviting them out on quail hunts and then “accidentally” shoots them), and a reference to a man who sounds a lot like George W. Bush. Add in some wild conspiracy theories behind how the UAS government was behind the attacks, and you start to find a lot of familiarity in a novel that upturns the entire history of 9/11 into the alternate history of 11/9.

Matt Ruff has created a compelling read that could have been just a thought experiment into jingoism, racism, patriotism, and the role of government following 9/11, but he also adds a fantastic plot to go along with this story to further cement it into our own history. The plot itself feels like a maguffin, since the point seems to be more about making the reader think, but the plot raises enough questions along the way to keep the reader moving forward through the story, and keeps it from being just a satire. It’s controversial, to say the least (it’s certainly disconcerting to read the words “President Osama bin Laden”), but it all feels deliberate, as if the point of this story is to make us a little uncomfortable by considering the viewpoint of the War on Terror from the other side.

That point makes it a little difficult to rate the novel on its story. It’s a little strange, and requires a significant suspension of disbelief in regards to the plot as the conspiracy begins to unravel, and ultimately I just found it to be hokey and disappointing. It also relies heavily on creating characters out of real people, which grew a little tiresome. They became charicatures of sorts, and as Ruff peppered the novel with more and more of them, swapping their moral and political sides from history to the novel, it turned into a guessing game where you wondered who was going to be the next bad guy or good guy. Thematically, it works, as it drives home the point of which is which in the War on Terror and how much of it depends on one’s perspective; story-wise, it was a bit of a failure for me.

The thing is, I liked the book. I can rely on Matt Ruff to write a compelling, interesting story with some wild suppositions, and that was certainly the case with The Mirage. It’s not as good as Sewer, Gas, Electric (though, admittedly, I should stop comparing his works against that novel, as it’s one of my favorites), but it raises some interesting questions and will keep you thinking long after you finish the book. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone (conservatives would find a lot to argue against here, I think), but if you’re curious about it, I think it’s worth reading.(less)

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Feb 19, 2012 Danny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-book

Where were you when the towers fell? Were you in the backwaters of America where fundamentalist Christians of various denominations scrabble for power in tribal conflicts? Or were you in the civilized states of Arabia, watching as outside agents tried to shake your faith in your strong Muslim nation? On 11/09/2001, where were you?

The basic premise of this examination of the world after the most famous terror attacks ever perpetrated is that America and Arabia have switched places. And while it i...more

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Mar 27, 2013 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Imagine a world where Arabia, not the USA, is the world's superpower. One where the "Gulf War" took place in the Gulf of Mexico, where Israel was moved to Germany after WWII, and where Christian, not Muslim, extremists attacked buildings in the Middle East, not the USA, on 11/9 (not 9/11). Finally, imagine that this was all a mirage, and that the real world that we know still exists. Thought provoking, eye-opening, and well written, I enjoyed this read. I would have liked the author to spend mor...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Peter Dunn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Perhaps the first book I have read after a recommendation from a Facebook friend.

A clever idea, essentially 9/11 meets Philip K. Dick's 'The Man In The High Castle', and a not unreasonable ending either. Some of the characters were a little 2D but some of the criticism I have seen that the Arab characters were too Western in view misses the point. The alternate reality depicts a world where a unified Arabia has become the world’s dominant power but is fighting its own war own very different War...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Jeremy added it

Shelves: american-fiction

This has gotten a lot of comparisons with Philip K. Dick's 'the man in the high castle' and while it is an extremely detailed and well researched alternative history, it certainly doesn't have the same subtle blend of themes and paranoia that Dick could evoke. The cosmic role reversal between America and Arabia in 'The Mirage' feels more about grafting one civilizations 'success' over another civilizations 'failure.' At first the Arab characters feel like little more than American characters wit...more This has gotten a lot of comparisons with Philip K. Dick's 'the man in the high castle' and while it is an extremely detailed and well researched alternative history, it certainly doesn't have the same subtle blend of themes and paranoia that Dick could evoke. The cosmic role reversal between America and Arabia in 'The Mirage' feels more about grafting one civilizations 'success' over another civilizations 'failure.' At first the Arab characters feel like little more than American characters with Arabic names and fairly conventional american backgrounds. Yet there are a few powerful, emotional moments throughout the book which show the cost of living in this world. Watching a deeply closeted Muslim getting blackmailed, reading about the disintegration of a marriage in a society where having multiple marriages at once are acceptable, someone flicking a cigarette butt off a roof as they wonder if their world is really what it appears to be, etc. Ruff is a strong writer, but I wanted him to focus in more on these moments of pathos and psychological tension than on the constant exposition of this world. The info dumps are well handled, considering what a deluge of new information he throws at you, but ultimately I found myself overwhelmed and often forgetting the precise history of turf wars between a john gotti-esque Saddam Hussein (weird, but effective) and the Mahdi army. The most disorienting (and I think most effective) part was when everyone goes to America and we see a truly bleak, sad vision of what right wing fundamentalist mania would do if it ran amok in the U.S. Everyone saying 'it's gods will' every other sentence, guns with violent biblical verses carved into their stocks (easily the book's most chilling image), and waring paramilitary christian groups engaging in a perpetual cycle of messianic violence. It's Rick Santorum meets the John Birch society. Like many books that try to juggle an entire made up world, The Mirage sets itself up with just too much to resolve and explore fully, and its only with a few handy deus ex machinas that it even makes it to the end at all. But look, Ruff still deserves serious credit, he's one of the few writers thus far who has actually been willing to try and tackle 'the war on terror' as a whole as a literary subject. An ongoing conflict this large, and this poorly defined is hard enough to pin down in reality, much less in fiction. If the war on terror ever develops a literature of its own, I suspect The Mirage will probably be seen as one of its antecedents. Right now, its one of the only works in a field that apparently few novelists want to examine.(less)

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Jan 08, 2012 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

With "The Mirage", Matt Ruff has written the definitive 9-11 novel, a spellbinding, alternative history thriller that is the 21st Century version of Philip K. Dick's "The Man in the High Castle"; an often sly, truly memorable, fictional commentary on the 9-11-01 terrorist attacks and America's military response, especially its invasion of Iraq. This is no mere homage to Philip K. Dick's greatest science fiction novel, but instead, one that truly transcends it, with dialogue reminiscent of Elmore...more With "The Mirage", Matt Ruff has written the definitive 9-11 novel, a spellbinding, alternative history thriller that is the 21st Century version of Philip K. Dick's "The Man in the High Castle"; an often sly, truly memorable, fictional commentary on the 9-11-01 terrorist attacks and America's military response, especially its invasion of Iraq. This is no mere homage to Philip K. Dick's greatest science fiction novel, but instead, one that truly transcends it, with dialogue reminiscent of Elmore Leonard and David Foster Wallace, a plot worthy of Graham Greene and John Le Carre, and more than a passing nod to William Gibson, Bruce Sterling and Neal Stephenson; indeed it can be seen as a contemporary tale straight out of "One Thousand and One Nights" which perceptive readers will appreciate and understand by the close of Ruff's compelling saga. I have no doubt that Ruff's latest novel will be viewed as his most controversial. There will be those who find objectionable, his heroic portrayal of democratic Muslim and Christian Arabs, in stark contrast to his utterly reprehensible cast of fanatical Fundamentalist Protestant Christian Americans, and they will also claim that his plot is utterly preposterous (But one that is far more rooted in reality than Dick's dystopian vision of a United States conquered and divided into zones of Imperial Japanese and Nazi German occupation in "The Man in the High Castle".). Any novel that will have as characters, the likes of Saddam Hussein, Tariq Aziz and Osama bin Laden, will be the target of ample criticism, but Ruff's choices make absolute sense as this is truly a compelling work of alternative history, and one destined to be a classic in this genre.

Readers will find ample reminders of 9-11 and subsequent American history, within Ruff's compelling alternative history, starting with an almost poetic prologue that recounts a Baghdad dawn eerily reminiscent of New York City's on that fateful Tuesday morning (which, in Ruff's version is also a Tuesday), seeing the first rays of the sun striking the Tigris and Euphrates twin World Trade Center towers. And then there will be scenes set in the United States, not far from the Green Zone established by United Arab States armed forces in Washington, D. C., that will have unavoidable comparisons with America's recently concluded occupation of Iraq. And yet, despite the gross similarities, there will be differences, based on cultural and religious differences as well as the alternative history timeline, which Ruff cleverly exploits via his "entries" in "The Library of Alexandria", his alternative history clone of Wikipedia, which are often witty, quite clever, "footnotes" which merely add to - not detract from - his engrossing narrative.

Eight years after the 11-9-01 terrorist attacks on the United Arab States, Homeland Security agent Mustafa al Baghdadi interrogates a captured American suicide bomber who claims that their recent history is but a mirage of the truth; one in which the United States of America, a superpower, is attacked by fanatical Muslim terrorists, with the Muslim Arab world fragmented into barely civilized "backward third-world states", not the democratic superpower that is the United Arab States. Other terrorists have been telling the same stories, and Mustafa, along with his colleagues and friends Samir and Amal, soon embark on a perilous trek from the Arab world to the occupied Christian States of America in search of the truth, encountering not only other suspects, but even artifacts, that support the bomber's astonishing claims. Theirs is a trek to uncover the truth before the independent investigations of Baathist labor leader - and gangster - Saddam Hussein and Senate Intelligence Committee head Osama bin Laden succeed.

"The Mirage" is an exceptional work of fiction that warrants a mention in the 2012 "best of" lists, and one worthy of recognition as a potential Hugo and Nebula Award nominee by those within the science fiction literary community. Ruff's latest novel should confirm his status as one of the best American writers of my generation; a noteworthy literary career that includes notable works of fantasy ("Fool on the Hill"), post-cyberpunk fiction ("Sewer Gas Electric: The Public Works Trilogy"), and most recently, a heart-pounding psychological thriller homage to Philip K. Dick ("Bad Monkeys"). Much more so than either Rick Moody or Jonathan Lethem - his closest peers amongst "mainstream" fiction writers capable of writing excellent science fiction - Ruff has created a believable, realistic "world" as memorable in its own right as those envisioned by the likes of William Gibson and China Mieville in, respectively, their celebrated "Cyberspace" and "New Crobuzon" trilogies; it's a "world" that shouldn't be missed.
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Jul 30, 2012 Ben Eldridge rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

An ambitious concept, with stunning execution for about 2/3 of the way, The Mirage is ultimately defeated by its own cleverness. Both Ruff's Set This House In Order and Sewer, Gas & Electric are amongst my favourite books, thus I harboured high expectations for this novel, which were not wholly met. Essentially an alternate history novel in which 9/11 becomes 11/9 and the world's superpower is UAS (United Arabia States), leaving America as the backwater, religiously fanatical breeding...more

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Apr 12, 2012 Justin Tappan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm going to lift a description of the book from Amazon, as it sums it up nicely:

"A mind-bending novel in which an alternate history of 9/11 and its aftermath uncovers startling truths about America and the Middle East

11/9/2001: Christian fundamentalists hijack four jetliners. They fly two into the Tigris & Euphrates World Trade Towers in Baghdad, and a third into the Arab Defense Ministry in Riyadh. The fourth plane, believed to be bound for Mecca, is brought down by its passengers.

The Unit...more I'm going to lift a description of the book from Amazon, as it sums it up nicely:

"A mind-bending novel in which an alternate history of 9/11 and its aftermath uncovers startling truths about America and the Middle East

11/9/2001: Christian fundamentalists hijack four jetliners. They fly two into the Tigris & Euphrates World Trade Towers in Baghdad, and a third into the Arab Defense Ministry in Riyadh. The fourth plane, believed to be bound for Mecca, is brought down by its passengers.

The United Arab States declares a War on Terror. Arabian and Persian troops invade the Eastern Seaboard and establish a Green Zone in Washington, D.C. . . .

Summer, 2009: Arab Homeland Security agent Mustafa al Baghdadi interrogates a captured suicide bomber. The prisoner claims that the world they are living in is a mirage—in the real world, America is a superpower, and the Arab states are just a collection of "backward third-world countries." A search of the bomber's apartment turns up a copy of The New York Times, dated September 12, 2001, that appears to support his claim. Other captured terrorists have been telling the same story. The president wants answers, but Mustafa soon discovers he's not the only interested party."

A really engaging book of alternate history and metaphysical strangeness. The premise hooks you right off the bat, and the story moves along at a blistering pace. Historical figures from "our" reality are re-cast in this strange parallel world where the United Arab States is the world's only superpower, and the United States is broken up into a series of feuding countries, divided by religious differences. Osama Bin Laden is a politician. Donald Rumsfeld is the head of a terror cell. It's the world we know it turned on its head.

This book looks unflinchingly at religious differences and how circumstance can change the direction of individuals as well as nations. Prejudices are examined, and stereotypes are turned on their heads.

Clearly, there's some mysterious force at work here. Throughout the book, hints are dropped. The finale definitely was more supernatural than I was expecting, but overall the conclusion was satisfying.

Great book, balancing entertainment with social commentary.

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Mar 10, 2012 Rebecca rated it 2 of 5 stars

While reading The Mirage, I discovered there's a certain level of detail past which an author shouldn't go in any work of alternate history fiction, and that level is reached, passed, and left in the desert dust in Matt Ruff's novel. It's a great premise--the Tigris and Euphrates Towers in the United Arab States are supposedly destroyed by Christian fundamentalist hijackers with airplanes, and the UAS, the world's lone superpower, is then plunged into a disastrous War on Terror in North America-...more

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May 24, 2012 Maciek rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: speculative-fiction, thriller-mystery-suspense, science-fiction, alternative-history, read-in-2012

The date is 11/9/2001: Christian fundamentalists from the Christian States of America hijack four jetliners, and launch a suicide attack against the United Arab States. Two jetliners crash into Tigris and Euphrates World Trade Towers in Baghdad. One crashes into the the Arab Defense Ministry in Riyadh. The last one, believed to be aimed for Mecca, is brought down by the passengers. The United Arab States declares a War on Terror, and invades the CSA, estabilishing the Green Zone in Washington, D...more The date is 11/9/2001: Christian fundamentalists from the Christian States of America hijack four jetliners, and launch a suicide attack against the United Arab States. Two jetliners crash into Tigris and Euphrates World Trade Towers in Baghdad. One crashes into the the Arab Defense Ministry in Riyadh. The last one, believed to be aimed for Mecca, is brought down by the passengers. The United Arab States declares a War on Terror, and invades the CSA, estabilishing the Green Zone in Washington, D.C. Eight years later, Arab Homeland Security agent Mustafa al Baghdadi interrogates a captured suicide bomber. The man claims that the world Mustafa knows is a mirage, reality turned upside down - in the real world America is a world superpower, and the Arab states are just a bunch of backward, thirld world countries. A search of his apartment brings up a copy of The New York Times, dated September 12, 2001 reporting a terorrist attack on the Twin Towers in the city...

The premise of the novel is great, potent with possibilities and the author obviously has a lot of fun with creating a world which is standing on its head. Law & Order: Halal and CSI: Damascus are popular TV shows and in bookstores one can find books like Christianity for the Ignorant. On the internet, people can browse the Library of Alexandria, a "user edited reference source". Characters we know appear in reversed roles - Osama bin Laden is a war hero, but Saddam Hussein is still the bad guy. There's a lot of similar references in this novel, and spotting them out is great fun.

However, the biggest flaw of the text is the fact that it gets bogged down with mundanity; the fun of the mirage concept is buried down under the rough parts which slow the pace down and make the reader slog along. The ambitious idea and depth of changes introduced into the world deserved more than this; in parts it reads like any other contemporary thriller, with characters more sketched than developed, focusing more on the plotline, which seems disjointed and unfocused. The idea carries the whole novel along, and hile I felt that the ending was satisfying I couldn't shake off the feeling that this novel deserved more; in the mirage world it would be thought provoking and memorable, while in the real world it never really becomes more than a sum of its parts, depending on the clever gimmicks and idea of its author.

Overall, I am glad that I've read it, and I think that the title suits it well - it is like a mirage, glittering with wonders which slowly evaporate as we approach it to take a good look.(less)

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Apr 27, 2013 Mihir rated it 3 of 5 stars

The best part about Matt Ruff's Mirage is its setup. The world wherein the United Arab States is the belligerent power in the world and post a 9/11 attack on its soil by hardline Christian fundamentalists gives rise to this story wherein roles, perceptions and perhaps destinies are reversed. The author's world building skills come to the fore as his changes with Arabic themes conveniently fit in seamlessly within the plot and give the reader a twisted story to follow wherein the main characters...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Bennett Gavrish rated it 2 of 5 stars

Grade: D

L/C Ratio: 20/80
(This means I estimate the author devoted 20% of his effort to creating a literary work of art and 80% of his effort to creating a commercial bestseller.)

Thematic Breakdown:
40% - Alternate history
25% - Religion
20% - Political satire
15% - Action thriller

A premise, no matter how brilliant and compelling and mind-bending it is, cannot carry a book alone. Unfortunately for Matt Ruff, The Mirage is a prime example of that fact.

In his new novel, Ruff imagines a world that is op...more

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