The Alliance, written by Gerald Lund, is not the kind of book I get excited about. It follows a predictable formula for a science fiction thriller, where a noble hero (who represents freedom and integrity) matches wits with an equally awful villain (who represents oppression and control), and the entire civilized world is at stake--and, by the way, it's a parable about agency. Sounds really corny, right? Well, it did to me when I heard the synopsis; and I almost stopped reading it after an hour, before my wife convinced me to keep reading.

At about page 90 in the story, I was able to overcome my two biggest prejudices about it: 1- that it's science fiction, and 2- that it's post-apocalyptic. And as soon as I let these concerns go I had no trouble turning the pages. In fact, I couldn't come up with any more negative things to say about it. It won me over.

The plot is simple, and as I mentioned, fairly predictable, but Lund tells a good story and in no time I was cheering for the hero, Eric, to do just what I expected him to do. In this way, reading The Alliance is a lot like watching a James Bond movie: we know, going into the movie, that Bond is going to beat out, outsmart, humiliate, and otherwise destroy the bad guy and foil his scheme every time. And it's great. The Alliance would make an excellent movie.

And, like any good story, Lund creates a romance between our hero and a worthy mate. Nicole, who at first works for the villain (and does a lot of things you don't want her to for the awful alliance that makes slaves out of people), warms up to Eric and his plans to overthrow the alliance, and eventually fills the traditional role of "bargaining chip" in the game between Eric and Major Denison. This relationship propels the story to its climax when Eric must choose to give up his detonating device that's wired to explosives on central control's computer system, in exchange for the detonating device that controls the computer chip inside Nicole, which can kill her.... Though it's not as simple as that.

Being determined not to take my lessons from a science fiction story full of cliches, I read The Alliance with the attitude that it couldn't teach me anything important. The parable is subtly taught, however, through effective (but sometimes pushed) dialogue between hero and villain, and illustrates the value of free agency--even above having a utopian society. I was very impressed with the powerful way that the novel teaches a meaningful lesson about a fundamental LDS belief, while telling a great Indiana Jones type story.

I would recommend this book to any reader. Unlike other LDS authors, Lund does not include any profanity in the book, and still nothing in the story is lost. The ideas are deep, and the morals provocative. Moreover, The Alliance challenges the fallacy that, "evil in fiction must be explicit, otherwise something is lost," and reveals the great effort made by Lund to keep "evil" from spreading into the minds of readers. At the same time, there is nothing in the book that a non-LDS reader would find difficult.

Great book.

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Paul Parkinson
December 7, 2005