KINGDOM COME

In this debut political fantasy, the United Kingdom descends into chaos after a massive amount of oil is discovered off its coast.

The Xstrata mining company surveys potential sites for offshore oil drilling in the United Kingdom. The results reveal that there are 270 billion barrels of oil—enough to last 100 years—near Scotland and Wales. Once the secret report is leaked, however, the information helps nationalist politicians get elected in those countries. The new governments’ first order of business is to tax the just-arrived oil companies for a larger share of the spoils. Conservative Prime Minister Robert Delgado sees this as a challenge to the U.K.’s overall welfare, and threatens to shut the two governments down. Scotland and Wales respond by seceding, knowing they’ll soon be two of the top-10 richest nations in Europe. Months and years of escalating terrorist activity follow, perpetrated by Scottish and Welsh nationalists. Draconian measures by the Delgado administration—including breaking up the BBC, and forcing young people into military service—only fuel the carnage. As both sides become entrenched, the world watches in horror, although some people in the Middle East can only smile. Murphy’s debut displays an incredible breadth of political knowledge, and it’s quite an achievement in how it chronicles several years of alternate British history (through the year 2022). His extensive cast rotates smoothly, as news reports summarize the bombings of pubs and public spaces. Frequently, Delgado and his cabinet come to life as savage hard-liners: “[W]e’re fighting a war,” Home Secretary Deborah Pearson says. “There’s no time for legal niceties.” Yet most of the narrative unfolds with minimal emotional drama, which may make it tough for readers to care about the many talking heads. It also glosses over pivotal moments in lines such as, “MI5 had at last been successful in inserting agents into the [Scottish National Liberation Army]...and the first arrests had been made.” A more engaging story might have zoomed in on the singular human struggles of such a situation.

A wide-screen alternate history, hampered by a lack of personal drama.