cover image When the Almond Tree Blossoms

When the Almond Tree Blossoms

David Aikman. W Publishing Group, $19.99 (382pp) ISBN 978-0-8499-0962-7

Set in 1998, this first novel by a senior correspondent for Time involves a reactionary but sometimes entertaining post-Cold War scenario. A second U.S. civil war pits the ``Constitutionalists'' against the ``People's Movement'' (PM), a left-wing coalition that seized power after Russia defeated the U.S. in Iran. National politics are topsy-turvy: Russia is a fascist state; the PM-run U.S. is communist, almost Maoist; while China has rejected Mao in favor of a market economy. The PC PM-ers are clearly the bad guys here and freedom under their rule is as precarious as it was under Stalin, though the PM has yet to master Stalin's efficiency in eliminating opposition. To that end they have enlisted the assistance of a Russian, Alexei Ilyich Ponomarev. Ponomarev in turn recruits supposed PM stalwart Douglas Richfield to infiltrate the Constitutionalists to discover both the identity of a Constitutionalist mole and to secure information about Project Almond, the opposition's nuclear trump card. It quickly becomes obvious which side Richfield will eventually support--especially since his love interest is active in the Constitutionalist underground. The rushed ending leaves unresolved a subplot about mutiny on a nuclear submarine and also leaves the reader feeling as though a chapter or two were missing. 50,000 first printing. (Aug.)