A review by amphipodgirl
Black Star Rising by Frederik Pohl

2.0

I picked this up in a used book store, intrigued by the initial premise and because I very much enjoyed some Pohl that I read years ago (Heechee saga). It starts out with an interesting what if -- what if the US and the USSR blew each other to smithereens, leaving China and India as the great world powers? We start in a rice paddy in Alabama, part of a US administered by the Red Chinese. It's all very interesting, in the way that alternative history is (though when written in 1985 it was actually a speculative future).

Then some aliens show up demanding to speak to the President of the US and the whole thing veers into farcical political satire -- very disappointing.