Steve Berry
China. The backdrop of this entertaining book provided new historical insights to the oldest and, in antiquity, the most advanced civilization on earth. Per usual for the vast majority of Steve Berry's books, our hero is Cotton Malone, formerly of the Magellan Billet - a special team of attorneys who also happened to be super spies. Great with guns, even better with his mind, he teams up with Cassiopeia Vitt, a wealthy friend who is no slouch herself as an 'operator' (synonymous with spy).
Berry has actually set up this novel with a short novella titled The Balkan Escape, in which Vitt escaped from a sticky situation she found herself deep within a formerly abandoned Thracian tomb (from the age of Alexander the Great) in which large uranium deposits were discovered. Seemingly destined for inevitable death, a scientist named Lev Solokov risks his life to save her. She escapes, and in doing so, is forever indebted to Solokov's unnecessary assistance.
In Tomb, Vitt is trying to help locate Solokov's son, who was taken by PRC's Vice-Premier Karl Tang as leverage to flush Solokov out from his hiding place. Apparently, his expertise is critically needed for Tang to solidify his campaign to succeed the current head of the Chinese government (and communist party, by extension). He would like to send China back into the age where government controlled every facet of its populations' lives - by force as necessary.
While being tortured into revealing the location of a key object needed by Tang, Vitt references our hero Cotton Malone as being a fellow conspirator as a way for her to buy more time. Given their friendship, he gladly follows the clues down the rabbit hole.
While Tang attempts to consolidate power, his only competitor for the top spot in China is a man named Ni Yong, head of the country's anti-corruption unit, and a man that wants to move the country towards democracy. He's abroad trying to get more information on his rival in Belgium from a man named Pau Wen, long since having left his homeland.
Pau is a Eunuch, the master of a brotherhood of Eunuchs called the Ba. Here is where much actual historical information is referenced in this fictional novel. In the old dynasties, Eunuchs were created as a way to have servants for the emperors' households without having the average person access to who were in fact ungodlike individuals themselves. Over time, the Ba took control of the bureacracy, and became the only link to the outside world for the ruling class. They consipired and succeeded in controlling the succession and direction of how China was ruled.
Another interesting conflict related to the plot of the book was how the Chinese historically ruled its people.
Confucius emphasized the way of the former kings, encouraging the present to draw strength and wisdom from the pastt. He championed a highly ordered society, but the means of accomplishing that order was not by force, rather though compassiona and respect. Legalism, on the other hand, believed that naked force and raw terror were the only legitimate bases for power. Absolute monarchy, centralized bureacracy, state domination over society, law as a pen tool, surveillance, informers, dissident persecution, and political coercion were its fundamental tools.
It should be noted that neither are democratic models of government; rather both philosophies desired a unified state, a powerful sovereign, and a population in absolute submission, but while Legalists knocked heads, Confusians taught respect - the willingness of the people.
In the end, after betrayals by former friends and suprising redemption by the same, the book ended with Ni Yong in control of the government, taking steps towards a more democratic state, while Malone and Vitt parted ways, their unspoken love still simmering just below the surface.
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