Author: Vladimir Chernozemsky

ISBN: 1932656030

The following review was contributed by: NORM GOLDMAN:  Editor of Bookpleasures &CLICK TO VIEW  Norm Goldman's Reviews 

One of the challenges fiction authors face is trying to capture absurd news headlines and weave them into an exciting story without boring the reader.

Author of 46 novels, plays and screenplays, Vladimir Chernozemsky effectively manages to pull this off with his most recent novel PHASE ONE AFTER ZERO, and for a laugh, even throws in some black humor.  

According to the author, the idea of his story came to him when he was rummaging through his deceased’s wife’s newspaper cuttings, wherein he discovered an article stating that Timothy McVeigh, was born on an alien planet and that escaped capture and joined a terrorist group in the Middle East.

Zeroing in on this premise, Chernozemsky’s plot focuses on McVeigh, the Oklahoma City Bomber, whom he renames Greg McPherson and who eventually becomes an Arab terrorist. After his horrendous crime, McPherson runs away to Hamilton, Canada, and it is here where he meets up with a young mentally unbalanced teenager, Lydia, whom he falls in love with.

From the opening chapters, it’s clear that Chernozemsky, and his readers, will have some fun with the plot, as we follow McPherson from Hamilton to Montreal, and eventually to the Middle East, where he is recruited into al-Qaida. It is here where he comes in contact with Abu Atta-an important member of the organization. Our McPherson, now known as Ibrahim Ghamal, also gets together with Osama Bin Laden, who is aware of the Oklahoma bombing and praises him for his heroic deed. Osama boasts that “this world is so politically polarized, it’s ripe for falling into our hands. Western European powers are so afraid of us that they would compromise to appease us.” However, all of this seems to be way over the head of our protagonist, who has his own gripes against a society that he perceives as mistreating him.

 It is Chernozemsky’s research on the time period that is solid and that really shines. This becomes evident when he entwines many of the news stories and articles following 9/11, particularly some of the bungling and lack of co-operation among the various American Government departments with their disorganization, incompetence, hypocrisy, incoherence, and demoralization.

The language of PHASE ONE AFTER ZERO is simple and accessible, replete with diverse and sometimes complicated characters, who reveal themselves gradually and convincingly.  No doubt, the story will prove to be enough to keep readers turning pages, and in the end we may be left with the question, as I was, what if some of these bizarre news clips that Chernozemsky discovered were actually true.