maybe it's just that it's February 2017, and it makes it harder to forgive these kinds of childish misconceptions, when the real world looks the way it does. Can we just, once and for all, give up this fantasy of environmental activists as terrorists? So-called "eco-terrorists" (a term made up by the CIA in the 60s, so far never ever matched in the real world by a single attack resulting in even bodily damage to a single person)? Blaming everything on a particular religion is bad enough, but to actually pretend that environmental activists are some sort of threat to the world. Nor, it seems, are there any limits on what a plausible terrorist attack would look like. No limits at all to what women can be in this world. It's just all so refreshing and liberating and exciting.
And we do get a really cathartic scene where Safa gets to call that woman a bitch, whore and a cunt. But don't worry - the only other female character who actually has lines of dialogue turns out to be a horrible demon of a woman (for no reason we're made aware of) who - typical! - makes up that the hero raped her while in fact she's cheating on him. Or the fact that she has lovingly described perfect breasts, perfect buttocks, perfect legs, perfect whatever - described with the same relish during the scenes of sexual assault as those later on when she decides to take one for the team and sleep with a guy to get him to feel better about himself. But no, she's not defined by her sexuality or her body at all. The character who a few weeks later attempts to seduce the main male character as a way to get him out of his depression? Yes that one. The character we're introduced to as she's repeatedly sexually assaulted while in the line of duty? Yes, that one. I can just imagine this author patting himself on the back for creating such a "strong female character" as Safa. But what did bother me was the unbelievably naive and frankly idiotic take on 1) female characters, and 2) terrorist attacks.
At first I was really excited about this book - its British setting was refreshing, the pace was good, and the whole thing seemed like a pretty jolly time-travel action adventure story.
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