More Words, Deeper Hole

Ah, christ, I read the announcement.

"Is Flashback a novel stating Dan Simmons' political biases?

In a word... no. In two words... hell no."

And yet, here's his old hobbyhorse Eurabia, buried in the quagmire of this extended press release / outline / spoilerfest:

"We also get glimpses that tell us that the Global Islamic Caliphate -- only a fervent fever dream now in a billion or so minds -- is real enough in the post-Die-Ought-If days of Flashback. The Global Caliphate is a giant crescent, its central curve and core and capital in the Mideast where the triumphant states of Iran and Syria struggled toward mere regional hegemony in our own day. It seems that they succeeded. And then some. The northern horn of the Caliphate crescent stretches from the heart of the Mideast (Mecca and Medina, no longer part of the dead state Saudi Arabia at the heart of this heart) across Turkey and eastern Europe and all of Western Europe with the sharp tip of its crescent ending in Canada."

Yep. Doesn't contain a speck of Simmons' real-world positions, no sir.