Amazon customers blast Roger Stone's new dystopian novel about "Trump presidency"
MANHATTAN -- Kids killing kids. Modern plantation slavery. Nazi victory:
When it came to works of dystopian fiction, for years, it seemed to book publishers like there was no premise too dark or disturbing for Americans to accept.
Until now.
Last Tuesday, Amazon released the audiobook version of Roger Stone's new book, Making of a President 2016: How Donald Trump Orchestrated a Revolution. In the last 272 hours, dozens of horrified Amazon customers have taken it upon themselves to write excoriating reviews saying the Nixonian provocateur and suspected traitor has taken dystopian science fiction too far.
Stone sets his chilling if absurd new book in a non-democratic America where failed candidate Donald J. Trump - who lost the election to President Hillary Rodham Clinton by more than 3 million votes - overruled the will of the people and somehow became president.
On Amazon, reaction has been swift: Some reviewers worry about Mr. Stone's mental health. Others note his book, though flawed, is an excellent contribution to prison literature. (Mr. Stone is under house arrest while awaiting trial for treason.)
Though the book has received many 5-star ratings from Internet pranksters, conservative conspiracy theorists and the Russian hacker Guccifer, realism is quickly overtaking the novel's "Customer Review" section.
Excerpts beneath:
Showing 31-40 of 56 reviews (Critical). See all 280 reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars: Another Failed Right-Wing Alternative History
By Trevor M. Lafauci on April 4, 2017 Format: Audible Audio Edition
Ever since the election of Hillary Clinton as president, there have been a number of alternative histories composed by failed Republicans. Stone's fictitious account is the latest in this trend and is by far and away the least realistic. First off, Stone asserts that Trump could somehow win without the help of Russia. Seeing as Stone is currently being held in Guantanamo Bay for openly colluding with Russia, this assertion is clearly a Stone projection for a world where Trump somehow manages to win an election on his own merits, which is hilarious. In addition, Stone asserts that Trump could somehow win due in large part to a top-notch campaign team. Seeing as this so-called "dream team" now has Kellyanne Conway, Paul Manafort, Carter Page, and Jared Kushner all behind bars, this becomes a laughable claim. Lastly, Stone asserts that Trump could somehow win despite being a bigoted, racist, homophobic, Islamophobic, xenophobic, misogynistic failed businessman. As nearly 3 million more citizens showed, America wasn't buying the baloney that Trump was selling.
Nice try, Mr. Stone. Hopefully any book royalties you receive help you hire a good attorney. You're gonna need one.
1.0 out of 5 stars This book is a twisted, dystopian nightmare - should be categorized as "horror-comedy"
By 11467amazongirl on April 5, 2017 Format: Audible Audio Edition
I'm kind of confused about this new book. Though Stone's other titles, "The Clintons' War on Women" and "The Bush Crime Family", are distorted at worst, this new title clearly crosses the line between well-intentioned ignorance and purely alternative facts. I was interested to see how Stone's predisposed imbecility would allow him to continue this facade in which his writings are considered "truth-based", "accurate", and "not terrifying". However, Stone has let me and many other readers down; Instead of taking place in the real world (where Hillary Rodham Clinton, a pantsuit-wearing superhero who advocates for human rights, is our Commander-in-Chief), this disgusting fantasy realm explores the fall of democracy and loss of human dignity following the FICTIONAL election of failed presidential candidate Donald Trump. Thus, though I am sure Stone's fantasies of a Trump presidency are shared by many (O'Reilly, Ailes, Abbott, definitely not Ivanka), I am severely disappointed in his inability to follow basic non-fiction guidelines. I would suggest this book be placed in the comedy/humor genre because of it's absurdity or - better yet - the horror category because of the true terror the idea of a Trump presidency brings to the minds of sane humans around the world. To all looking for a light horror-comedy read or those wishing to brush up on the current political climate, this book is NOT the one for you! It is a dark and twisted dystopian nightmare. The image of failed candidate Trump (as pictured on the cover) has been scientifically proven to induce existential anxiety. Most of all, it was a waste of my time, so don't bother spending yours.
1.0 out of 5 stars: This book reads like a farce
By Amazon Customer on April 4, 2017 Format: Audible Audio Edition
When I saw Stone on TV, I thought he was a comedy act. A tatoo of Nixon on his back? Get real. This book reads like a farce, except I know the tatooed one actually believes the fiction his ghost writer cooked up. Everyone knows Hillary got millions of votes more than the Donald. It's simple math that she is the true president of the United States.
1.0 out of 5 stars: Dystopian alternate reality in which Trump won
By Ted Magee on April 4, 2017 Format: Audible Audio Edition
Whoa! What is this dude's problem?! It's like he wrote it hoping that Trump would win, but never bothered to make changes once Clinton won or something. Is it alternate history or fiction? I decided it is some kind of dystopian nightmare-fantasy, a conclusion I reached partly based on the author's clothing. After a few chapters, nausea set in and I had to stop. I mean, imagine the horror if this were true? Thank God for President Clinton.
2 comments|6 people found this helpful.
1.0 out of 5 stars: Hillary Clinton is president
By Dr. Ann Beckley on April 4, 2017 Format: Audible Audio Edition
I’m a huge science fiction fan. I love the Handmaid’s Tale, 1984, and the Hunger Games. So I was intrigued when I heard that Roger Stone had written a novel about an alternate reality where Trump is president. Clearly, Stone is struggling to accept the results of the election. I’m all for creative license, and I'll concede that Stone has a very lively imagination! But ultimately, I founded this book’s dystopian premise too dark and unrealistic to really get invested in the story. After all, Trump lost to President Hillary Rodham Clinton by 3 million votes.
1.0 out of 5 stars... propensity for lying which he learned from the late great Roy Cohen (whose lies whispered in the ear of ...
By Erica Etelson on April 5, 2017 Format: Audible Audio Edition
Given Roger Stone's propensity for lying which he learned from the late great Roy Cohen (whose lies whispered in the ear of Sen. McCarthy ruined the lives of thousands of falsely accused "Communists" in the 1950s), it comes as no surprise to see Stone perpetuating the persistent myth that Donald Trump is the POTUS. Yes, Trump is certainly BLOTUS (Biggest Liar of the United States) but POTUS, really? No wonder Stone had to find a second-rate publisher for this piece of garbage.
1.0 out of 5 stars: An alternative fact book
By Christina Mangurian on April 5, 2017 Format: Audible Audio Edition
Trump lost this election to Hillary Clinton by 3M votes. Clearly fiction.
1.0 out of 5 stars: Strange work of fiction, but do you really want to foment revolution against the US?
By Don'tEve non April 5, 2017 Format: Audible Audio Edition
Did I miss Trump getting a US state to secede from the United States? I know Hillary's win has been hard on Trump's supporters, but I hardly think that kind of revolution is called for.
1.0 out of 5 stars: Sick and unhealthy
By YRose on April 5, 2017 Format: Audible Audio Edition
This level of alt-right trolling is unhealthy, and honestly, uncomfortable. Donald Trump lost to Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes. This book is 3 million kinds of wrong. No amount of amusing alt-history will change that.
1.0 out of 5 stars: I'll admit Hillary is a wonderful president and all
By Amazon Customer on April 4, 2017 Format: Audible Audio Edition
What revolution? I'll admit Hillary is a wonderful president and all, but it's not like Donald made it happen. These people that think the Orange One won the election are just sad!
1.0 out of 5 stars: (Thank God) Hillary Clinton is President!!!!
By Ms. Bohemian on April 4, 2017 Format: Audible Audio Edition
I'm sure Mr. Stone tried to be creative, but this work of fiction reflects an utter lack of insight into the political process, and the American electorate. This "fictional drama", which postulates that a narcissistic, self-absorbed, shallow, uninformed, racist, sexist, small-minded reactionary, could somehow become President of the United States is so far-fetched, it strains credulity. There's no way in HELL Trump would have ever been elected by the American people.
Additionally, grammatical & spelling errors distract the reader further from this flop.
Thank god HILLARY CLINTON IS PRESIDENT!! I rated this 1 star ONLY because Amazon does not allow its reviewers to give it a lower rating.
(Perhaps Mr. Stone will have time to rework his novel when he is serving time for treason?)
1.0 out of 5 stars: Alternate history?
By MO on April 4, 2017 Format: Audible Audio Edition
Seems to have been inspired by Philip K. Dick's alternate history masterpiece and nightmare The Man in the High Castle.
1.0 out of 5 stars: A stunning work of fiction
By Justin Pickering on April 11, 2017 Format: Audible Audio Edition
This morning after President Clinton's address to the nation celebrating the new Anti-Evangelical Christian Act, a friend texted me and told me about this book. Being a college educated person who voted proudly for President Clinton (may she reign supreme), I read it in a day. I never knew an author could be so imaginative. This fairy tale rivals JRR Tolkein and JK Rowling's mystical world of magic and wonder. For a laugh, for a flight of fancy, or just to pass afternoon thanking the Universe that we live in a USA where sane, tolerant people are in charge, I highly recommend.
1.0 out of 5 stars: would be like had he not lost the election by three million ...
By LDS on April 9, 2017 Format: Audible Audio Edition
This book about failed presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and what the U.S. would be like had he not lost the election by three million votes to President Hillary Rodham Clinton is absolutely hilarious. Move over, George Orwell - your vision of our future cannot compare! Thank goodness Trump is hiding out in Russia and Roger Stone's "reality" will never happen here!
1.0 out of 5 stars: Not quite as good as tinnitus.
By Amazon Customer on April 6, 2017 Format: Audible Audio Edition
I read the book and now listened to the audio. I preferred the book version because I was able to use the pages as toilet paper. I would try to repurpose the audio book but I already have tinnitus.
By Andrew Dryer on April 6, 2017 Format: Audible Audio Edition
This book is categorized incorrectly. Should be in fiction/fantasy. Our country is doomed.
3.0 out of 5 stars: Dystopian Fiction at its Finest
By mettamom on April 6, 2017 Format: Audible Audio Edition
Along the same lines as In Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Talents and Our Twisted Hero by Yi Munyol, this book imagines the horror of an ignorant sexual predator as a tool of the Russian government as President. If it wasn't so horrifying, it'd actually be quite funny. Thank goodness common sense and decency prevailed, and we are not living under a totalitarian regime with nepotism, corruption and fascism as the rule of law. The writing is only okay, but the plot is unique.
3.0 out of 5 stars: An interesting debut novel
By Amazon Customer on April 5, 2017 Format: Hardcover
The multi-talented Roger Stone delivers (!!) with a thought-provoking contrafactual novel, in the vein of Philip Roth's The Plot Against America or Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here, in which an unqualified flamboyant businessman-entertainer (who has never held elected office!!) somehow wins an election as US president (!!) in his first-ever election campaign. Stone's name may be familiar to you from his past life as a brass-knuckles political operative (that career ended in disgrace when he left an expletive-laden voice message for Eliot Spitzer's octogenarian father; and he resurfaced in the 2016 campaign just long enough to call a CNN commentator 'a fat negro' before being ushered off into obscurity again. It's nice to see that what Stone lacks as a political operative, he more than makes up for as a novelist with a taste for the bizarre. His protagonist's campaign makes for great (can't look, can't look away) reading - fat-shaming a Miss America contestant in the middle of a presidential campaign (!), threatening to prosecute his opponent in the unlikely event that he should win (!). I was with The Making of the President the whole way, but just as every cliched sports story has to end with the bottom-of-the-ninth home run, so every political thriller has to end with the unlikely upset, and Stone's defies description. His hero trails in every poll, is caught on tape admitting to sexually assaulting women in the weeks before the election, and his closest advisors are caught collaborating with a foreign government - and he somehow manages to win?? I appreciate a surprise ending, but unfortunately the sheer implausibility of this scenario forces me to drop my rating a couple of stars.
1.0 out of 5 stars: If only Stone had put this effort into Trump's campaign!!!
By A Concerned Citizen on April 5, 2017 Format: Audible Audio Edition
So now we KNOW where Roger "heart of" Stone was when he went MIA throughout the debacle of Donald Trump's failed candidacy. He was off writing this whimsical, fantastical account of how he engineered Trump's triumph....and, meanwhile, in the campaign that he's supposed to be running, his candidate loses by three million votes. THANKS A LOT ROGER! Don't get me wrong, this is a fun, riveting read about how the practice of the 'dark arts' could tip a presidential election - influence from foreign powers, fake news, unfounded accusations. I was hooked. It's a zesty read and for a rock-ribbed conservative like myself it's a wonderful fantasy to envision. Now wouldn't it have been wonderful if Rog had actually DONE IT instead of cooking up these scenarios for his publisher. And now the "master of the dark arts" is laughing all the way for the bank, and the rest of us have to live with four (eight?) years of Hillary Clinton.
