ISBN:9780156031967

The book Q, by Luther Blisset is strange. It is strange because it was written in 1999. It is strange because it was also written by four people who used the pen name Luther Blisset. It is strange because they later stopped using that name, and it appears at least one of the people died in 2023, probably. Speculation must be the norm here because we have to trust what we are being told since the writers are anonymous. The book was written well before the poster Q appeared on the scene, and the idea of being anonymous in terms of the hacking collective was still also far away. In short, the book Q seems almost to be a cultural type of artifact that hinted at what was going to happen elsewhere, in a little different form, in a slightly different universe.

What topic did these four writers choose to discuss in Q? Well, they elected to write about how Martin Luther changed the nature of religion and the way the Catholic Church interacted with Lutherans and Anabaptists in Germany. It is probably not going to ruin the plot to tell you that the Catholic Church did not react with compassion and understanding. Indeed, they wanted to eliminate Luther and the Anabaptists--whereas the Anabaptists and Lutherans sometimes wanted to eliminate each other. Q, the titular character, acts as a spy and papal informer for the auspices of the Catholic Church. He always signs his letters with the letter Q. Sometimes, he is on the ground sewing the seeds of division in favor of the Catholic Church. At other times, he is securing funding from the Fuggers banking business, which operates with impunity along with the Vatican. In between times, there are uprisings with the Anabaptists, of which our main protagonist who goes by many names himself in the novel is, probably, one of. Other times, there are Lutheran uprisings or alliances. The Lutherans, in this work, are often cooperating with the Catholic Church to a certain extent. This is especially true regarding the Anabaptists, who feel that the Messiah has become little more than a stone statue and that to truly be alive in the work of Messiah requires a rebirth and an understanding of the kinds of works He did. These ideas are a direct threat, of course, to the Catholic powers and so when the uprisings begin to happen, the Catholic Church seeks to squash it. The Lutherans also dislike the Anabaptists since there are doctrinal differences they feel they cannot overcome. Uneasy alliances are the norm.

The first third of this book centers on the war-fighting aspect of several villages and movements and the body counts that accompany these moments. Our central character lives through these events and becomes progressively more jaded. The second third of this book concerns what he does after living through the wars and their outcomes. The last third involves the recognition that our protagonist, though it is hard to say that he is a protagonist in totality--somewhat more of an antihero--discovers that there was a spy within all the conflicts he fought that was subverting the movement before the movement even began to start. This becomes an old score that needs to be settled. The way in which it is settled is not how anyone expects.

The narrative goes on at times too long. At other times, a certain turn-of-phrase or statement is uttered in such a way as to be riveting or brilliantly constructed in terms of verbal utterances. It touches, at times, on Shakespearian greatness, only to be thrust down into Melvilleian-loquaciousness--which is to say--the brevity could be better. Sometimes there is a kind of stylistic shift that seems not to flow as smoothly as it might. Other times there is a romantic scene or torture scene that provides more detail than the reader requires.

Q outlines a plan. That should sound familiar to anyone who has been alive in the past 7 years. The plan, for this version of Q, is something that Q is not entirely pleased with and yet everyone seems to be following the plan, in one way or another. Everyone is aware that a new era is being architected, and that the old way of doing things is roundly done. The question, of course, is how the power structure is going to respond and who, when all the dust settles on the uprisings in towns and would-be liberators turn oppressors exit the field, will be left standing and what church will they belong to?

A big portion of the question centers on who is controlling the purse strings and why. Another portion concerns what should be done about those who are financing the rise and fall of Kings and Popes.

Nobody in the book is good. The people who might be considered to be that are quickly shown to be something else. However, even though most characters are thrust into acts barely above beasts on the battlefield and are buying prostitutes most often when off the same battlefield, they are forced into acts that certainly seem noble but also hinge on self-interest.

It is, in hindsight, a bizarre read that has more in common with what has happened on the political landscape in recent times than might be, at first glance, apparent. While the work as a whole presents no heroes and raises many doubts about religion along the way, one cannot fault the storytellers for telling the story. One wonders, however, why the storytellers focused on these pieces of the experience and why they placed the roles as they did. Was it for the sake only of a good story, or is there something more here than meets the eye that these four wanted to tell us? Perhaps this is as close as they dared to get.

Review also present here.