In his recently released charter novel The Big Bang, Roy M. Griffis ("Griffs") does an excellent job of telling the story of what could be. A fictionalized future history of our east and west coasts and major cities on their knees, both helpless and hopeless at the hands of Muslim fanatics.

The author offers the reader a detailed play-by-play of the entire believable invasion scenario and presents his tale through well-crafted characters, each having experienced personal loss through blasts and occupation, later finding themselves operators in the resistance movement. For most, seeing war through the eyes of a soldier for the first time.

His sketches are exceedingly effective. The humiliation of formerly liberated American women forced to wear the equivalent of a body bag with a small slit to see out of was intolerable...as were women being reduced to something just shy of nothing. But Griffs counters the Islamic treatment of women in post-America with fierce female leads who take up arms and send a good deal of the Prophet's Chosen straight to the judgement seat. I could hardly believe the tight grasp this male author had on the scorned female psyche. Uncanny.

The style of the book is unusual. This first offering, Book One of The Lonesome George Chronicles, was almost entirely individual stories, each fulfilling in and of themselves, as if novellas. The common denominator being strong and capable characters who opt risk and death over tyranny.

Griffs' apocalyptic narrative makes a cogent case for conservatism, detailing the catastrophic aftermath of liberal theology and undecided apathy to Islamist extremism. A propitious outline of outcomes should we recurrently convict America for what she's done wrong (i.e. slavery, Abu Ghraib) rather than loving her for all she's done right.

When I arrived at the end of the book, I was surprised to find it over. There was no major cliffhanger, just a promise of much more intrigue and witty dialogue. I'm anxious to see what Griffs does with these well conceived, highly-pigmented characters in Book Two now that the underpainting has been so thoroughly realized.

The Big Bang was the perfect read for a (non-nuclear winter) snow day.