One Million Project Magazine

‚Those Who Would Resist My Rule‚
Review by Kate McGinn
Politics has been in the news a lot lately. As
Americans head to the streets to protest the
recent election, we have yet to determine
whether the results will be for the collective
good or not. Divisive rhetoric and a country
torn in half by opposing beliefs became the
talk of the political pundits on the cable news
networks in the US. For weeks before the election,
the rest of the world held their breath to
see who would be leading the government for
the next four years.
I became entrenched in the election coverage
over the past year and a half. I’ll be the first to
admit it -- I’m a political junkie. Every four
years, I overdose on fact-checking, reading
news articles and flipping the channels from
one political panel to another weighing each
side’s arguments against my own personal beliefs;
and even I couldn’t wait for this year’s
news cycle to end.
I headed to California to see my son before he
went out to sea with his squadron, and to assist
his new bride with moving to LA. I finally
turned off the TV after November 8th and
picked up Jason Greenfield’s story, Those Who
Would Resist My Rule , and began to read.
As I became involved in the story, I was
pleased to see his tale was set in outer space.
I had grown up watching Star Trek in the 60’s,
Star Wars in my teens, and I looked forward to
getting lost in Greenfield's ‚Space Opera.‛
It had all my favorite elements of a good sci-fi
story. Bad, bad villain – check. Handsome
prince striving for peace – check. Sassy love
interest – check. But, my checklist ended
when I began to see this short story was more
than a simple exercise in escapism. Its meanings
ran much deeper below the surface, and I
found two questions about humanity within
the storyteller’s threads as he wove his interstellar
tale.
Copyright © 2016 by OMP Magazine Publishing