My thanks to Inner Traditions for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The King in Orange’ by John Michael Greer in exchange for an honest review. Its subtitle is ‘The Magical and Occult Roots of Political Power’. Greer’s focus is on the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and the claims that alt-right members of an online forum influenced the outcome through the use of magically charged internet memes.

I had a mixed reaction to this book. I thought that in his opening Greer did well in explaining to his readers the nature of magic, drawing upon Dion Fortune’s definition. However, I found that the book was heavily influenced by Greer’s conservative political worldview. He almost seems to paint Trump as a working class hero, who had at heart the needs of those Greer terms the waged class and seems to wilfully ignore so much. It became rather mind-boggling.

So there are plenty of partisan rants and Greer was clearly grumbling about the outcome of the 2020 election and buying into the allegations of voter fraud.

Like the author I have been a practicing magician for most of my life, therefore while our attitudes about politics might differ we share an understanding of what magic is and a common language. Also, for well over half a century I have enjoyed the tales of H.P. Lovecraft and his fellow writers of eldritch horror, including Robert W. Chambers, whose ‘The King in Yellow’ inspired Greer’s title and themes within the book.

I think that before reading that I had expected a book that was less pro-Trump and that examined a wider range of occult responses to the 2016 election and presidency. Still, there were a number of aspects within that I felt went beyond admiration for King Orange; including Greer’s division of American society into four classes: investment, salaried, waged, and welfare, and how politicians and the media interacts with or ignores them. His projections for the future were a bit ‘out there’ but still made for interesting reading.

He also cited Vine Deloria Jr.’s ‘God is Red’, a work that highlighted the “profound spiritual importance of place” in Native American traditions and how this lack of connection between people and the land can result in a sense of wider alienation. The importance of the natural world and the land has been another theme that has long interested me.

Greer did at times demonstrate a wry sense of humour that caught me off guard. I had a laugh out loud moment at his Notes that reflected the ever popular “do the research” statement. His wide knowledge of and appreciation for science fiction and horror also stood out and I am planning to look into his Lovecraft-inspired fiction in the near future.

Overall, despite Greer’s obvious political bias there was interesting, thought-provoking material within. Also, the cover art was very striking.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

First of all, thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this book for free.

I feel like John Michael Greer thought up a good idea for a book title and worked backwards from there, just not with great results.

This is a book that claims to “explore the role of magic and the occult in the rise of the ultra-conservative right” but does absolutely nothing of the sort. Most of the first half is taken up with conservative ramblings that amount to very little, while the second half is a mix of vaguely interesting history coupled with “old man yells at cloud” style rants. He even finds time to take shots at modern art, music and technology for some reason.

Ultimately Greer provides absolutely no evidence at all to back up his claim that magic played a central role during the Trump years, unless you seriously count Pepe the frog memes as magical.

I don’t want to give the book 1 star, as there genuinely were the odd bits of interesting facts buried in there somewhere, mostly in the more historical chapters of the book. But ultimately this book was less magical exploration, more conservative rant.

I received this book for free from NetGalley.com. In terms of stars, I use the standard 1 star for hating a book, 2 for not liking a book, 3 stars meaning it was okay, 4 stars for liking a book, and 5 stars for loving a book. This was rated at a 3-star level, because it was okay, but it wasn’t great. I felt that it really lacked a complete discussion of what was magical or occult in the election process; I felt like the author did more tying in of a bunch of loose strings from completely separate spheres to make a figurative puff. It had parts of the book that were interesting, but without too much to connect the different topics brought up in the book. There were a lot of new words I had never used before and it read as quite intellectual, but if someone asked, I couldn’t really give a central idea that carried through logically through the entire narrative.