I picked it up because OSC refers to it a couple of times in one or both of his writing books. Anyway, despite my inability to dissociate Arslan from CS Lewis's Aslan, I thought it was a good book, if a little odd. I posted the first 13 lines here. Following, I've detailed some of my thoughts, which contain spoilers.

To any one who hasn't read the book, I highly recommend it. Though it's a little out-dated, the premise a little rough, I thought it was a gripping, bold look into tyranny and the human condition. Be warned--there are some disturbing moments.

First 13
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When his name first cropped up in the news reports, it was just one more foreign name to worry about, like so many others. And like so many others, it graduated in due time to the level of potential crisis. But before it had gone any further than that, suddenly all the rules had been changed when we weren't looking, and if you said "he" without an obvious antecedent, you were talking about Arslan.
On TV and in the news weeklies he'd looked no different from a lot of them: young, jaunty, halfway Oriental like the second-row extras in _Turandot_, and every one of them a major general at the very least. "Turkistan--is _that_ independent now?" Luella had asked me, one of the first times he showed up.
"I think it always has been." I meant to look it up in...
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Spoilers

Rereading the first 13 lines, I realize how Engh so deftly nails the essence of the book, which I perceive as a study of Arslan. I found this book riveting. I love the way she reveals Arslan, bit by bit, ad develops Franklin, who is at once believable, but not a total victim. I didn't quite buy into her premise--call me naive, but I can't believe the US government would roll over like that. I also didn't quite believe in Franklin's switch at the end. It seemed too bitterly ironic and cynical of Engh to make him feel that way, and I kept wanting him to do _something_. After all that had happened, I couldn't believe that Franklin or the town would tolerate him.

While I liked how she switches pov partway through the book, I kept getting hung up thinking I was in Franklin's head, though I was supposed to be in Hunt's. I'm not sure this was the best way to handle it. Also, I liked getting Hunt's twisted perspective but found his waxing poetic a bit nauseating after a while.

I had a devil of a time finding a local copy and settled for one with thirty pages missing. I was surprised that a book that was a masterpiece, according to OSC, was out of print.

I enjoyed the book but could not accept that everyone would roll over for Arslan: the "gubmint," the military, and the many townspeople whose daughters were publicly raped at a town meeting. Surely, someone would have thrown a rock or found a gun. But the story had a strong and consistent philosophical base that kept you reading.