A Most Uncivil War, by Blaine Pardoe

★★★★★  

It's been over two years since I wrote a review of Blaine Pardoe's Blue Dawn. My apologies to Mr. Pardoe for taking so long to get around to reading book 2 in the Blue Dawn series, A Most Uncivil War. It was on my reading list, but in preparation for my own follow up to a book, Friendship Games, I had a lot of non-fiction books to work through. That list only grew as I worked. And then came the writing for the follow up. I am happy to report that I am mostly done with that endeavor. It is now in the hands of my editor. I'm sure I'll be back at it once he has finished slaughtering much of what I've written.

A lot has happened since I reviewed Blue Dawn. My review was a bit snarky. That wasn't my intention – I gave it five stars, after all. And I really enjoyed it. But I thought that Pardoe had taken the January 6, 2021 insurrection in Washington and flipped the script. Instead of extreme rightwing and conspiratorial adherents storming the Capitol, he had leftwing extremists storming the Capitol. And in Blue Dawn, the extremists – with help on the inside – assassinate the Vice President-elect after the President-elect had suffered an aneurism and died. Well, you can read my review here.

So, what happened since I reviewed Blue Dawn? Two major things: First, the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas. Second, the electoral rejection of 'DEI' (diversity, equality, and inclusion) programs.

I am going to reverse the order here, though, because my own exposure to 'DEI' was not long after I had written the review. I don't remember if DEI was explicitly referred to in Blue Dawn, but it probably was. I just wasn't privy to DEI and the controversies surrounding it. I was familiar with 'cancel culture' and have always been opposed to it. It's always been too puritanical for me.

I am an academic. You'd think that DEI was something I'd be greatly familiar with. But no, not at all. I don't work at an Ivy League school. I work at a rural college where things happen a little later, it seems, than, say, Harvard or Yale.

At my institution, it came as a top-down project from the Administration to catch up with peer institutions. It faced immediate resistance. I think it took about two years for it to pass as university policy, and it was greatly reduced in scope. The thing is, nobody where I work is really opposed to DEI. Who would be opposed to ensuring that our workplace looks like the wider community? Or to be inclusive of marginal groups? Or provide necessary accommodations for people with physical challenges?

But DEI was presented as a fealty test. As a scholar, if you wanted to be promoted, you had to incorporate DEI into your research – and demonstrate how you did so. So, if you are a mathematician or a molecular biologist, you would have to figure out a way to work DEI into your research project. There was real fear among non-tenured folks that if they opposed it, they would be labeled racist and would lose their livelihoods.

Thankfully, those stricter readings of DEI were not adopted. But it took a lot of back-and-forth, a lot of contention, and over an extended period of time, to overcome such strict stipulations.

Later, I discovered CDR Salamander, the blog of Dr. Sal Mercogliano. He is a naval historian and a former naval officer. He posts a regular feature called "Diversity Thursday" in which he critiques a DEI policy adopted by the US Navy at the expense of readiness and warfighting. Many if not most the policies he critiqued were quite unbelievable – and alarming.

Then came the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas. I've already written about that here and don't want to rehash it. But I must reemphasize one salient point: that some of the policies of the far left have become normalized and, in some cases, 'mainstreamed'. The far left automatically piggybacked onto the so-called 'Free Palestine' movement just hours after the horrific attacks on civilians in Israel. They have done so out of dogmatic ideological purity. Never mind that the genocide of Jews is the raison d'etre of the government of Gaza known as Hamas.

The introduction of unorthodox pronouns and the proliferation of 'identity' politics are more examples of the mainstreaming of far-left ideas. It is the far-right, particularly the Trump Administration, that are known to promote "alternative facts" – that is, to gaslight people into believing that, for example, January 6 was not an insurrection. That it was just a protest that got out of hand – or, worse, that it was actually Antifa activists disguised as Trump supporters.

Unfortunately, the left has succumbed to similar tactics. Trans-women are considered women, and to oppose their presence, say, on women's sports teams, is transphobic. Up is down. Two plus two equals five.  (It's not just America, by the way.  From what I gather, its even worse in the UK).

And let's not forget the disastrous gaslighting of America by President Joe Biden's handlers.  We were assured that he was fit for office when it became obvious to the whole world in the first Presidential Debate that he was, in fact, in no condition to run for re-election.

Back to Blaine Pardoe's Blue Dawn series. Pardoe takes us down the rabbit hole of the far left. In Blue Dawn, the President-elect suffered an aneurism and died. The Vice President-elect was assassinated, which led to the ascendancy of a group calling itself the Ruling Council.

In book 2, A Most Uncivil War, Pardoe picks up five years later, after "the Fall" – the overthrow of the US government and the establishment of a new, progressive, nation: Newmerica.

Newmerica is led by the Ruling Council. After the former Vice President, who was thought to have been long dead, comes out of hiding – and amid growing opposition to the Ruling Council and the growing likelihood of civil war – the Ruling Council agrees to hold national elections. It sees elections as a way to solidify its grip on power. Which, of course, means rigging elections and arresting and assassinating the 'traitorous' opposition. Elections also serve to sway voters and states toward the Ruling Council since elections are a promise of a return to normalcy, which delegitimizes the armed opponents.

The story is told through the eyes of multiple characters.  My favorite is Raul, a young former soldier who becomes Public Enemy No. 1 after he is recorded shooting a Newmerica Youth Corps member beating a man nearly to death.  Caylee Leatrum, a former Newmerica National Security Force assassin, takes him under her wing for protection.  These are just two of the very compelling characters I found myself rooting for - and others that I was rooting against.

Blaine Pardoe has built a terrifying world that I had originally thought was more of a wink-wink: a clever turning-on-its-head of reality. But no. Blaine is attuned to the very real and Orwellian machinations of the far left – which makes the Blue Dawn world even more terrifying.

The Blue Dawn series is currently at five books. I've already started on book 3, Confederacy of Fear. I look forward to working my way through all of them.

Five stars for A Most Uncivil War.