I have the first draft of my latest Joe Bob Briggs book review ready. There may be some changes made prior to its posting on the site, but this is pretty much as it should appear.

The Dvorkin's have done a great job of creating a frightening alternate history, which is even scarier than the one in which we live. Hey, if they can actually make you feel a little sympathy for the first President Bush, while still making him look like a manipulative wimp, they must be doing something right. They also do away with a member of the Bush cabinet whose initials are D.C., so there's another plus.

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DAWN CRESCENT by David & Daniel Dvorkin
Published by Betancourt & Co (Author’s website lists: Wildside Press)
ISBN: 1-59224-613-3

The father & son writing duo of David & Daniel Dvorkin have created an Alternate history, differing from ours beginning with the defeat of the coalition forces of Desert Storm in 1991. The set up for this turn of events actually is earlier and begins with assassination of Anwar Sadat in October 1981. As we soon learn, this was masterminded by a man who takes the name Rashid-al-Bin Sinan, known to his followers as the Grand Master. His plan, carried out with bin Laden like patience, involves planting his followers in the militaries of Arab nations where they will wait until a signal is given.

When Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait things seem to be going quite well for U.S. and allied forces until Sinan’s followers within the Saudi forces turn on and kill their American & British counterparts. What had begun as a sweeping victory quickly becomes a disaster and the allied troops find themselves in active retreat, often unable to tell friend from foe. Even as this is taking place a coup against Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev occurs with a much different result than that which took place in our world.

As a nationalistic Communist government reasserts itself over the Soviet Union and the Middle-East grows increasingly hostile to western influences, elements within the U.S. government decide to take matters into their own hands. One of the first things to change is the man to reside in the White House for the next four plus years. The first President Bush finds himself little more than a puppet and his place on the 1992 Republican ticket is taken by Dan Quayle. From this point all bets are off when it comes to trying to figure out what will become of the American idea of ‘free and democratic.’

The authors tell much of this story through the eyes of Air Force Master Sgt. Harry Elkin, a medical corpsman who suddenly finds he must lead a collection of soldiers and marines through the Iraqi desert, following the Battle of Khafji. We also meet two other characters; fellow Air Force medic Airman Rick Welton and Airman Sharon Alcazar, one of several female members of Elkin’s unit, whom we follow after their escape from the war. Although Rick and Sharon become lovers they find themselves separated as events spiral out of control.

Harry is quickly ‘recruited’ by certain elements in the government to act as the public face of the war, his efforts to rescue his fellow soldiers turned into a propaganda tool. Harry also learns that he and his friends could be expendable if they don’t play by a new set of rules. When they begin to tire of their new roles all three ex-solders end up working for an organization which may have goals of which they are not aware.

We are introduced to a number of characters from all sides of the unfolding events. Some of these people are introduced for brief chapters, while others we see develop into central actors in the drama. Not all of the characters we meet are sympathetic and not all of them will survive long enough for us to do more than get a superficial idea of what drives them. Still even those we see briefly we find that we care about and wonder how or if they will survive.

Personally, I found it hard to put the book down once I started it. The authors create believable characters and develop a scenario which is all too real. It would be easy to imagine that the events they create could have just as easily have actually occurred. I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys the type of thrillers that Ludlum and Clancy crank out, since in my opinion this is easily as good as some of their bestsellers.
Four stars.