BOOK REVIEW: BLUE DAWN

America bites back!

I’d never actually heard of Blaine Pardoe, the author of Blue Dawn, “the most chilling ‘what-if’ in history… the progressive overthrow of the United States!” until I saw Razorfist interview him after he’d been unceremoniously fired from BattleTech after nearly four decades of writing books and scenarios for the franchise; one which I know nothing about other than it’s a role-playing and military strategy game with robots that fight each other and has a series of novels that tie in with it.

And, while not given any specific reason, it was obvious that Pardoe was fired because of his blatant and unapologetic support for non-woke, right-of-center, pro-MAGA politics. That alone would make me an immediate, unquestioning financial supporter of this man’s work. After all, I’m not gonna lie and say my interest in the music of Iced Earth didn’t increase after guitarist Jon Schaffer was persecuted for wandering into the Capitol building on January 6th and angrily pointing at someone.

So, I didn’t think twice about plunking down the cash and buying Pardoe’s book. That makes what I’m about to say, a mixture of backhanded compliments and otherwise somewhat insulting statements, absolutely okay; especially since I’ve already received my copy of A Most Uncivil War, which is the second book in the Blue Dawn series. Did you really think that a guy who just got fired for his right-of-center politics would limit himself to one book of violent right-wing genre fiction? In fact, Pardoe just tweeted that he’s already in the middle of writing the fifth book in the series!

Blue Dawn is purely and simply MAGA revenge porn. In the afterward, Pardoe attempts to compare his book to Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, with my response being a muttering of “this is so boomer.” There were a lot of moments like that in the book actually. But, as Pardoe said, he could have just written a political tract about where he believes the country is headed after the debacle that was the 2020 election, which I too believe was stolen by the Democrats, and that Joe Biden didn’t actually get 81,000,000 votes, but instead decided to write his points into a quickly paced and entertaining story; because we prefer entertaining stories with good characters and lots of action, rather than someone just reading us a term paper.

That’s all fine and dandy, and in various pressers, Pardoe said that his book “isn’t for everybody.” Uh, ya think? It’s for MAGA people to drool over in delight as, five years after the 2020 Presidential election, the progressives have taken over America, and a resistance movement called – ready for it? – the "Sons of Liberty" hunt down and execute SJWs, feminists, and members of ANTIFA and BLM, both of which are directly named, and blow all the major tech companies, also all of which are directly named, to kingdom come. It’s then meant to swap the sanctimonious social justice of the left for the sanctimonious patriotism of the right. In fact, one conceit that made me roll my eyes was when someone in the Sons of Liberty justifies all the acts of murder and terrorism they’re committing by saying that what sets them apart from their enemies is that they know what they’re doing is wrong, but that it’s necessary. I appreciate the unintentional Machiavellian sentiment, but why not just be honest and admit that you enjoy killing SJWs, feminists, and members of ANTIFA and BLM?

Blue Dawn is basically a cross between a non-racial Turner Diaries with the 1980s Hollywood action thriller Red Dawn, along with the customary Orwellian nu-speak of any typical dystopia and some They Live thrown in at the end. With regards to the racial question, Blue Dawn is entirely free of racism; overt or implicit. The enemies aren’t non-whites but just those in the progressive establishment. And, furthermore, any “Jew in my sandwich” people will be heavily disappointed at Pardoe’s implied philo-Semitism when he writes that Christmas trees and menorahs are seen as religiously oppressive in Newmerica (why not “Nu-Merica”, eh, Blaine?).

What I found really confusing, however, is that, if we on the anti-PC side have made it a point to scoff at Hollywood comic-book-and-action movies which show women easily kicking the crap out of men, one might wonder why Pardoe made two of his female characters -- a White House secret service agent with the androgynous name Charli and bitchy, soulless, uber-killer Caylee, who works for a government organization called the National Security Force (NSF) that carries out Epstein-style assassinations -- the two strongest characters in the book. In fact, Charli’s Bruce-Lee-style ass kicking and Caylee’s bone snapping brutality, which is described in gruesome detail, actually seem rather fetishistic.

Furthermore, I got the impression that Charli is a lesbian by virtue of having short blonde hair and being so, ya know, masculine in demeanor. On the other hand, Caylee for the most part comes off as your career-minded modern woman who doesn’t care who she has to screw over, screw, or kill to get ahead. In one scene, she even pushes up her tits to get some information she needs. But, then, later in the book, Pardoe reveals that Caylee has a buzz cut. How does a woman with a buzz cut use sex appeal to get what she wants? I mean, I suppose it’s possible for a woman who shaves her head to still be sexy and feminine, but it’s not probable. I emailed Pardoe for clarification, but he didn’t respond. Maybe he thought I was trolling him, but I actually wanted to know!

Furthermore this dichotomy between the Sapphic secret service agent and the bitchy career woman could have been resolved in a far more interesting way than what actually happens. Let’s just say, the Caylee redemption arc makes the two blonde female characters near carbon copies of each other. What’s even more frustrating is that, due to a lack of proofreading, Pardoe accidently refers to Charlie as Caylee! I had to read the passage twice just to see that I didn’t miss something, but indeed, he just accidently misnamed his character in that particular instance! It’s almost like even Pardoe finds these two characters to be interchangeable.

There’s a third female character named – ready for it? – Karen. Karen is the overweight, hyper narcissistic sister of Andrew Forrest, the son of Arthur Forrest, a college professor who was thrown into a gulag for sticking steadfastly to his principles of truth and free speech, which went against the speech codes of Newmerica. Karen, who is described as your typical blue-haired, feminist land whale and had her surname changed to Forrester to disassociate with her brother and father, is the one who caused her own father to be arrested for not conforming to the speech codes of Newmerica, just so she could get a position in the Social Enforcers (SE), the other government organization, which isn’t covert like the NSF, and puts every useful idiot of the progressive movement into a position of power.

And, again, like with the other two female characters, Pardoe blows a great opportunity to have Caylee and Karen in a final standoff. It certainly seems this is where the story is heading when Caylee arrives at Andrew Forrest’s apartment to investigate for her organization, only to find the Social Enforcers already there ransacking the place, and is rudely turned away by Karen, who clearly gets wet from exercising the tiny bit of power that was doled out to her. Having Caylee make Karen eat crow and show her who really has the power would have been a far more satisfying and edifying conclusion to the Karen arc than what’s in the book.

Otherwise, Blue Dawn is pretty entertaining from start to finish, even if the reveals are predictable and kind of cringeworthy. There’s absolutely no reason why the reader needs to be kept in suspense in order to find out that the package that’s hidden away in Mt. Rushmore contains the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and an American flag. And, furthermore, the main story revolves around the fact that, after the progressives took over the country, they staged President Trump’s death, but that Trump actually got away… only to get killed while making his escape. However, when it’s revealed that the Sons of Liberty are harboring a secret successor to the President, Pardoe could have thought just a little outside of the box, rather than making the successor, ugh, Mike Pence. I mean, come on; even during Trump’s Presidency, Mike Pence was a total bore. And, then, after January 6th, he turned out to be a typical neoconservative and turncoat; making this fictionalized version of Mike Pence as the true blue American patriot pretty damn silly.

Also, in Newmerica, food and healthcare are rationed, all the guns have been confiscated, Mt. Rushmore is made illegal to visit, “undesirable” jobs are outsourced overseas, institutions like George Washington University are renamed Sojourner Truth University, the character Andrew Jackson Forrest loses social credit points for not actively changing his “problematic” first and middle name, and there’s of course limits on speech; you have “free speech” as long as it’s not “hate speech.” Pardoe does astutely point out that, once the progressives “won”, they would start to eat at each other, and that they’re so bad at managing their oppressive system of government, that it becomes a paper tiger. In fact, it seems as though the inevitable victory by the Sons of Liberty comes a little too easy.

There’s also a completely separate storyline involving a Hispanic boy named Raul, who goes to work for a public works project in Detroit only to come head to head with a group of Muslim Arabs from Dearborn, a neighboring suburb of Detroit. You can probably already guess where this is heading; the Muslims, being part of a so called “oppressed” religious minority, are made SEs and immediately waste no time using their new found power to impose Sharia Law on all of Metro Detroit, resulting in a violent confrontation that moves Raul’s character along.

But Pardoe made one GLARING error that only people from Metro Detroit, where yours truly lives, would notice; he refers to the Muslims as Chaldeans. I was so taken aback by this mistake, that I immediately emailed Pardoe with the following message:

"I'm reading Blue Dawn, and I read the part where you said the Chaldean SEs were on a rampage against the Hispanics. This is fundamentally incorrect. Chaldeans aren't Muslims. They are Catholics, and they don't live in Dearborn; they live in West Bloomfield, Farmington Hills, Troy, and Sterling Heights. If anything, they would be on the side of the Catholic Hispanics, because they're not fans of Muslims; Chaldeans reportedly cheered when zoning laws prevented a mosque from being built around where they live. AND there's no way in hell they'd be Social Enforcers, because Chaldeans are overwhelmingly Republican. I'm enjoying your book, but as a Michigander, I felt I needed to mention this."

Chaldeans are basically wannabe Guidos who run liquor stores; macho, short tempered, and aggressive drivers? Sure. But, they’re NOT Muslims. I also found it odd how, in spite of this Hispanic Catholic vs. Muslim Arab storyline, he didn’t manage to work Rashida Tlaib or Ilhan Omar into the story. You might be thinking, “Why would he do that?” Well, he made Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez the head of the NSF! Actually, the physical description is AOC, but the actions, which include secretly taking out political enemies, are closer to Hillary Clinton. As I said, Blue Dawn is boomer as fuck.

Blaine Pardoe also said in the presser that the book is meant to provoke discussion and raise questions. Okay, here’s a question then: Is Charli a lesbian?