I’ll be honest. I’ve been moving. I haven’t read it. Still, I can tell you that his first novel, Capitol Treason, was one of those novels that takes you through slipping standards that result in dystopia. It wouldn’t surprise me if A Conflict of Nations is either a follow up or along those lines. Both American themed.
Here’s the Amazon description:
The second American Civil War was declared over with the signing of the Aspen Accords.
The two new nations emerging from the violence couldn’t have been more different. The American Socialist Democratic Union (ASDU) was an oppressive regime. The old Constitution of the USA had been thrown onto the scrapheap of history. The Senate had been eliminated and laws were passed by a rubber-stamp Congress that knelt at the feet of ASDU President Elizabeth Colegate. The Second Amendment, along with the rest of the old “Bill of Rights”, had been revoked and the order had gone out to confiscate every firearm, round of ammunition, and every gram of explosive materials in civilian hands. It was ignored by many.
In the ASDU a person’s membership in the Socialist Democratic Party of America (SDA) was your key to good schools for your children, a college education, good jobs, shopping privileges in quality stores, and better housing. Without party membership your life became a drudgery of menial employment, poor education, substandard housing, and generally a subservient life to those who were party members. If you were a religious person (which was not encouraged), then you were to attend government licensed churches that bowed the knee to the Socialist Democratic Party of America ensuring all who attended services knew that God wanted you to be a good communist.
In stark contrast the United Constitutional States of America (UCSA) was the polar opposite of the ASDU. Not only did the old Constitution of the USA continue in force, but the Bill of Rights were enshrined in language that would permanently guarantee that the erosion of those rights could not again occur. Free enterprise, entrepreneurship, a strong work ethic, the rule of law, and freedom of religion marked the UCSA culture even more so than its parent nation the United States of America.
Despite agreements in the Aspen Accords, the ASDU had reneged on the opportunity for its citizens to leave the ASDU without tax or penalty for five years following the Accords. Predictably, citizen militias within the ASDU began forming in significant numbers when the ASDU government began removing children from Christian parents on trumped up hate speech laws designed to ban the teachings of biblical views of human sexuality. Congregations were denied licenses to operate in the ASDU which prompted a wide-spread underground church movement. Conservative clergymen were arrested for conducting unlicensed worship services and at times were publicly executed. The homes of their members were often burned to the ground.
As citizen militias (who had not complied with the confiscation of weapons) began to fight back, tensions between the two neighboring nations went from bad to worse. This was made more explosive when the ASDU invited the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China to use their Atlantic and Pacific Ocean ports, and then promptly used the opportunity to militarize them.
In “A Conflict of Nations” the inevitable conflict between the UCSA and the ASDU and their allies Russia and China is recorded. It would be a war without regard to Rules of Engagement or international treaties. It would be a war of survival that would determine if people on the American continent would retain the ability to live as a free people. It would be a war in which the Tree of Liberty would once again be watered with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
If you’re interested in educational dystopians, this may hit the nail on the head! 🙂 The reviews on his previous novel were all pretty good, except for one which disagreed with some of Bolland’s political stances.
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