Rating: 
Summary: Competent if Predictable Thriller
Review: A what-if thriller much along the lines of Robert Harris' "Fatherland". Set ten years after the Cuban Missile Crisis became a shooting war, a devastated US is a pale shadow of its former glory, a democracy almost in name only, reliant on aid from Europe. JFK's epitaph is that of war criminal and the military retains control of the country from behind the scenes.
The comparisons with "Fatherland" are deserved in many respects. We are introduced to an inquisitive central character in an alternate vision of the world, in this case Carl Landry, a reporter. Through the investigation of a murder, he proceeds to uncover a secret history of his time and therefore, the true nature of things.
While Landry's character at first appears interesting, the book is unfortunately otherwise populated with essentially stock characters. A predictable romance story is inevitably introduced, while many other incidents and plot points are fairly derivative also. The passages set in an abandoned Manhattan reminded me of the film "Escape From New York".
Altogether however, this is not a bad book and is worth reading for those who enjoy the thriller genre. The depiction of a post-nuclear US seems very plausible and the author does convey the sense of suppression and control of the population by the government and military. Although the story is wrapped up a little too conveniently at the end, generally I think this book was worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: Great ideas, poor delivery
Review: Brendan DuBois' alternate history of the Cuban Missle crisis is a chillingly stark reminder of how close the World came to mass destruction.Set in post apocolyptic America, we see a gungho former soldier now reporter who has stumbled onto a story that could have far reaching consequences for the USA and the now world dominant Great Britain and Europe. With the USSR a nuclear wasteland for the next 10 000 years a more forceful UN lead inititive to rid the planet of all nuclear weapons sees the battered former superpower suddenly placed in the sights of a British lead invasion. The last moments of John F Kennedy's life is the pivitol storyline of this novel, just what really happened in the last few hours of Washington D.C.'s existance. Did Kennedy escape to South America or did he die a hero at his oval office desk? A chilling example of just how heady those days were is played out in a history lession given by the base commander in New York City. New York was badly damaged by Atomic strikes but as the story will show, the big apple is surprisingly resilient. Alternate storylines are always fun and this is no exception. Just like Robert Harris' Fatherland we can see a world that is rather dark and scary but thankfully not real.
Rating: 
Summary: Good AH, But Not Without Its Flaws
Review: Brendan Dubois's novel 'Resurrection Day' is a fun and thrilling Alternate History story set in a world where cooler heads did not prevail. Instead of working out a deal, the US and the USSR begin a full scale nuclear war in the wake of the Cuban Missle Crisis. Ten years later The United States is a police state, where military conscription and British foreign aid are supposedly the only things keeping the country from reverting to barbarism. When a reporter stumbles onto a story about the true beginnings of the US-Soviet war he soon finds himself in the middle of the largest cover-up in US history and is soon being hunted by the US Air Force, British secret agents, and other, more mysterious figures. While the author does a tremedous job of creating this fictional, nightmare world it still doesn't hold a candle to Robert Harris's 'Fatherland,' to which this novel is often compared. It is much slower moving than 'Fatherland' and a bit more implausble in some areas. Also the characters, while compelling, aren't nearly as interesting as Harris's. That being said it should also be pointed out that this is a first rate AH story that should be embraced by all lovers of the genre. A lot of fun!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but a little on the long side...
Review: During my vacation, I picked up a novel by Brendan DuBois called Resurrection Day. An interesting bit of alternative history that could have been better than it was...
The book is set in 1972, 10 years after a thermonuclear exchange that wiped out Russia and left America dependent on the aid of others. This all happened because of the Cuban missile crisis. The US invaded Cuba, Cuba used tactical nukes, and the US treated that as an attack by Russia. Most of the government was killed in the attack, and plenty of areas are still off-limits (like New York City). Carl Landry is a reporter for the Boston Globe, and he's been contacted by someone who has documentation that shows what *really* happened during that time. But before Landry can get the papers, the source is mysteriously killed. Landry then becomes the focus of a number of groups who want to know what the source had, and they all think that Landry either has the inside track or possesses the papers. When he discovers a thriving underground culture of people living in New York (who the government says don't exist), he has to figure out who to trust in order to prevent an impending invasion of the US by foreign powers.
The book has an interesting premise, and on that point it's not a bad read. It's also a long paperback (580+ pages), and I think that's where it breaks down. I think this book could have been done very well in about 350 pages. As it is, there seems to be a lot of ground that's covered repeatedly without advancing the story as quickly as it could be.
If you're into alternative history, you'll probably like the book. If you're looking for some escapism or an entertaining novel, you might find this one a little slow for your tastes.
Rating: 
Summary: Extremely Disappointing Book
Review: I *love* alternate histories, and liked Brendan DuBois when he was writing about his modern-day ex-DOD-analyst/Amateur Detective Lewis Cold (in Dead Sand -- thhe first of his series), but the current book was so depressing and unbelievable that I wondered how it could have received positive ratings from so many people. I kept reading (skimming) to the end, hoping for some redeeming feature, but had no luck. The basic plot device is that the Cuban Missile Crisis escalated into WW III: Washington DC, a part of New York, and much of Florida (?) was destroyed, along with all of the Soviet Union. One of the unbelievable pieces of dialog that appears in the book was having the viewpoint character, a Boston Globe reporter, explain to a beautiful, wealthy London Times reporter (who seems to LIKE him) that Americans feel guilty about wiping out the Russians, since their military clearly weren't up to the US level of power (they only managed to kill 10 million Americans -- thus the guilt). The plot develops as a weird working out of the author's political fantasies, including an alternate universe Kennedy Death Conspiracy, at least as weird as the weirdest one I have ever heard about the actual Kennedy Assassination. Since the author is in charge of reality here, irrefutable proof is discovered, showing that this weird conspiracy theory is TRUE! I recommend against this book unless you're interested in conspiracies.
Rating:
Summary: Resurrected from the bookshelf for the guys
Review: I enjoyed this book immensely. The plot is great, although flawed on occasion. However it will keep you thinking well after the book. The prose is a little static and the flow seems to be missing. It certainly has a "new-author-first-book-with-potential" feel to it. In fact the writing reminded me of those readers digest recommended thrillers or westerns you'd get at your grandparents house. I feel a better editor might have raised this to a great novel rather than a good read. Despite the above criticism, I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone with a love of conspiracy theory or wanting a light read with a fascinating storyline. I gave this to my significant other who is not much of a reader, and he was wowed by it. I have also lent it to other men as it has a "blokey feel" to it. All have enjoyed. It is really a three star however I an enjoyed it like a four. It was a bad novel but a good book. It seems to me this would make a better film than a novel - and how rare is that?
Rating:
Summary: Kennedy and the Cuban crise and what well might have been
Review: I've just read a surprisingly good novel by Brendan Dubois titled RESURECTION DAY (Putnam). Just came out and is in hard cover. Surprisingly, because it's an alternate history book. The clue that it might be good is that though the novel is classifiable as science fiction it is not. (Publishers have always been reluctant to class a "good" novel as SCI-FI.) The time break in the novel is the Cuban Missile Crises. (I was in the USAF as a cryptographer at that time and remember how close we came to a blow up.) In Dubois' vision the situation does esclate into a nuclear exchange which results in the destruction of Russia and pushes it back to something resembling the Middle Ages, destroys Cuba, NYC, and Washington, D.C. and the Kennedy's. The fallout hits Europe and the US quite hard. America is no longer a major power and is being being bolstered by England. The writing is quite good. We are lead to the destruction and the effects quite subtly.The country is under the control of the military, but the depth of the control and the condition of the country sneak up on the reader. Is Kennedy really dead? What is England really up to? Here's a solid novel for summer reading. You can put it done with ease...that will give you the time to ponder. Rest assurred you will return to RESURECTION DAY. "Amazing isn't it, how wars and empires can change because of a few incidents over the course of a single day. After Lexington and Concord, what happened. All stemming from that park and this bridge." "That's true of all wars," he said. One Cuban dictator and one ambitious American president and one scared Russian premier later, look where we are."
Rating: 
Summary: Haunting scenario
Review: Let's start with the basics: Buy it. Read it. It is a very good story. Here is the why:
In general, what separates the great stories from the avarage ones? Some might say that its the ability of some part of the story to remain with you long after you have finished reading it. In this respect, "Ressurection Day" deserves to be classified as a classic of Alternate History and a great story to boot.
From the beginning, Dubois chooses his fork in time carefully. An all too near to reality scenario where the Cuban Crisis ends in World War III is just the kind of twist to lend this alternate world a heafty dose of credibility. Focusing on JFK has Dubois sending his readers directly into what I would term the "Oliver Stone realm of nostalgia" - the world as it might have been had this or other event not hapenned.
From these basic ingredients, Dubois weaves an intricate tapestry of memories and tragedies, hopes and fears. This is a world full of regret and a palpable sense of sadness, looking back in anger at the shattered American dream. And in it comes Ressurection's main character, Carl Landry, ostensibly trying to solve a murder, but actually hoping to achieve much much more.
Landry's journey through a devastated America is a tour de force of sketches into the avarage person's life after such a cataclysmic event. There are no big heroes to fill the canvas, just a collection of disparate people, nut unlike you and me, trying to make the best out of a horrible situation. The people and the places, the hopes and fears are what you would expect to find in your own neighborhodd, a fact which makes the horros of the war resonate with an uncanny attenuation. I guarantee you that long after you have forgotten any of the characters or the plot, the images of an America that might have been will remain in your mind as a powerful deterrent to a future you will not want happening.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing mix of suspense and alternative history
Review: The Cuban Missile Crisis ranks as the most terrifying moment of the Cold War, the point when the United States and the Soviet Union came closest to waging a nuclear war. In this novel, Brendan DuBois offers a terrifying speculation how it might have turned out, with a postwar America still recovering from a "limited" attack that killed millions and turned the country over to a quasi-military regime. DuBois' concept is well thought out, from the gangs of "orphies" (children who were safely in bomb shelters while their parents were caught above ground when the bombs fell) to the legend created around the possible survival of John F. Kennedy, a figure reviled for plunging the world into war.
Yet for a work of alternative history to succeed, it isn't enough simply to have an intriguing premise. The story within the book needs to be strong, and it is here where DuBois's book stands out from most alternative history novels. His plot, which follows a reporter whose investigation of a seemingly mundane murder leads him to the conspiracies which form the foundation of the post-war America, is exciting, with realistic characters that readers can relate to struggling to survive in this nightmarish America. All of this is told in a fast-paced, gripping narrative that make for great reading.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting speculation about America down for the count.
Review: This is an "alternate history" novel. The premise of Resurrection Day is that the Cuban Missile Crisis got out of hand, and escalated into a full nuclear exchange following a US invasion of Cuba. The aftermath is that the Soviet Union has been completely destroyed, and the United States is crippled, economically depressed, and under what amounts to a military dictatorship. The US is the junior partner of Great Britain, which is untouched by the war, and which has supplanted the US as the preeminent world power. The British mission to the US wields great power within the country. Here, by the way, the author uses the same concept of a US as a political satellite of Britain that Streiber used in "Warday" (which is another, earlier novel about the aftermath of a limited nuclear exchange).
The story moves along reasonably well, although I would not say that the ending is particularly startling. The novel's strong suit is the detail and realism of the author's portrayal of America under military control. One gets the impression from reading the novel that such a thing could happen, and that it would of course be a disaster for the country.
Like "Warday" the novel's weak suit is its premise that an America that is down for the count would not get back on its feet in the manner shown by the Germans and Japanese following the second world war. The novel gives no real explanation for why it assumes that America would remain poor and impoverished from devastation that, while bad, is less complete than what either Germany or Japan experienced from WW2.
Overall a decent read. It accomplishes its goal of making the reader appreciate the fact that the Cuban Missile Crisis did not escalate.
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