Sage Fire Review of The Red Dragon

Red Dragon

Historical Fears

Date of Review: July 21, 2008
Multi-format Ebook, Large Print Edition
Thriller, Adventure, Historical Fiction


Vlad the Impaler, created history. To the Christians of the Central Eastern European Steps, a prince, a hero, the savior of millions of lives. To the Muslims, the pilgrims, and serving class Turks he became the terror of the night, unable to be destroyed, leaving tens of thousands of Muslim supporters and military hanging and dripping blood. For them, he became their worst nightmare, the Dracul.

Centuries later, in the middle of the final stages of the Vietnamese civil war, when the Americans vied with the Russians for impressionistic control of the population; his own descendant's doom lay in confrontation with the most apt pupil of his reign of terror teachings ever. The clash of war titans became inevitable.



Synopsis:

Yuri Zukhov, brilliant historical tactician, student of Vlad Dracul's campaigns, from the Academy of Military History in Moscow, and Bondesque lady's man; found himself banished on a flight to Hanoi for the termidity of being caught in the act of screwing his commanding officer's mistress. His incredible tactical ability stood no chance against internal personal politics. By the time he reached the Hanoi command center, he already had arranged dates with the stewardesses and the new commanders mistress. He was not stoic, rather comfortable in his self abilities and importance of his military brilliance being applied to the North Vietnamese army.
Alexandru Mihnea, direct descendant of Vlad Dracul, top special forces Master Sargent returns to camp Hoa Binh, to shore up local support for the fire teams, and to clean out remaining pockets of Viet Cong. The problem remains, he is just a little too good at his job, prompting a re-evaluation of where the North Vietnamese army should strike first.
Neither man has control of their destiny anymore. Fate has stepped in, the biggest star pupil of Vlad Dracul's tactics will confront his direct descendant. No quarter will be given, on either side.



Impression:

This story quails the faint of heart, brings up memories of friends and comrades dieing, of listening to the tales of tunnel rats, and drinking with the Marines when they came home. An incredibly researched and studied tale from both sides of the Black Sea, Clifford Gissell captures both the idiosyncrasies of the Central European cultures and contrasting penchants of the Americans during the 1970's.
Red Dragon is NOT an easy read. It is NOT one of the stories you will casually pick up and finish in an hour. For those readers who had relatives and friends who lived and died during the Tet Offensive, it is even yet, a hard brick read.
For the student of cultures, Red Dragon drives home the differences between the gray world point of view of the Central Europeans and the rigid right and wrong view of the Americans. It demonstrates the complacency of a general population at war with itself for long decades, and the will it took to merely survive.
For the Military Historian, Red Dragon exemplifies the cross thoughts, tactics, and strategies used across a thousand years of conflict and turmoil. It delves directly into the reasoning and thinking of all sides of this bygone offensive.
For everyone else, it is headlong dive into a madness and terror the population refuses to acknowledge can exist, even today. Modern horror films have no edge on the reality this novel shows can and will happen. This is a novel you must dare yourself to read.

RATING: 9 Campfires

The Sage Fire Review URL is: http://sagefire.pencraft.biz/may08/Review.RedDragon.html

Camp Duc Hue, 5th Special Forces Group

Camp Hoa Binh in The Red Dragon is fictional. While in Special Forces I spent seven months at Camp Duc Hue in Hau Nghia Province, III Corps, South Vietnam. The team designation was A325, it belonged to B32. This camp was located on the Cambodian border under the border feature named The Angel Wing. It was located in Duc Hue District but the district seat, the village of Duc Hue, was located across the Vam Co Dong River. On the west side of the river where the camp was located there were no populated areas. Basically this was a free-fire zone. Anyone moving through the area was considered to be an enemy. When I was there, from September, 1968 to April, 1969, enemy meant the North Vietnamese Army. The border was about five clicks or about three miles away. The area where the camp was located was some sort of farming area when the French controlled what was then Indochina. The area was named "Agroville" on the maps. There were some man-made features there. I remember at least one lake that was square in shape and some roads. I also remember a derelict piece of road equipment abandoned by the road. I assume there was once a bridge across the Vam Co Dong River that allowed vehicular traffic to reach this area. Our attention was always toward Cambodia, I never saw the river. Our operational area consisted of abandoned rice fields. When you left camp on an operation you went into the water and stayed in the water unless you came upon an abandoned 'tree square', a place that once was a homestead. These tree squares are where we normally stopped to eat or remain over night (RON). They were also the most likely place to be booby-trapped. As you approached parts of the border you would find vegetated areas and dry ground. I live in northern Alabama. As I cross the Tennessee River going north, there are two areas that always remind me of Vietnam. One is a wet area surrounded by trees that reminds me of my second tour in Vietnam, served in Mekong Delta. A bit north of the Tennessee River is a cotton field with a tree square in the middle of it. It too is abandoned, once being a homestead. Everytime I see that, whether there's cotton planted or not, it reminds me of the tree squares we saw on operations at Duc Hue. There's still a hint of uneasiness in me, not as strong as back in those days, but still a hint, that danger lurks there.

5th+Special+Forces+Group A325 Agroville B32 Duc+Hue Hoa+Binh North+Vietnamese+Army The+Angels+Wing The+Parrots+Beak The+Red+Dragon Vam+Co+Dong+River NVA 5th+SFG

A Vietnam War Novel - Part 8

Well, if it's going to be published, I've got to find a publisher. Up until this time I was looking for a print book publisher, exclusively. Under my pen name, C J Maxx, I had an erotic romance short story published by Whiskey Creek Press - Torrid. It was under 15K words and available only in electronic format. I knew they published other genres besides the erotic stuff. I sent them a query and they requested the full manuscript. This was all done electronically. I knew it would be months before I would hear anything. They had a backlog. After more than a few months I sent them an email asking about the status. They said they liked it but wondered about the marketability of the book. I told them about the Special Forces community and how I would sell the book to them. That was enough. They send me a contract for both the electronic and print formats. That was in November 2007. The release date was to be April 1, 2008. The only hiccup was that they changed to a staggered release during the month and the book was released on April 15th. Finally, I had a copy of The Red Dragon in my hand.

A Vietnam War Novel - Part 7

I revised The Red Dragon and sent it back to the publisher. A few weeks later I get a letter stating the novel is "too technical". If I want to reach non-military readers I will have to make it less technical. I knew this was an issue but wasn't ready to make any changes. I still wanted to be technically accurate. My wife was the first to complain about this when she first read the draft. She told me that the Vietnamese ranks were confusing, that she could never remember who was what. She also didn't like all the radio communications, all this call-sign stuff distracted her from the story. My step-son had the same issues. Neither has any military background. My junior medic from Nam never mentioned this "technical" issue. Of course not, he knew exactly what I was talking about, he lived it too. Damn. I do want this book to interest non-military readers too. What to do? I can challenge the publisher, well known authors do that, and have it published their way. Well, I'm certainly not a well known author. Okay, I'll do it. Back through the book again. I changed all the Vietnamese ranks to their American equivalent. Thank God for Microsoft's Word "Find and Replace". I deleted a lot of radio communications and simplied most of the rest. Back it goes again. What's next, take out all the cussing? I draw the line on that one. Now I hear nothing for several weeks. I send a letter, what's going on? Finally, I get an answer. "I can't get a bank to finance this book." This is devastating news. I have a completely different book, changed a the request of a publisher who promised he would publish the book. Now, he's reneged. I review his letters. He told me on the phone he would publish the book, that's not repeated in any of his letters. Several times during our dealings I thought I should have a contract but didn't follow up on that thought. Even if I did have a contract I don't know what my recourse would be, contracts have clauses that allow either party to end it. Well, back to square one: Find a publisher.

A Vietnam War Novel - Part 5

The Red Dragon was finished, time to begin the search for a publisher. There are intrinsic rewards to writing and completing a book. It has its frustrations, for sure, but when you're in the grove and the words are flowing effortlessly, it feels wonderful. Now, on the other hand, finding a publisher is the most frustrating part of writing. I knew that a certain New York City agent would be interested in this book. When I had submitted my first novel to him several years ago I mentioned I would be writing this one next. I sent a query letter to him by email and was almost immediately told to email the manuscript. So begins the rollercoaster ride of the publishing effort. I started up the hill, would I hit the jackpot at the top or come screaming down the other side. Several days later I had my answer. He liked it, but didn't love it. With the difficulties getting unknown authors published, etc. he was sorry, he would have to decline. Down the hill we went. Well, let's find a publisher who publishes military stuff. There's not many out there. But, I found the perfect one. A small publisher in the south. The publisher was an ex-Green Beret who had also been a chopper pilot. Perfect. I sent a query letter and was asked to send the maunuscript by email. Here we go, back up the hill. What came back was a partially edited manuscript. He had went through the first hundred pages. This was very positive. Why would he bother unless he was interested? A few emails back and forth and I send the corrected manuscript back. Then nothing. I send a few emails asking about the status. I'm not getting any response from him. I find another person in his publishing company and contact her. She gets through to him and he sends me an email. He's sorry, but finances are tight. He can't publish the book. But, I can tell prospective publishers that he would have published it if he had the money. Great. One liked it but didn't love it, another would publish it, but didn't have the money. Let me digress here and tell you about my first novel, a political story titled The Second Amererican Republic. It took two years to write, it took another year to find a publisher. The scheduled publication date was a year later. I suspected things were not going well as the publication date neared and little had been done to get the book ready for publication. I knew he was slow because I had been watching his website and scheduled publication dates of other books had been pushed out. I knew mine would suffer the same fate. Well, about two days before my scheduled date he went out of business. Four years and now--nothing. Nothing in my life has been as frustrating as tried to get a book published. Time to check out other publishers.

Website Now Active

My website, http://cliffordgissell.com , is now active. The Red Dragon novel dominates the site with pages on Special Forces, the CIDG program, and the historical Vlad Dracula. It's my website though and you can find out more about me through my bio and military service pages.

The Red Dragon has been released

I'm happy to announce that my action/thriller war novel, The Red Dragon, has been released by Whiskey Creek Press. I belong to the Northern Alabama chapter of the Special Forces Association. I introduced my book to the chapter members at our quarterly meeting last Saturday. It was well received. I had purchased a number of advanced copies and I sold one to each member present. One former Green Beret called me the next day to congratulate me on the book. He had finished it already and said that I had hit a home run with this one. That's the kind of feedback an author appreciates. The direct link for purchasing the book is: http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=637