"From Within the Firebird's Nest" by Sheldon Charles

This book is a bit different than most of the others I have reviewed. It is a spy-thriller that starts off during the cold-war era in the Soviet Union. The Crimson Firebird Initiative is a plan to retaliate against the United States in the event that they were to attack first and destroy the Soviet nuclear arsenal before the Soviets had a chance to respond. It was long term plan that was designed to destroy the U.S. population and allow the Soviets to relocate and live there instead, as it was assumed that the Soviet Union would be uninhabitable due to nuclear radiation.

The concept of the plot was that children would be raised to be able to pass as United States citizens, speaking English, learning the customs, but being trained to be loyal Soviet Union undercover agents. When the time was right, they would set the ultimate plan in motion that would decimate the population in a way that no one would be prepared for and once activated would be unstoppable.

Parts of the book are set during the time when the plan was first conceived and set in motion, but others take place in the present day when there no longer is a cold war between the two nations. There are only two men who knew the entirety of the plan, and one of them had a son who had been raised as a sleeper agent. This man has realized that he needs to find a way to make sure that the Crimson Firebird Initiative will never succeed in it’s original intent or mission, for doing so will be far too costly in human casualties as well as including his son in with those who would be killed. The U.S. has no knowledge of this plot or the fact that there is someone out there who is determined to see it to completion. Can it be prevented or is the U.S. population doomed?

This was an interesting story that contained some very interesting twists. However I really wish the author had spent more time on the editing and proofreading. Quite often I ran across sentences missing words, others with words added in that didn’t belong, and some errors that at times just distracted me from the overall story. The concept was a good one, but more time spent on the editing could have made it a great one.