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108 reviews for:
The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States
Jeffrey Lewis
4.19 AVERAGE
108 reviews for:
The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States
Jeffrey Lewis
4.19 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
funny
informative
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
informative
tense
fast-paced
Horror is easily the genre I read the most and I've dipped my toe into just about every subgenre it has to offer. This book, despite being written and marketed as something wholly different, is probably the scariest thing I've read all year.
It's presented as a dry, technical, after-the-fact report of a hypothetical nuclear exchange that took place in March of 2020 (this book treats itself as being released publicly on May 1, 2023, and uses August 17, 2018 as a point-of-divergence from real history). The prose was distant and removed in an effort to appear professional and unbiased, but the sheer emotion of the tense brinkmanship leading up to the horrific aftermath of a gamble gone wrong still managed to seep through and I was hooked on every page. I felt like I was watching the world's most terrible arrangement of dominoes being set up, hoping that they wouldn't fall but knowing that they already had.
I do have criticisms of the book. For all the moving parts there were to keep track of and how believable it all was, I think the things that weren't mentioned were more noticeable. I don't understand how during high-stakes planning and negotiations over the span of just 48 hours, somehow the literal Vice President Mike Pence, or hell, Congress isn't even mentioned until the last chapter. Despite a lot of the early actions being centered on the Korean Peninsula, I thought it was strange how there were no mentions of NATO or non-Asian allies checking in with the US along the lines of "what's going on over there?" I also thought it was unusual that the governments of both China and Russia, two countries that share a land border with North Korea, were also absent for an evolving crisis right on their doorstep.
But I was so gripped by what was happening, I can overlook what didn't.
This book is not gonna be for everyone, but I've certainly never read anything like this and I find myself wanting more of this kind of speculative, "here's how it could happen" fiction.
It's presented as a dry, technical, after-the-fact report of a hypothetical nuclear exchange that took place in March of 2020 (this book treats itself as being released publicly on May 1, 2023, and uses August 17, 2018 as a point-of-divergence from real history). The prose was distant and removed in an effort to appear professional and unbiased, but the sheer emotion of the tense brinkmanship leading up to the horrific aftermath of a gamble gone wrong still managed to seep through and I was hooked on every page. I felt like I was watching the world's most terrible arrangement of dominoes being set up, hoping that they wouldn't fall but knowing that they already had.
I do have criticisms of the book. For all the moving parts there were to keep track of and how believable it all was, I think the things that weren't mentioned were more noticeable. I don't understand how during high-stakes planning and negotiations over the span of just 48 hours, somehow the literal Vice President Mike Pence, or hell, Congress isn't even mentioned until the last chapter. Despite a lot of the early actions being centered on the Korean Peninsula, I thought it was strange how there were no mentions of NATO or non-Asian allies checking in with the US along the lines of "what's going on over there?" I also thought it was unusual that the governments of both China and Russia, two countries that share a land border with North Korea, were also absent for an evolving crisis right on their doorstep.
But I was so gripped by what was happening, I can overlook what didn't.
This book is not gonna be for everyone, but I've certainly never read anything like this and I find myself wanting more of this kind of speculative, "here's how it could happen" fiction.
adventurous
challenging
informative
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
informative
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
informative
tense
Got nauseated by the glowing descriptions of Jim Mattis, and constant insistence the US military would avoid DPRK civilian casualties and nuclear retaliation after a DPRK nuclear attack, just totally implausible
Fun and informational, though the conclusion's recommendation against "politicizing" the attack or holding actors in the administration accountable for their role in it is off-putting. Possibly just dark humor that's a little too subtle to distinguish from actual arguments t from hose who would like to continue the mistakes of the past?