trumanchipotle 's review for:

Nuclear War : A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen

5.0

challenging dark informative fast-paced

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I read Nuclear War: A Scenario during the recent Israel-Iran war, when it genuinely felt like we might be one bad decision away from the abyss. Partly (but by no means entirely) because of that context, I don’t think I’ve ever read anything more sobering or more necessary in a long time. Annie Jacobsen doesn’t do melodrama or political editorializing; she just walks you, minute by minute, through how a nuclear exchange might actually unfold. The result is terrifying precisely because it’s so calm, clinical, and plausible. 

 

This isn’t speculative fiction – it’s a war game with real-world inputs, down to the command protocols, satellite blind spots, and human fallibility built into every step. You can feel the dread ratcheting up with each chapter, not because of shock value, but because you realize how little room there is for error. And how often error is exactly what happens. 

 

Reading this while the headlines were full of real-world escalation made it hit like a punch to the chest. It’s not just a cautionary tale, it’s a map of how we destroy ourselves while still insisting we’re in control. I give it a solid five stars not because I enjoyed it, but because I needed to read it. We all do.