Take a photo of a barcode or cover
caprica 's review for:
Absolutely terrific. Picked this up because of the War on the Rocks holiday reading list recommendation and tore through it. A worthwhile read for anyone involved with the defense/foreign policy community, but surely of interest to people outside it.
This is a work of speculative fiction that takes the form of a government report on a nuclear attack on the US by North Korea - it is, in other words, as advertised. Reports like this can sometimes be a little dry, so in that sense the author has taken some liberties (this is anything but). Otherwise, this reads as an alarmingly plausible work of fiction about a series of mistakes that lead North Korea, South Korea, and the United States into a humanitarian catastrophe.
The book spoils itself in the sense that the title gives away the big event(s), but this does not diminish the gripping nature of the text, as it is fascinating to see the author chart the path from A to B, even though we already know what B is.
Aside from the general interest one might have in the text with respect to defense and foreign policy, the text is equally interesting in its attempts to explain why such a catastrophe might occur, especially when different people (or groups of people) are operating off the same sets of facts but arriving at radically different conclusions. This text, in general, has a lot to say, not only about current events, but also about human nature, and it is a worthwhile read in that respect.
The passages that may the most impactful are those that center around the experiences of people who survived the nuclear attacks. These are harrowing accounts, and are made all the more by the author's note at the end, where he explains that these are based on real-life accounts from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This is a really excellent text. My only hesitation in recommending it would be with respect to people who may find the topic itself (nuclear disaster/annihilation) difficult to deal with. (They are not easy topics, so I mean in the sense of them being overly anxiety-inducing.) Otherwise, this is an excellent text, especially regarding nuclear weapons and their use. (I might even go so far as to say it is a valuable meditation on them, though the text itself avoids "choosing a side", so to speak, on the issue.)
This is a work of speculative fiction that takes the form of a government report on a nuclear attack on the US by North Korea - it is, in other words, as advertised. Reports like this can sometimes be a little dry, so in that sense the author has taken some liberties (this is anything but). Otherwise, this reads as an alarmingly plausible work of fiction about a series of mistakes that lead North Korea, South Korea, and the United States into a humanitarian catastrophe.
The book spoils itself in the sense that the title gives away the big event(s), but this does not diminish the gripping nature of the text, as it is fascinating to see the author chart the path from A to B, even though we already know what B is.
Aside from the general interest one might have in the text with respect to defense and foreign policy, the text is equally interesting in its attempts to explain why such a catastrophe might occur, especially when different people (or groups of people) are operating off the same sets of facts but arriving at radically different conclusions. This text, in general, has a lot to say, not only about current events, but also about human nature, and it is a worthwhile read in that respect.
The passages that may the most impactful are those that center around the experiences of people who survived the nuclear attacks. These are harrowing accounts, and are made all the more by the author's note at the end, where he explains that these are based on real-life accounts from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This is a really excellent text. My only hesitation in recommending it would be with respect to people who may find the topic itself (nuclear disaster/annihilation) difficult to deal with. (They are not easy topics, so I mean in the sense of them being overly anxiety-inducing.) Otherwise, this is an excellent text, especially regarding nuclear weapons and their use. (I might even go so far as to say it is a valuable meditation on them, though the text itself avoids "choosing a side", so to speak, on the issue.)