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Posted by Tony Dietz on October 29, 2024, 10:03:10, in reply to "October 28, 1988. Warday"
A very troubling book to say the least. Certainly kept me from sleeping well for a number of weeks after reading it back in the early nineties. Particularly troubling was the very vivid description of the nuke landing in Brooklyn-Queens and how it was impacting the residents of Manhattan
If one leans to that sort of doomsday story, then may I recommend Pat Frank's (Hold Back the Night) novel about a nuclear war set in the late 1950's early 1960s and its impact on the fictional town of Fort Repose in Florida. The book is called "Alas Babylon" As said it dates from that time period and is very well written. Given the stories locale there are no vivid descriptions of the effects of the missiles or bombs on places like Tampa (MacDill AFB), Miami (Homestead AFB) and Key West NAS beyond the flash in those directions and the slightly visible mushroom clouds off in the distance. The book focuses on the impact on that small town and its residences. Having like many on this forum, grown up during the height of the Cold War it seems very real. 
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Warday is a novel from Whitley Streiber and James Kunetka. Kunetka is known for his works on Los Alamos, Oppenheimer, and General Groves. Streiber is, sadly, known for his books about his 'alien kidnappings.' Warday is about a harrowing trip across an America savaged by a "minor" nuclear exchange with the USSR. Many of the threads that hold a society together have been shredded, and even simple human decency is on the block. These were scary days in the mid-80s when an official of the-then administration, T.K. Sheppard, said publicly that a hole layered in dirt would be safe and "With enough shovels" everyone would make it.
It's a gut-punch book. I would think that many here would enjoy it. Get it if you can.
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