When I was a kid, nuclear annihilation was an inevitable scenario. It was a generational trauma for people who grew up in the 80s.
Welcome to the club, kids! Thanks to current events, nuclear holocaust is back on the menu! Here’s your chance to get in on the well-worn bandwagon before a bunch of people discover the absolute nihilistic horror of the prospect of nuclear war, and somehow make it into a love triangle featuring teenagers.
Here is a list of books to stoke your feelings of unease, of the horrors of nuclear war, from HOWLS member @Franklin Phillips.
Why?
“Post-apocalyptic fiction often has nuclear war as the cause of the end of the world. Expect to read about unreal monsters, mutants, cannibals, biker gangs, etc. And it often seems to be an event that is comfortably unlikely to happen.
“But the truth is that nuclear war is the ax held over the neck of humanity every day. In an afternoon, the world could come to an end, and with all sorts of horrifying ways to die, either from nuclear attack or soon after. This list is focused on realistic depictions of nuclear war and its aftermath.” – @Franklin Phillips
The “Missiles Are Flying” Book List:
- Nuclear War: A Scenario (2024) by Annie Jacobsen*
- Einstein’s Monsters (1987) by Martin Amis
- The Last Ship (1988) by William Brinkley
- On The Beach (1957) by Nevil Shute
1. Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen
From Goodreads:
There is only one scenario other than an asteroid strike that could end the world as we know it in a matter of hours: nuclear war. And one of the triggers for that war would be a nuclear missile inbound toward the United States.
Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in—where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds’ notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have.
Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, have been privy to the response plans, and have been responsible for those decisions should they have needed to be made. Nuclear War: A Scenario examines the handful of minutes after a nuclear missile launch. It is essential reading, and unlike any other book in its depth and urgency.
2. Einstein’s Monsters by Martin Amis
From Goodreads:
A collection of stories about a frightening world inhabited by people dehumanized by the daily threat of nuclear war and postwar survivors deformed by its results.
An ex-circus strongman, veteran of Warsaw, 1939, and Notting Hill rough-justice artist, meets his own personal holocaust and ‘Einsteinian’ destiny; maximum boredom and minimum love-making are advised in a 2020 epidemic; a virulent new strain of schizophrenia overwhelms the young son of a ‘father of the nuclear age’; evolution takes a rebarbative turn in a Kafkaesque love story; and the history of the earth is frankly discussed by one who has witnessed it all.
3. The Last Ship by William Brinkley
From Goodreads:
The unimaginable has happened. The world has been plunged into all-out nuclear war. Sailing near the Arctic Circle, the U.S.S. Nathan James is relatively unscathed, but the future is grim and Captain Thomas is facing mutiny from the tattered remnants of his crew. With civilization in ruins, he urges those that remain—one-hundred-and-fifty-two men and twenty-six women—to pull together in search of land. Once they reach safety, however, the men and women on board realize that they are Earth’s last remaining survivors—and they’ve all been exposed to radiation. When none of the women seems able to conceive, fear sets in. Will this be the end of humankind?
4. On The Beach by Nevil Shute
From Goodreads:
After a nuclear World War III has destroyed most of the globe, the few remaining survivors in southern Australia await the radioactive cloud that is heading their way and bringing certain death to everyone in its path. Among them is an American submarine captain struggling to resist the knowledge that his wife and children in the United States must be dead. Then a faint Morse code signal is picked up, transmitting from somewhere near Seattle, and Captain Towers must lead his submarine crew on a bleak tour of the ruined world in a desperate search for signs of life. On the Beach is a remarkably convincing portrait of how ordinary people might face the most unimaginable nightmare.
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Franklin Phillips
Franklin Phillip is an American horror writer living in Japan. He made his publication debut with the short story “Liberation Through Cosmic Horror” in WTF: An Anthology of Horror Volume 2 from Savage Realms Press. He counts among his influences Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, George R.R. Martin, and many others. He can be reached at franklinphillipstories [at] gmail.com.
