Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Mariner Books (2018), Edition: Illustrated, 304 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. HTML: This "brilliantly conceived" novel imagines a devastating nuclear attack on America and the official government report of the calamity (Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation and Command and Control). "The skies over the Korean Peninsula on March 21, 2020, were clear and blue." So begins this sobering report by the Commission on the Nuclear Attacks against the United States, established by Congress and President Donald J. Trump to investigate the horrific events of the following three days. An independent, bipartisan panel led by nuclear expert Jeffrey Lewis, the commission was charged with finding and reporting the relevant facts, investigating how the nuclear war began, and determining whether our government was adequately prepared. Did President Trump and his advisers understand North Korean views about nuclear weapons? Did the tragic milestones of that fateful month�??North Korea's accidental shoot-down of Air Busan flight 411, the retaliatory strike by South Korea, and the tweet that triggered vastly more carnage�??inevitably lead to war? Or did America's leaders have the opportunity to avert the greatest calamity in the history of our nation? Answering these questions will not bring back the lives lost in March, 2020. It will not rebuild New York, Washington, or the other cities reduced to rubble. But at the very least, it might prevent a tragedy of this magnitude from occurring again. It is this hope that inspired The 2020 Commission Report. "I couldn't put the book down, reading most of it in the course of one increasingly intense evening. If fear of nuclear war is going to keep you up at night, at least it can be a page-turner."�??New Scientist… (more)
Media reviews
"In its efforts to tug at the sleeve of a blithe nation, Lewis’s book follows in the post-apocalyptic footsteps of Nevil Shute’s On the Beach or the 1983 film The Day After. In its black comedy, which surfaces in the deadpan prose of the report, it is a Dr Strangelove for our time."
User reviews
LibraryThing member malexmave
A speculative novel, written by a nonproliferation expert, that deals with the simple question: How could an accidental nuclear war with North Korea happen, and what would it look like?
I made my way through the book in two evenings, foregoing most other activities, which should tell you all you
Speaking a few days after the release, in August 2018, the book is very much up to date, with Donald Trump and his cadre of officials (some of which are still those in power today, some their inevitable replacements) presiding over the debacle that occurs in this fictional version of year 2020. There are some nice touches, with Trump tweets playing a central role, but it never gets implausible.
I should note that while the book is written in the form of a report by a commission tasked with investigating the events of 2020 (hence the title), it contains graphic descriptions of what happens to victims of nuclear attacks, and as you might imagine, these are not for the faint of heart. I found this book to be yet another powerful reminder for why nuclear weapons are dangerous, and why we would all be better off without them in the mix.
If you are at all interested in nuclear weapons or foreign policy, read this book.
I made my way through the book in two evenings, foregoing most other activities, which should tell you all you
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need to know about this book. It is a well-written, sobering reminder that with nuclear weapons in the mix, we are always on the brink of killing large numbers of people because of misunderstandings, bad communication, and just plain old bad luck.Speaking a few days after the release, in August 2018, the book is very much up to date, with Donald Trump and his cadre of officials (some of which are still those in power today, some their inevitable replacements) presiding over the debacle that occurs in this fictional version of year 2020. There are some nice touches, with Trump tweets playing a central role, but it never gets implausible.
I should note that while the book is written in the form of a report by a commission tasked with investigating the events of 2020 (hence the title), it contains graphic descriptions of what happens to victims of nuclear attacks, and as you might imagine, these are not for the faint of heart. I found this book to be yet another powerful reminder for why nuclear weapons are dangerous, and why we would all be better off without them in the mix.
If you are at all interested in nuclear weapons or foreign policy, read this book.
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LibraryThing member 1Randal
I couldn't put it down! An incredibly realistic portrait of a very imaginable situation. And a wake-up call to those who feel diplomacy via Twitter is not harmful.
Lewis penned a fast moving story about how an entirely plausible accident escalates to nuclear war. Very believable. Very frightening.
Honestly, this short book should be required reading for all of our Federal Government Representatives. And to those who believe that the President's Twitter rampages and threats are not to be taken seriously. Most of all, maybe someone could read this to the President himself, if his attention span was long enough to pay attention!
Lewis penned a fast moving story about how an entirely plausible accident escalates to nuclear war. Very believable. Very frightening.
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Honestly, this short book should be required reading for all of our Federal Government Representatives. And to those who believe that the President's Twitter rampages and threats are not to be taken seriously. Most of all, maybe someone could read this to the President himself, if his attention span was long enough to pay attention!
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LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
When I was much younger, reading books about nuclear war and about survival after such a war was my guilty reading pleasure. I devoured them all. But as we moved away from the Cold War, such novels began to appear last often, and I now read very little post-apocalyptic fiction. I came across this
This book is a fictional, but plausible, account of how the US (and Japan, South Korea, and Guam) could end up under nuclear attack by North Korea. It is written in the form of a Commission Report several years after the attack to attempt to explain what went wrong. As such, its focus is geopolitical, rather than an examination of the devastating effects of such a war, or any efforts to rebuild after such a war. (The author is some sort of Think Tank expert, and I think this is his only fiction.)
The book is a study on how our political leaders and various countries play games of brinksmanship with each other, and how each side frequently misreads the intentions of the other side, leading to escalation after escalation. In this book, real characters in the drama include Trump as president, Mattis as Secretary of Defense, and Kim Jung Il. The fictional Trump behaves much as I expect the real Trump would behave. I found the book to be chilling, especially as I was reading it almost contemporaneously with the Iran crisis.
Several of the Amazon reviewers were disappointed with the book because its focus was not the effects of the war and its aftermath and victims. As I said, the intent of the book seems to have been to consider the political circumstances which could lead to such a war, and I think it did a good job. It is more cerebral than graphic. Some other critics were dismayed that Trump was portrayed as a clownish figure more interested in golf, but to me that's his reality.
3 1/2 stars
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book several weeks ago when I was browsing the library, and never having heard anything about it, checked it out on a whim. For context, I checked it out before the US went to the brink of war with Iran, but read it after that little boondoggle.This book is a fictional, but plausible, account of how the US (and Japan, South Korea, and Guam) could end up under nuclear attack by North Korea. It is written in the form of a Commission Report several years after the attack to attempt to explain what went wrong. As such, its focus is geopolitical, rather than an examination of the devastating effects of such a war, or any efforts to rebuild after such a war. (The author is some sort of Think Tank expert, and I think this is his only fiction.)
The book is a study on how our political leaders and various countries play games of brinksmanship with each other, and how each side frequently misreads the intentions of the other side, leading to escalation after escalation. In this book, real characters in the drama include Trump as president, Mattis as Secretary of Defense, and Kim Jung Il. The fictional Trump behaves much as I expect the real Trump would behave. I found the book to be chilling, especially as I was reading it almost contemporaneously with the Iran crisis.
Several of the Amazon reviewers were disappointed with the book because its focus was not the effects of the war and its aftermath and victims. As I said, the intent of the book seems to have been to consider the political circumstances which could lead to such a war, and I think it did a good job. It is more cerebral than graphic. Some other critics were dismayed that Trump was portrayed as a clownish figure more interested in golf, but to me that's his reality.
3 1/2 stars
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LibraryThing member arewenotben
Extremely readable and frequently terrifying, especially with almost everything being rooted in fact and linked back to true events. It essentially reads like a thriller with footnotes.
Wasn't so keen on the scenes with Trump as Lewis never really captures his voice quite right, which takes you out
Good read in general, hard to put down.
Wasn't so keen on the scenes with Trump as Lewis never really captures his voice quite right, which takes you out
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of the story at key times. The book doesn't go as much as I'd expected onto the immediate psychological effects of a nuclear attack to the wider country (and world), but I guess that's outside the scope of the form being used.Good read in general, hard to put down.
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LibraryThing member writemoves
I skimmed through this story in one day. Much of this speculative story appears plausible given that Trump is the President. Story begins when North Korea mistakenly shoots down South Korean commercial flight filed with kids headed for a trip. South Korea retaliates, without consulting U.S. and
Trump panics. Millions die. Trump takes no responsibility. Trump had argued that North Korean missiles would break up before they struck the U.S. Melania dies as she was staying in Trump Tower when the nuke hits. Trump is not exactly broken up about it. Kim dies too as North Korea gets wiped out. Trump had also considered an attack against China too. Maybe this book is not as far fetched as one may think.
I sense the author is not fond of Nikki Haley. She is still our UN ambassador in the story and there is a reference to reputed affairs she may have been involved.
Pence becomes President in this book and there is no f’n way he takes over if the United States sustained that type of damage and casualties.
This book is food for thought as the author captures how thoroughly inept the current adminsitration is.
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this continue to go quickly downhill from there. North Korea fires nukes at South Korea, Japan and the United States. New York City, Northern Virginia and Jupiter Florida are some of the areas hit by North Korean nukes.Trump panics. Millions die. Trump takes no responsibility. Trump had argued that North Korean missiles would break up before they struck the U.S. Melania dies as she was staying in Trump Tower when the nuke hits. Trump is not exactly broken up about it. Kim dies too as North Korea gets wiped out. Trump had also considered an attack against China too. Maybe this book is not as far fetched as one may think.
I sense the author is not fond of Nikki Haley. She is still our UN ambassador in the story and there is a reference to reputed affairs she may have been involved.
Pence becomes President in this book and there is no f’n way he takes over if the United States sustained that type of damage and casualties.
This book is food for thought as the author captures how thoroughly inept the current adminsitration is.
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LibraryThing member RickGeissal
This is a horrifying and well-done suggestion of how a blue-ribbon commission would investigate what went wrong that led to a nuclear war started by North Korea, resulting in millions dead. The author is an international relations expert, and this seems very real.
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
304 p.; 8 inches
ISBN
1328573915 / 9781328573919