Random Question

[nancylebov]

I'm currently reading This Is the Way the World Ends (1986) by James Morrow.

What was the last WWIII novel?

Comments

[avram]

You mean an old-skool, US-vs-USSR, Cold War heats up, nukes everywhere WW3 novel? Not some newfangled West-vs-Islam, fourth-generation decentralized kinda thing? Or alternate history things? You mean a novel that still has the war happening in the future as of the time of its writing?

I dunno, but I bet there was at least one already in the publication pipeline when the Berlin Wall came down.

Wikipedia has a list of apocalyptic fiction, and the novels section mentions Swan Song (1987), The Gate to Women's Country (1988), and The Last Ship (1988). There's also the 1991 Chinese novel Yellow Peril, in which a Chinese civil war triggers a global nuclear exchange.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly that sort of WWWIII novel--the old-fashioned kind we grew up with.

I was wondering about Swan Song.

Meanwhile, I'm reading John Barnes' Payback City--it's about a big terrorist attack on the US by Arabs. It noodled around though the 90s, not finding a publisher, and then 9/11 happened, making it unpublishable for a while.

I haven't read the intro about what Barnes got right and wrong yet--he warned that it has spoilers. However, I'll note that the motivation is nationalistic rather than religious.

It's a good enough read so far (with lots about arson investigations), but I can see why it didn't get published. It's nice if you're in the mood for a talky rationalist novel, but it's got "I like the characters and tone and talk about how things work" pull rather than a lot of narrative drive.

It's the novel the narrator of Barnes' Gaudeamus is working on.

[avram]

The real-world 9/11 attacks weren't solely religious in motivation. And the line between nationalistic and religious motivations is not a sharp one. See Robert Pape's research.

And that link to Payback City is broken -- you forgot to put the http:// at the front of the URL.

[avram]

Although you can't edit a comment, now that I think of it, so it did no good for me to point out the broken link.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I could delete my comment and replace it with a corrected version, but I'm not sure it would be in the right place in the thread.

Here's the corrected link.

Thanks for pointing out the problem. It wasn't useless.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Beats me, but I had half of a button idea:

WWIII
FFIII

(See what I mean? Half an idea.)

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

What's FFIII about?

[(Anonymous)]

Wi-Fi

I told you it was half a

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

n idea.

sigh

[wolfdancer.livejournal.com]

not sure about that .. but looking at the FC site. a button idea.
Good farie..
Bad faire.
Dark Farie
Shie or how ever it is spelled.
Dark wood Farie,
I am a SPRITE!
Cute Pic under.
Beleive!
Elfs. There not just for tolken any more. (token).
My outher car is a unicorn.
Magic makes my world go round.
Magic. a Sprinkel a day....

[captain-button.livejournal.com]

My first thought was of Fire Lance by David Mace, which Amazon says is from 1989. Takes place after the nuclear war in the early 21st century where the nuclear arms went on for much longer than in OTL.

Checking Amazon says he published Shadow Hunters in 1993, but the plot description there sounds like more like a Cold War novel than a WWIII novel.