Trinity's Child

Read this late at night and then try to sleep. Sneak attack and US ICBM retaliation all within the first couple chapters. The rest of the book is about one messed up B-52 crew trying to perform its mission, and the President trying to stop things before sub missile launch escalates things _past_ a few hundred million. Characters are a little off, but the ideas are scary. After this, read about Le May and SAC in "Dark Sun" by Richard Rhodes. Then scrounge up a story by William Barton in which a kid survives the Cuban Missile Crisis gone nuclear. In that story the megatonnage we possessed in 1962 is enough to kinda depopulate Eurasia due to the fallout. "Age of Aquarius", Asimov's Mag, 1996? Then google on what weapons we and the Russians currently have.

Although the plot of the book is only passable, the real strong-point lies in the intense imagery it creates. From the glowing red radiation clouds in the serene Arctic night to the pock-marked landscape of Hawaii, Prochnau makes you see how utterly terrifying even a limited nuclear-exchange could be. In addition, he does a wonderful job of conveying the helplessness and desperation a nation would go through during such a horrific event.The book gets points off for an almost silly excuse for starting the war (although I'll certainly grant it's plausible, just seemingly very far-fetched from a 2002 perspective).Otherwise, a very exciting read.

This book was written in 1983 and yet with what's happening in the 21st century, this should be required reading for high schools and colleges. The USA's enemy may not be the Soviet Union anymore as far as nuclear war, but it may come from somewhere in the Far East instead.The plot to this book is very real, using human emotions during highly emotional times. Who is the first to say "nuff"?

I have reread this novel many times since it first came out, and while it was especially frightening when new, still awakens old fears, long after the Cold War's end.

Very accurate portrayal of SAC and a specific B-52 bomber crew and the concerns they face when the US finds itself in a nuclear war.Became a pretty good movie with Powers Booth (Southern Comfort) as the B-52 pilot.