Customer Reviews

The 40-Minute War

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The writing style is fine, the plot.... full of holes.

I would have liked to have read more about the events going on in the USA. INstead you follow a rat pack like of CIA preps around the middle east... They finally make it back to the USA, but after the "40 minute nuclear exchange" not much is left of this once great nation. This part of the book shines... and really pulls in - the aftermath.

The ending has a nice twist... but not enough to pull the book up from the long uneventful first half of the story.

The 40- Minute War begins with a group of Arab terrorists taking over a jetliner...and it was written in 1984. The Baen hardcover got a rave review from Publisher's Weekly: "A sudden, satisfying ending." The Baen softcover has two different, graphic covers. Prophetic, but thank heavens, not too much so: in the story, the terrorists detonate a nuclear device over the White House. The science and intelligence tradecraft are first-rate; the science-fictional element is a desperate time-travel gambit to undo an event that triggers a 40-minute nuclear exchange between the Soviet Union and the United States. CIA and Mossad team up to un-happen an event that puts humanity's very survival in doubt through a chain-reaction of furious retaliations. A frightening book, full of wonderful characters who stand out bright against a dark and all-too-likely future. The authors come to grips with the ugly truths about post-nuclear survival, a background against which the heroism of the main characters is all humanity has to rely upon. Written by defense community professionals, this book takes you deep inside the minds of men and women who deal on a regular basis with protecting the world against threats to civilization. Not for the squeamish.