Sunday, July 12, 2009

Without Warning by John Birmingham

I've just finished reading Without Warning, an action thriller by the author of the alternate history/future series Axis of Time. Birmingham wrote Without Warning after he heard an anti-war protester assert that the world would be a better place without America. In the novel, the protester gets his wish.

In February 2003, A strange energy force hits the earth, consuming almost the entire continental United States, as well as much of Canada, Mexico, and Cuba. It kills all life inside of it. America now consists entirely of Alaska, Hawaii, the northwestern corner of Washington State, and US military forces and citizens abroad. The world promptly goes to hell in a handbasket, suffering a global financial collapse as US capital and demand for goods has literally vanished. Worse, with the sudden absence of American "political ballast", political unrest ferments across the globe, leading to wars, both conventional and nuclear.

Without Warning is a fast-paced thrill ride. I highly recommend it.

5 comments:

bob said...

Listening to an interview on the radio last week on the Prager show they were talking about U.S. education. One of the segments talked about since no child left behind was instituted how the curriculum has drifted away from geography, history and social studies. Your post made me wonder if we are raising a generation of young people who won't understand the signifigance of the U.S. in the world and where it is today.

JD said...

From your description, it sounds as if the Obama administration should read this. While their tax proposals and other hair brained schemes may not physically wipe us off the map, they will make us irrelevant in the world from a socioeconomic standpoint.

PAX
JD

John said...

JD -- one of the impacts that Birmingham describes is that the world's largest debtor nation vanishes and will never repay its debts. US currency becomes worthless overnight.

bob -- you don't need to wonder. I have no doubt.

JD said...

That would not be good. So anyone anywhere else in the world that was American becomes dependent on the goods that have with which they can barter? Interesting....and eerily similar.

PAX
JD

PS: I was not avoiding your question, just been too busy to slap together a coherent thought.

John said...

Well in the book, thankfully, many of our traditional allies step up to the plate to take in American refugees.