spector@acf4.UUCP (David HM Spector) (04/13/85)
Has anyone read the book _War Day_, by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka? What did you think of it? I have just finished it and found it an incredibly scary, yet very realistic approach to what might happen if there were to be a nuclear war, limited or otherwise.... For those who haven't heard of the book, in a nut shell, it is the story of two men (both writers who are telling the story) who journey across America 5 years after a limited nuclear war. The book opens with a description of the "war", a series of suprise air and ground bursts that vapourize New York, Washington, San Antonio, and a few military bases. The biggest effect is EMP which does the obvious in destroying all things electronic, and cuts off all communications, destroys the ecomony, disrupts distribution of medical supplies, etc. The rest of the book deals not so much with the gorey details of radioactive death, but with how the people of America try to resume their lives. The book is well written, and gives you the feeling that Strieber and Kunetka may have been to the America they have written of, and came back to warn us of it... David HM Spector NYU/acf Systems Group Spector@nyu-cmcl1.ARPA ...!allegra!cmcl2!cmcl1!spector
ecl@ahutb.UUCP (e.c.leeper) (04/15/85)
I have read the book (though not reviewed it) and heard the radio adaptation that Pacifica (WBAI in New York) did just last Wednesday. I did not find it particularly scary (though everyone else seems to have) because, like so many post-holocaust stories (and films, especially) it seems to minimize the effects. I mean, this guy is in downtown New York City when it is A-bombed and all he is gets is one cut on the head and some long-term tendency toward cancer? The fact that only three bombs were dropped (NYC, Washington, and Houston--which just *happens* to be the narrator's home town) make this considerably less realistic than, say, THREADS. (See recent extended discussion from net.sf-lovers on this topic.) I think it's the telling in the first-person singular that gets to people. I'm not sure what I'd recommend instead, but this just didn't grab me the way it did most people who have talked about it. Other comments, anyone? Evelyn C. Leeper For now, I am ...ihnp4!ahutb!ecl But, on May 1, I become ...ihnp4!mtgzz!ecl
drp@ptsfb.UUCP (Dale Pederson) (04/16/85)
> > Has anyone read the book _War Day_, by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka? > What did you think of it? > I just read this book in March and enjoyed it, but found it a bit unreal. It is hard for me to believe that the Powers in charge would destroy only a "few" American/Russian cities and leave the rest of the world untouched. However, another book _World War III_ also postulated a limited nuclear war and I found it to be more plausible.
chb@telesis.UUCP (Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk) (04/23/85)
> > > > Has anyone read the book _War Day_, by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka? > > What did you think of it? > > > I just read this book in March and enjoyed it, but found it a bit unreal. > It is hard for me to believe that the Powers in charge would destroy only > a "few" American/Russian cities and leave the rest of the world untouched. > Oh, I don't know. Although I found the reasons for the start of the war a little implausible, I could see the possibility of that limited an exchange happening due to EMP. Think about the amount of circuitry involved in arming, firing and delivering an ICBM. I found the book all too plausible. Makes you wonder whether surviving is that much better than not..... And on that happy note.... Charlie Berg {decvax,linus}!wanginst!ucadmus!telesis!chb
maverick@trwatf.UUCP (Mark D. Grover) (04/23/85)
> > Has anyone read the book _War Day_, by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka? > > What did you think of it? > > > I just read this book in March and enjoyed it, but found it a bit unreal. > It is hard for me to believe that the Powers in charge would destroy only > a "few" American/Russian cities and leave the rest of the world untouched. > Interesting. I found the scenarios (full of human and machine fallibility) to be very believable. Yet I found the style hard to get excited about. But I don't like travelogues anyway. I found it as depressing and scary as it was no doubt supposed to be. -- MDG ARPA: trwatf!maverick@SEISMO UUCP: ...!{decvax,ihnp4,allegra}!seismo!trwatf!maverick ...ucbvax!trwrb!trwatf!maverick
spector@acf4.UUCP (David HM Spector) (04/24/85)
I dunno,... I found the wole EMP scenario very believable, I think that CBS news, in their report _THE DEFENSE OF THE UNITED STATES_ which aired a couple of years ago, had a few 'expert witnesses' who theorized that one could indeed wipe out most, if not all, of the electronics on the continent by a few well placed, high-alt. devices. Some of the scenes I found most disturbing, were the ones describing NYC 5 yrs after the bomb(s). All of the scenes/places described were places I either live right next to ( The Ansonia Hotel ) or work right next to (CakeMasters, Grace Church, Tower Records, The Silver Towers complex , & cetera). (Actually, when Kunetka finds the weathered note on the dining room table from his wife...that was a bit on the scary side too....) And, actually, sick as the thought is, no one, not even the Russians, would try a complete pre-emptive first strike, 'cause that would be the end of everything, but a limited EMP based first strike.... David HM Spector NYU/acf Systems Group ...!allegra!cmcl2!cmcl1!spector Spector@nyu-cmcl1.ARPA US Snail: 251 Mercer St., Rm. 329 <---- 2 blocks from Tower Records. New York, NY 10012 4 blocks from Grace Churce.....
inc@fluke.UUCP (Ensign Benson, Space Cadet) (04/27/85)
> Has anyone read the book _War Day_, by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka? > What did you think of it? I have just started _Warday_ and am finding it to be pretty easy reading and very gripping. Contrary to some of the offhand remarks made in this newsgroup about the book, though, I think the scenario is plausible. Someone expressed doubts that the war would only affect three cities, and assumed from this that only three *bombs* were involved. Not at all. There are several references in the early chapters to "the New York Pattern", which refers to the fact that the city was blasted with several simultaneous devices. In fact, I also recall that there are a few references to high-altitude detonations specifically to create the EMT storm. I am only up to the very first part of the trek that the two heroes will be making, but so far, this war seems eerily real. The most stark scene I have ever read is the blast over Queens as experienced in Manhattan. It doesn't seem at all improbable that instead of the global thermonuclear destruction that just about everyone expects we'll have instead a limited atomic war. In my opinion, "plausibility" really doesn't even matter; apparently one of the themes of the book is going to be the fragility of our complex society. You can't demonstrate that with all-out holocaust ala' _The Day After_. -- Ensign Benson -Space Cadet- -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- The Digital Circus -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) (05/03/85)
> > Has anyone read the book _War Day_, by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka? > > What did you think of it? > > I have just started _Warday_ and am finding it to be pretty easy reading and > very gripping. Contrary to some of the offhand remarks made in this > newsgroup about the book, though, I think the scenario is plausible. > > Someone expressed doubts that the war would only affect three cities, and > assumed from this that only three *bombs* were involved. Not at all. There > are several references in the early chapters to "the New York Pattern", > which refers to the fact that the city was blasted with several simultaneous > devices. In fact, I also recall that there are a few references to > high-altitude detonations specifically to create the EMT storm. > > I am only up to the very first part of the trek that the two heroes will be > making, but so far, this war seems eerily real. The most stark scene I have > ever read is the blast over Queens as experienced in Manhattan. It doesn't > seem at all improbable that instead of the global thermonuclear destruction > that just about everyone expects we'll have instead a limited atomic war. > > In my opinion, "plausibility" really doesn't even matter; apparently one of > the themes of the book is going to be the fragility of our complex society. > You can't demonstrate that with all-out holocaust ala' _The Day After_. > > -- > > Ensign Benson > -Space Cadet- > > -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- The Digital Circus -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ I picked up _War Day_ in the checkout line at the supermarket --- these sort of books interest me a great deal, mostly because of how wildly inaccurate most of them are on the subject of nuclear weapons and *especially* fallout effects. The list of large scale mutations and congenital defects resulting from the war was sickening, but utterly implausible. Most people don't realize that, while the Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts resulted in a lot of stillbirths, there were no more malformed children than normal. It turns out that most people close enough to a nuclear explosion to experience the *primary* radiation dose are dead from blast and fire. Some of the experiments involving radiation exposure such as might be expected from fallout (one of the more overrated hazards of nuclear war) suggest that widespread congenital defects or mutations are pretty unlikely. You see, about 2/3 of all conceptions *right now* result in spontaneous abortion, usually so early that the mother doesn't even realize she's pregnant. In the aftermath of a major nuclear war there would likely be a dramatic increase in these (Thank God) spontaneous abortions of the severely malformed embryos resulting from high radiation doses, and likely a large number of stillbirths, but the sort of thing I've seen described in _War Day_ and a few other books, is pretty far-fetched.