Nuclear War Fiction

Brought to you by Penguin. The Sunday Times bestselling edge-of-your-seat exploration of what would happen in the event of nuclear war, perfect for readers of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. *Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2024*...

Six months after the nuclear strikes, the world faces a new crisis. Not war. Hunger. Governments struggle to rebuild order as supply chains collapse and food becomes the most valuable resource on Earth. Borders fade and maps no longer matter. What matters now are corridors — roads, ports, and warehouses that must be protected if millions are to survive. Convoys carrying grain, fuel, and medicine move under armed escort. One broken route can push entire regions into chaos.

Washington is gone. One strike erased the political center of the world. After that, everything began to fall apart. Communications failed. Satellites went silent. Fuel, medicine, and supply chains stopped moving. Electricity survives only in scattered places where small grids and generators still work. Cities struggle to function. Hospitals run out of supplies. Millions begin moving, searching for water, medicine, and safety. But the explosions were only the beginning. Disease spreads in crowded shelters. People with injuries receive no treatment.

This isn’t a story about the future. It’s a story about now. About a world where everyone knows disaster is coming—yet no one speaks. Where generals run “just in case” scenarios, knowing that the case is already on its way. Where nuclear war is no longer taboo. It’s a plan. Nuclear War is a global political thriller that begins with one strike—and ends the way the world might.

A nuclear device detonates high above the North Atlantic. No crater. No invasion. No declared target. No instant casualties. And New York still goes dark. Satellites drop off the map. Comms snap. Power grids die. Markets freeze; radars see only shadows.

London is gone. After a massive blackout over the North Atlantic damages satellites and communication networks, the world enters a dangerous new phase. Governments are no longer talking about escalation — they are managing it.

The blasts stopped. The dying didn't. Months after the strikes, the real disaster is simple: there are no medicines. A small cut turns septic. Appendicitis becomes a death sentence. Childbirth is dangerous again. Diabetes without insulin, asthma without inhalers, infections without antibiotics—people die quietly in apartments, shelters, and hospital hallways. Hospitals are still standing, but many operating rooms are useless: no anesthesia, no sterile supplies, no antibiotics. Doctors must choose who gets the last dose and who is sent back to wait.

Nobody was prepared, including the world’s governments. The damage to humanity through loss of life was predictable, yet unfathomable. As nuclear winter spread across the globe, a rapidly cooling climate shocked humanity and many living things to their death. Nuclear Armageddon had become reality and ordinary people were paying the price. In a world without power, the exchange of information was virtually non-existent. A battle for resources was waged, pitting friend against friend and friend against foe. For the Bartlett family, their days on Swan’s Island were untenable.

After the war, the world learned a terrible truth: children are no longer only victims. They are labor. They are leverage. They are the future. Tens of millions have been left without parents, homes, papers, or any country able to say who they are. Some were torn away during evacuations. Others disappeared into camps, transit zones, and temporary centers where names can be changed, identities reassigned, and lives erased.

President John F. Kennedy once said, “Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.” Today, a new element has been introduced to the preparations—artificial intelligence. The United States, in its quest to rapidly and effectively defend the nation from a nuclear attack, has incorporated AI into its operation plan of response. But what if the artificial intelligence relied upon by the nation’s decision-makers is wrong? What if AI takes the controls of America’s nuclear response? Might it trigger nuclear war without justification?

The skies darkened and the temperatures dropped. Intense firestorms spread across the Earth at each point where the bombs detonated. Fallen trees and homes had become the perfect kindling. Oil and natural gas reserves together with coal seams and peat bogs smoldered for many months. From the initial firestorm and the spread of smoke to the destruction of the Earth's ecosystem, all living things were beginning to perish.

In the first book of this survival thriller series, the pinnacle of human innovation turns into mankind’s greatest nightmare as Nuclear Armageddon was triggered.

The Pacific is becoming the place where the world could burn again. An American convoy enters the waters near Luzon in the northern Philippines. First, its communications are cut. Then comes a calculated show of force. Only after that does the sea erupt in fire. Ships burn. People die. And the entire region understands that a new struggle for the Pacific has already begun.

The world survived nuclear strikes, hunger, and epidemics. But peace never came. Now the struggle is about who will control what remains. The Recovery and Security Pact has become a new global center of power, uniting the United States, the United Kingdom, key European allies, Canada, Australia, Japan, and China. Its mission is to protect the remaining corridors, secure resources, restore order, and keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of blackmailers and shadow networks.

The Bartlett family had to make an incomprehensible decision. The age old question, should we stay or should we go? The answer lay many thousands of miles from home on the opposite side of the Earth. The journey was filled with perils, and the last port of call may not be as welcoming as they hoped.

Adrian will soon discover if the choices he’s made have cost him a son. Even Angela can’t be sure. Neither can any of the others like her. The power of the descendants is growing, and so is Safe Haven's awareness of having magic in their midst. Angela is no longer the only seer in Adrian’s camp of survivors…if she ever was.

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