Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction
Nuclear Holocausts Bibliography: N
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Neal, H. C. "Who Shall Dwell . . ." (Playboy, July 1962). In
Editors of Playboy. Last Train to Limbo. Chicago?: Playboy
Press, 1971. Also in Editors of Playboy. Playboy Book of Science Fiction and
Fantasy. Chicago: Playboy Press, 1966. Also in Leo P. Kelley, ed. Themes in Science Fiction. McGraw-Hill, 1972.
A man and his wife heroically give up their places in their fallout shelter
to neighborhood children. It is revealed in the last two paragraphs that they
are Russians. They are killed by an American counterattack launched in response
to a first strike by the USSR.
Neville, Kris. "Cold War" (Astounding, October l949). In
John W. Campbell Jr., ed. The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology. New York: Simon & Schuster, l952. Garden City,
N.Y.: Doubleday, l953. New York: Berkley, l956. Also in John W. Campbell, ed. The Second Astounding Science Fiction Anthology.
London: Grayson, l954. London: Four Square, l965. New York: Berkley, l965. Also
in John W. Campbell, ed. Analog 5.
Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, l966. London: Dobson, l968. Rpt. as Countercommandment. New York: Curtis, n. d. Also in Robert Hoskins, ed.
First Step Outward. New York:
Dell, l969. Also in Anthony R. Lewis, ed. The Best of Astounding. New York: Baronet, 1978
Nuclear-armed space
stations prove to be a dangerous deterrent because the men who have the power
to destroy the world tend to crack under the strain, feeling a compulsion to
set off a nuclear war. [More & More]
Nevins, Allan. "Free Thoughts, Free Words." See under Collier's
Newman, Bernard. The Blue Ants: The First Authentic Account of the Russian-Chinese War of l970. London: Robert Hale, l962. London: Digit, 1963
An
atomic age Fu Manchu named Feng Fong plots a war between the United States and
USSR in which each will destroy the other. The first half of the novel is
essentially a survey of post-World War II history, and much of the rest is a
plotless recounting of international incidents such as a nuclear attack on
Egypt by the Israelis and a Russian attempt to destroy the economy of the West
by cutting off all imports. The Russians are at first too canny to fall into
the Chinese trap, ordering their commanders to refrain from the use of tactical
nuclear weapons for fear of precipitating a holocaust; but when the Chinese
conquer Kirghiz, torturing and publically strangling the Russian leaders there,
the USSR bombs Peking. This is just what Feng Fong wanted, because some
Americans in Peking are also killed, along with millions of Chinese, and he is
convinced the United States will enter the war to avenge their deaths. The
Chinese have perfected a dastardly technique of disabling Russian rockets en
route so that their bombs explode over their own territory. Small aircraft then
spray atomic dust over Russian cities, nuclear suitcase bombs are planted, and
the oil fields treated with radioactive cobalt dust. In a now familiar motif,
Russia's empire begins to break up as her satellites rebel. When the Russians
appeal for aid to NATO, the United States dictates the breakup of the Soviet
bloc through universal free elections, including in Russia. A young woman,
revolted at being used as a breeder in a Communist eugenics plan, escapes with
her lover to reveal to the world that Feng Fong had deliberately allowed the
bombs to fall on China. The fiend is foiled as "protonic bombs" are
dropped from American satellites on Feng Fong's headquarters and the escaping
villain is assassinated by two Chinese airmen. Their will to resist sapped by
news of his perfidy, the Chinese collapse and the country is taken over by the
United Nations. All of Newman's novels are anti-Communist to an extreme degree,
but nothing surpasses the cold war hysteria of The Blue Ants. Compare Hackett's Third World War books.
___ . Draw the Dragon's Teeth. London: Robert Hale, l967.
After
Egypt and Israel hit each other with nuclear bombs, the United Nations decides
on world disarmament. A secret organization is formed to smuggle nuclear bombs
into a reluctant China to destroy its plutonium plant. A typical example of the
muscular disarmament school of spy thriller in which conventional pacifists are
relentlessly mocked and peace is achieved by the use of overwhelming force.
[38]
___ . Shoot! London: Gollancz, l949
A classic and
complex cold war scenario which begins with sabotage at Oak Ridge by secret
Russian agents including one named Rosenbaum. (In l952 Newman published Soviet
Atomic Spies, which includes a detailed
account of the Rosenberg affair.) The plot is complicated by the fact that the
Germans are planning to cause an East-West war which will leave them masters of
Europe. The Russians have the bomb but can't control it, so they launch a
conventional invasion of Western Europe, overrunning France and Germany and
invading Ireland by submarine. Many Americans advocate use of the atomic bomb;
others protest, misled by subversive-backed pacifist groups. An American war
correspondent, witnessing the result of an earthquake in a Turkish oil field,
mistakenly tells the world that the Russians have used nuclear weapons, a
report which causes the U.S. to retaliate with a bomber strike against the
Soviet Union. One of the bomber crews consists of a Communist cell, however,
and they deliver a sample weapon into Russian hands, where it becomes the
prototype of the bombs they use later in the war. When their oil fields were
bombed, the Russians spread propaganda emphasizing the horror of atomic
warfare, but hastily withdraw it when they learn that the population is
becoming fearful rather than angry. The president rejects bacteriological
weapons because they cannot be controlled. The Russians, lacking ICBMs, destroy
most of New York with an atomic bomb smuggled into the harbor aboard a
submarine, and planes hit English cities. Only "Communist fellow
travelers" protest the use of the bomb after this point.
The
conventional war drags on for months in Europe, featuring many similarities to
World War II, including an American invasion in the south, a ferocious
underground French resistance, and a treasonous Englishman broadcasting for the
Russians modelled on Lord Haw Haw. The Americans play a dominant role in the
war, with the British very much subordinate. U.S. technology develops apace,
with atomic grenades, anti-aircraft shells and rifle bullets being introduced
before the war's end. A bizarre twist is given to the plot as Hitler's voice is
heard on German radio, urging resistance (it is never made clear whether or not
the voice is an impersonator's). Crop failures and widespread cancer are
mentioned, but little detail is given on the effects of atomic warfare. Like
Hackett's books, this is a bare strategic outline without real characters. A
decisive tactic is the release of Russian prisoners, who carry word of the Good
Life back to the motherland, prompting dissension. The British take Paris,
Russia proclaims a parliamentary democracy, and the West is triumphant. In a
bizarre final chapter the story we have just read turns out to be the outline
of a just-completed film which is being discussed by representatives of various
groups. This twist allows the author to review his own book, quite favorably.
The courageous filmmaker stands up to the censors, pacifists, and cowardly
executives and will release his movie, warning of the danger of atomic war.
Like the Collier's scenario, Shoot! is more a fantasy than a warning. Although this is
not made explicit, the novel's firm rejection of arms control and its portrayal
of the Reds as suicidally fanatical villains suggest that the
"solution" to the danger of such a war is a preemptive strike before
the Russians have acquired the ability to retaliate
Newton, Julius P. The Forgotten Race. London: Brown, Watson,
1963. New York: Arcadia, 1967.
An
amateurish, old-fashioned novel which tells how the inhabitants of the fifth
planet of the sun launched settlements on Mars and Venus just before their home
world was blown into fragments by a nuclear war, creating the asteroid belt.
The survivors establish utopias on their new worlds. Thousands of years later
Earth people visiting Mars are told they must learn the philosophy of these
creatures to prevent them from blowing themselves up in a nuclear war. Compare
Alfred Michael Young, The Aster Disaster: A Tale of Two Planets.
Nichols, Robert [Malise Bowyer] and Maurice Browne. Wings Over Europe: A Dramatic Extravaganza On a Pressing Theme. New York: Covici Friede, 1929. London: Chatto &
Windus, 1932. Also in Montrose J. Moses, ed. Dramas of Modernism and
Their Forerunners. Boston: Little, Brown,
1931. Also in Virginia Woodson Church, ed. Curtain! A Book of Modern
Plays. New York: Harper, 1932. First staged
in New York, 1928.
The
son of the prime minister discovers how to liberate atomic energy, but the
cabinet tries to suppress his efforts. He decides to destroy the Earth, but is
killed by a truck. [More]
Nicolson, Harold [George]. Public
Faces. London: Constable, l932.
Harmondsworth: Penguin, l944. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, l933
In the midst of a
Middle Eastern power struggle, the British develop unexpectedly powerful bombs
and intercontinental rockets. The latter are sent over enemy and allied
territories alike to demonstrate Britain's might, and a test bomb accidentally
destroys a U.S. cruiser, a United Fruit ship, and much of Florida. A renegade
minister boldly seizes the initiative in the furor which follows and imposes
universal disarmament. The earliest atomic muscular disarmament novel.
Niesewand, Peter. Scimitar. London: Granada, 1983. Rowman and Littlefield, 1984.
Russians use neutron bombs in Afghanistan.
Nilsson, Troy. The Hiroshima Stones. Brentwood, Tenn.: Nilsson Media Mission, 2002.
An earnest but amateurish and incoherent self-published protest novel featuring a reluctant Nazi who experiences the Hiroshima bombing and later goes on a crusade to prevent nuclear war by intervening at crucial points in the Cold War, using Nazi loot to finance his efforts. The back cover bears enthusiastic blurbs attributed to nonexistent publications.
Nishizaki, Yoshinobu. Star Blazers. Originally Space Cruiser Yamato. Trans. William Ross. Tokyo: West
Cape Co., 1983
A series of volumes
reproducing frames from a highly popular Japanese animated television science
fiction series in which Earth is viciously bombed in 2199 by aliens, forcing
humanity to move underground. The story concerns the mission of the space
cruiser Argo to fetch cosmic DNA which will remove the plague of radiation from
the planet. The first three volumes, published in 1983, are l: Message from
Iscandar, 2: Battle of Pluto, and 3: The Argo Undergoes Severe Trials. The Star Blazers serial has frequently been shown on American
television
Niven, Larry and
Jerry Pournelle. Lucifer's Hammer. New
York: Playboy Press, 1977. New York: Fawcett, 1979. London: Futura, 1978
When
a massive comet strikes the Earth, it is feared that an East-West nuclear war
will be triggered; but instead the Chinese launch their missiles against the
Soviet Union, which retaliates in kind. The U.S. joins the USSR in its attack
on China. This conflict is a very minor incident in the catastrophe created by
the collision. The novel editorializes in favor of nuclear power and against
environmentalism, justifies authoritarianism and slavery in extreme
circumstances
___. The Mote in God's Eye. New York: Simon & Schuster,
l974. New York: Pocket Books, l975. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, l975.
London: Orbit, l976
It is suggested late in the novel that a race of aliens called "Moties" must have fought with atomic weapons in the distant past
Nolan, William F. Logan's
World. New York: Bantam, 1977. Sequel to Logan's
Run.
Ten years later Logan, his wife, and their son return to Earth to find the
cities have been destroyed and that vicious gangs roam the landscape. The son
is killed, and Logan believes his wife dead as well, when he seeks out a
glowing radioactive psychic named Andan near the ruins of San Francisco, which
sank beneath the waves in the great earthquake of 1988. Andan's blind daughters
tempt Logan to gain inner sight by blinding himself, but he resists when he
learns his wife is still alive. The rest of the book is a series of chase and
capture scenes ending in their reunion and the definitive destruction of The
Thinker, which the villain has sought to restore. Much emphasis on psychedelic
drugs
Nolan, William and
George Clayton Johnson. Logan's Run. New
York: Dial, 1967. New York: Bantam, 1976. Sequel: Logan's World
Although the cover of the book mentions the
twenty-third century as the novel's setting, the only date given in the text is
2072, which seems more probable. A youth rebellion in the year 2000 led to the
dropping of a tactical bomb on the Smithsonian Institution (the area has been
rendered tropical by the lingering radiation stored in tidal salts under
Washington, D.C.). Aside from this one inexplicable act, no nuclear weapons
were used. Young people prevailed in their war with older people, but, then
faced with an overpopulation problem, they instituted a bizarre regime in which
everyone is killed at age twenty-one. Those who try to escape this fate are
called "runners"; the plot concerns a police agent who becomes a runner
himself. Society is ruled over by a supercomputer called "The
Thinker." The hero defeats The Thinker and flees with his lover to a space
station near Mars which provides sanctuary. A typical crackpot dystopia crossed
with a Wizard of Oz-like quest
story, loaded with inconsistencies. The novel is more violent, more sexual, and
more varied in setting than the 1976 film based on it. The paperback edition
contains colored stills from the movie.
Norton, André [born Alice Mary Norton]. Sea Siege. New York:
Harcourt Brace, l957. New York: Ace, l962. Bound with The Eye of the
Monster. N.Y.: Fawcett, l980
During a nuclear
war, scientists in the Caribbean battle mutated sea monsters which may have
been created by earlier atomic bomb testing. Strictly a view of the Apocalypse
from the periphery; but one character pauses to muse, "It's the little
things you miss first . . . no more zippers, coke, or disk
jockeys--not in this lifetime. The very props of civilization come to
dust!" Americans rescue the crew of a Russian sub. When a Caribbean native
objects to the learning which created the bombs a scientist replies that human
curiosity is innate and necessary: "That knowledge which made the bombs
gave us the atomic motors which have kept this base going on since the bust-up."
It is suggested that the battle against amphibious octopi and other new
monsters may unite humanity
___ . Star Man's Son. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1952. New
York: Fawcett, 1978. London: Staples, 1952. London: Gollancz, 1968. Rpt. as Daybreak--2250
A.D. New York: Ace, n.d. Bound with Lewis
Padgett, Beyond Earth's Gates. New
York: Ace, 1962
Two
hundred years after the Great Blow-up a young mutant (silver hair, night
vision, superkeen hearing), persecuted by his tribe, sets out to prove himself worthy
of being a Star Man (guide to the plunder of ruined cities). He battles with
wild pigs, is wounded in the leg by a boar's tusk like Odysseus, and finds an
apparently unlooted city. He roams the streets clogged with rusting wrecks,
scorning coins and spoiled foods but prizing books, maps, pencils, and art
objects. He rescues a man of an enemy tribe from a pit-trap, only to discover
that they are under attack by the ferocious mutants called
"beast-things" who inhabit the city, and are caught in a battle
between the latter and mutated lizards. Freed by a fire, they are captured
again by a rival tribe. The novel ends as the idea of a pan-human alliance
against the beast-things is accepted and he is at last granted the recognition
he has sought. The law banning mutants like himself is changed
Norway, Nevil
Shute. See Shute, Nevil
Nourse, Alan E. Raiders from the Rings. New York:
McKay, 1962. New York: Pyramid, 1963. London: Faber, 1965
A
juvenile novel in which descendants of the crews of space stations belonging to
Russia and America and who refused to participate in the Great War on Earth
have become Viking-style raiders after supplies and women (all space children
are born male). It is finally revealed that aliens called the "Searchers"
who roam the universe, fostering intelligence are responsible for influencing
the spacers to abstain from participating in the ancient nuclear war. The two
sides are finally reconciled
Nowlan, Philip Francis. Armageddon 2419. (originally
"Armageddon 2419," Amazing,
August 1928, and "The Airlords of Han," Amazing, March 1929). New York: Avalon, 1962. New York: Ace,
1963.
The
original source for the Buck Rogers comic strip. Includes a variety of atomic
weapons and devices in the battle against the evil oriental Han.
Noyes, Pierrepont B[urt].
The Pallid Giant: A Tale of Yesterday and Tomorrow. New York: Revell, 1927.
As
scientists develop a new death ray which threatens contemporary civilization,
explorers discover an account of the destruction of an earlier civilization
through an atomic weapon called "Klepton-Holorif." At the novel's end
the explorers wonder whether the lesson of this ancient tragedy will prevent
another cataclysmic war
Nunes, Claude. Inherit
the Earth. Bound with Mack Reynolds: Dawnman
Planet. New York: Ace, 1966
Miniature
radiation-resistant telepathic androids inherit the Earth after a nuclear war,
when the remnants of humanity have fled for the stars. They slowly learn to be
self-sufficient and survive, despite their lack of humanity's aggressive
instincts. When they discover a few surviving humans on an island, they abandon
them. In the end they have plans to go to the stars themselves, perhaps to find
humans and teach them true maturity.
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