I first read Strieber and Kunetka’s Warday as a teenager and it absolutely terrified me. In fact, in my memory, it’s easily one of the five scariest books I’ve ever read, possibly the scariest. What makes it so horrifying is just how plausible it all seemed.
One October day in the late 1980s, the Soviet Union and the United States engage in a "limited" nuclear war. Warday tells the story of two writers, semi-fictitious versions of Strieber and Kunetka themselves, journeying across America to write a book on how the country had changed after that fateful day. They present the book as a journalistic sort of travelogue, interviewing Americans along the way about their experiences before, during, and since the bombs fell.
While Warday feels fairly dated now, with references to 1980s popular culture and politics, discussions about the World Trade Center, and other anachronisms, the book still feels prescient in the heightened tensions of 2017.
Kevin Pierce does a straightforward enough narration, not trying to impersonate various voices, only using his own, but he’s easy to listen to and does the book a serviceable enough job.
I’m far older now than I was when I first read Warday. Yes, it certainly shows its age and it’s maybe not quite as terrifying as it once was. Honestly, though, it’s still pretty damned terrifying.
AUDIBLE 20 REVIEW SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY