Red Alert - Peter Bryant

This book was on my radar after I learned it was the inspiration for the movie Dr. Strangelove.

The first thing I want to address is the background I learned. The author, Peter George, wrote this in 1958. He was a Welshman, and he wrote under various pen names. The original title of the book was Two Hours to Doom. The thing that shocked me the most was it was written seriously. The movie is so satirical, so I was interested to see what was different. It seems the author wasn't happy about the satirical slant of the film. Eventually he wrote a version dedicated to the filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, and apparently it reflected the tone of the movie.

A dying brigadier general makes a decision that will pretty much end the world. He believes that if he strikes first in the nuclear war, the States will have the upper hand. If they wait any longer, the Soviets are working on something that will make them superior. The general has nuclear bombs at his fingertips, and he sends them out in a way that it seems impossible to bring them back.

Each chapter is dedicated to a specific area: one of the planes carrying a bomb, the base where the general is at, and the Pentagon. Times are also listed, but I didn't really pay attention to those. Most of the time, relevant points in time were marked in the text. There weren't a ton of characters to keep track of, and the writing was easy to follow.

The scariest parts of this book are the plausible parts, which is most of the book. At the time it was written, it was probably even scarier. The author was in the military, and these thoughts plagued him. He wrote other books with this theme, and he eventually took his life in 1966. I'd like to read more of his work in the future. I really liked this book, and I really liked the movie. They are both great in their own way, and I have no issues giving this a Good Book! review.