Without Warning

Narrator Tom Weiner impresses with a broad range of male and female characterizations that reach across several cultures--English, Spanish, Australian, and others. Overall, Weiner's delivery is strong, exacting, and accurate. This mystery presents listeners with an open-ended question that will give them the shivers: What would happen if the United States and its citizens were to disappear from the face of the Earth? Birmingham allows the listener to experience this scenario through the eyes of an American general, an American secret agent, and a Seattle city engineer. The story's settings include Guantanamo Bay, Seattle, and Paris. This is must listening--fast paced and edgy. J.D. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

December 1, 2008
Two powerful novels explore the plight of isolated survivors of global disaster.
Without Warning
John Birmingham
. Del Rey
, $26 (528p) ISBN 978-0-345-50289-6

Australian author Birmingham (Axis of Time
) explores an unusual and intriguing scenario: immediately before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, an unknown radiation engulfs the North American continent from Canada to Mexico, destroying all animal and human life. Suddenly the U.S. is reduced to Alaska, Hawaii and part of Washington State, along with several million citizens overseas. Birmingham concentrates on several small groups of survivors—a Seattle city engineer struggling against an army takeover, a yacht carrying survivors to Australia, a spy hunting a Muslim fanatic in the midst of a French civil war—and contemplates how various countries would react to the power vacuum. This well-thought-out alternate history will appeal to fans of hard SF and techno-thrillers.