[OT] Book - Fiction - The War After Armageddon by Ralph Peters

[Haven]

Ok so I got this book for Christmas and finished already and i figured i'd give it a review since it is (to me) a T2k themed book.

The War After Armageddon (Affiliate Link - forgive me Kato!)

The War After Armageddon (Non-affiliate link)


Obviously it is fiction by Ralph Peters the same guy that brought us "Red Army". (Cold war gone hot from the Soviet perspective!)

Basic premise: (some minor spoilers but just stuff covered in the first 2 chapters)

After a series of nuke terrorists attacks on European cities all Muslims are forcibly expelled/exterminated from Europe. The US intervenes. The US in an attempt to help tries to protect the Muslim civilian population and winds up alienating both Muslims and all of its European allies.

This leads to terrorists nuking LA and Las Vegas...
This leads to the radicalization of the Christian base in the US...

(This leads to the biggest stretch in the whole book.....)

.... and the creation the Military Order of the Brothers In Christ (MOBIC) from the ashes of the National Guard and the election of a fanatical Rev. Christian Vice President hell bent (excuse the pun) on the elimination of the Muslim religion.


Phew. ok... still with me? Then you can finish the book.


The rest of the book is basically the doomed plight of the regular forces (aka what remains of the underfunded US Army and the US Marines) as they attempt to:


1) Remain a military branch at all - in the face of the MOBIC and an increasingly fanatical fundamental Theocratic Christian US government.

2) Wage war and Re-capture and restore what used to be Israel/Holy Land from Jihadist forces that had taken over. (Iran and Israel had traded nukes)


So what is the verdict?

4.5 out of 5 stars

Good read.

Forward thinking on what is the future of warfare.

Surprisingly Very Twilight-isque as the book asserts that future wars will have such advanced technology that it will essentially cancel each other out and return to a Vietnam era of warfare. No smart bombs here!

Doesn't pull punches with religious topics or war atrocities.

Believable and fleshed out characters.

Scary and thought provoking if you accept the books basic assumptions.

GREAT fodder for twilight campaigns with some really stellar NPC archetypes.

Puts the protagonists in some awkward spots with some clever plot twists - ready made for putting the screws to the PCs in Twilight again.

You could basically lift MOBIC out of the book and place it in any place in the US after the Twilight War and you have a ready made faction with Plot elements in place.


So for sure check this out when you get a chance. At least in paperback cause it is good to get the twilight mind thinking!