Review: Fail-Safe

Fail-Safe by Eugene Burdick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been meaning to pick this book up because it is a classic in post-apocalyptic science fiction at a time when the horrifying truth of the nuclear arms race was beginning to settled in. Along with such books as Alas Bablylon (which I've reviewed), Red Alert (the inspiration for Dr. Strangelove), and On the Beach, Fail-Safe helped define this genre of just how bad, bad can get with nuclear weapons. While somewhat more optimistic than later representatives of the genre (because some people survive), these books are important representatives of the nightmares that the atomic age brought the world in the late 1950s and early 60s.

Fail-Safe's particular nightmare vision is to explore what would happen if all the failsafe measures taken to ensure that a nuclear attack wouldn't be launched all failed together. In this novel, during a fairly routine alert, a flight of American bombers mistakenly fail to be recalled from alert and move to bomb Moscow. The novel explores how the leadership of Strategic Air Command, the Pentagon and the president of the US himself (with his Russian interpreter) attempt to prevent the attack and all out nuclear war. When that effort fails, it leads to a tragic act of atonement (not going to spoil it here) as a last ditch attempt to avoid all out ear.

The book is wrenching as it follows several characters, how they think and how they are forced to make what is a horrifying decision. Also, made into a movie, it questioned the wisdom of nuclear weapons and was an influence on anti-nuclear resistance in the later 60s. The world is very much the 1950s, so a lot of things are jarring, but its message remains important today.

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