Without Warning (After America #1)

Without Warning by John Birmingham is a story of what would happen if the United States disappeared.

In 2003, on the brink of war in Iraq, a wave of energy hits the continental United States - covering all of the country except the North West corner of Washington State. Most of Canada is hit East of Edmonton and the wave extends south almost to Acapulco. Cuba is covered except for the area around the Guantanamo Bay base. And everywhere within the wave life has stopped. The people and animals are disappeared.

Two minutes after the wave struck, electronic surveillance is back up. Cameras in cities across the continent show an astonishing number of car accidents, planes and trains begin to crash, and the rest of the world is in shock. People outside the edge of the wave can see a wall of energy that extends into the sky.

In the blink of an eye, millions of people cease to exist and the protector/bully of the planet is no longer in a place to ensure peace or stability. The US dollar now has nothing backing it and become worthless.

Birmingham's look at a world suddenly without the US is a science fiction masterpiece. Regardless of your feelings about the role the US plays in international relations, it cannot be argued that is has a heavy influence on the behavior of people around globe. This fascinating novel is set off your imagination in a way that is hard to recover from once you finish the book. Luckily, the second book, After America, comes out this month.

Birmingham, John. (2009). Without Warning. New York: Ballantine Books.