World War H has been getting rave reviews from readers and trade press alike, averaging 4.6/5 on Amazon on Goodreads, and picking up reviews like this one from Publishers Weekly BookLife:
“EPIC MILITARY THRILLER”
Publishers’ Weekly BookLife
https://www.amazon.com/World-War-What-if.../dp/B0FL1BCZHN
Holden’s tech-thriller epic may inaugurate a new series, but the conflicts that World War H depicts—with Holden’s familiar crispness, clarity, and power—prove frightening in their contemporary resonance. Facing escalating attacks on countless fronts, as young people around the world are goaded by popular video game Payback into committing crimes for money, the U.S. president in Holden’s 2029 tells the public, “It seems we are at war, people, and not the kind of war any of us foresaw.” Privately, he carps “I would love to just throw a 2,000 lb. bomb at this problem.” That’s impossible, of course, when the adversaries are unknown and their arsonists and assassins could be any online kid on the planet. As the NSC debates how to shut down a seemingly imminent “Payback Day,” another world-shaking threat looms: the U.S. and China, jockeying for position at the Panama Canal.
Readers of Holden’s high-flying military thrillers will not be surprised to discover that China’s plans in the Caribbean will soon lead to wild jet battles, tense negotiations, and an alphabet’s worth of cool weapons and hardware. As always, the HARMs, MALDs, JSOWs, and JASSMs get introduced with quick efficiency; despite the ample page count, Holden’s plots, like his pilots, favor speed. As befits a sprawling story of hybrid warfare, the plot encompasses a winning variety of scenarios, from the maneuverings of aircraft carriers to street-level Payback “gigs” to an Eastern European prison extraction to tense negotiations between world leaders.
Amid the many high-ranking officials, perhaps the most fascinating figure is Detroit teenager Tayla, who sees Payback as a chance to get ahead in a punishing system. Holden’s linking of the gig economy to video game quests and terrorism is inspired, though readers should understand that much of the novel concerns maritime military action. Holden again dignifies participants on all sides of his imagined-but-plausible conflicts with perspective chapters that emphasize everyone’s common humanity without slowing down the narrative. The scope is wide but the action is intimate. Lovers of realistic war games will feast.
Takeaway: Smart, epic military thriller linking the gig economy to terrorism.
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