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World War H: A Future War novel
Paperback
Series: What-If Thrillers, Book 1
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Nov 21 2025
Pages: 646
Weight: 1.62
Height: 1.30 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
World War H by FX Holden is brilliant. Jamie Michel for Readers Favorite *****
What-if America's enemies started an undeclared global hybrid war against the USA? It is May 2029, and a wave of low-level sabotage-from a van on London's Tower Bridge to smoke bombs in Lyon, cyber-recruitment in Detroit, and suspicious incidents at sea-signals the opening phase of a shadowy global offensive in this gripping thriller torn from tomorrow's headlines.
As U.S. and Chinese forces square off at the Panama Canal, Lieutenant Siku Smith of the Foreign Interference Taskforce, Coast Guard Ensign Melissa Mayeux, and rookie RAAF pilot Bunny O'Hare each uncover fragments of the same emerging threat: ordinary citizens are being groomed as unwitting actors in a hybrid war aimed at crippling NATO.
Nations scramble to respond as the world's leaders are forced to ask themselves a new question-how do you fight an enemy whose footsoldiers are your own citizens?
FULL Publishers Weekly BookLife Review: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.
Comparable Titles: David Poyer; Cory Doctorow's Walkaway.
READERS FAVORITE REVIEWShttps: //readersfavorite.com/book-review/world-war-h
An FX Holden 'What-if' action thriller. It's the high stakes geopolitics of today, but not as you know it! (All 'What-if' thrillers are self contained, fully resolved, stand-alone stories.)Also from
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