War Game

Bryce Walton's War Game imagines a future in which war has been reduced to a national habit, a strategic pastime treated with the calm efficiency of routine policy. In the underground U.N. Cellar, the President, the Minister of Peace, and Secretary of State Chandler Thompson prepare for "Operation Push Button" as if overseeing an ordinary diplomatic procedure, even while the world edges toward total annihilation. The novel's savage satire exposes a society that has normalized catastrophe through propaganda, drills, and psychological conditioning, teaching children and adults alike to accept mass death without question. As the ministers discuss survival logistics, pet care, and corpse disposal with bureaucratic detachment, the absurdity becomes increasingly horrifying. Morten, Thompson's uneasy valet, watches the ritual of destruction with mounting dread, especially when a secret duel between Thompson and the Russian minister determines the final outcome. When both men die, Morten is left with the last, terrible choice: complete the destruction of Russia or spare what remains of the world. In choosing conscience and loyalty over obedience, he walks away, leaving the ending hauntingly unresolved. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.