Doomsday Wing

by George Henry Smith

A harrowing tale of a world gone mad and on the brink of total atomic destruction

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Early novels were risque (with lurid covers), but later moved to writing science fiction.

Not to be confused with fellow SF writer George O. Smith, or George Harmon Smith who wrote similarly risqué pulp novels.

Smith himself used the pseudonyms Jeremy August, Jerry August, Don Bellmore, Ross Camra, M J Deer (with his wife, Jane Deer Smith), John Dexter (a "house name" used by multiple authors); George Devlin, Robert Hadley, Jan Hudson (a "house name"), Jerry Jason, Clancy O'Brien, Alan Robinson, Holt Standish, Diana Summers, Hal Stryker, Hank Stryker, Morgan Trehune, Roy Warren, and J.X. Williams (a "house name") for publishers such as Avalon, Beacon, Boudoir, Brandon House, Epic, Evening Reader, France, Greenleaf, Midwood, Monarch, Notetime, Pike, Pillow, and Playtime.

BUT... not to be confused with Jan Hudson who wrote young adult novels, a female author from Canada. She wrote Sweetgrass and Dawn Rider and was born in 1954 in Calgary Alberta.

Reviews

[Andy Phillips]

This book was written in the 1960s and shows in places with some of the attitudes of the characters.

A US Air Force colonel is posted to a new base within the Strategic Air Command. The SAC has developed a doomsday weapon that will destroy the world in the event that the US is losing a nuclear war, and it's the main character's job to be part of the committee that decides if and when to use the weapon.

Without spoiling anything (as it's written all over the book), of course a war does start. It escalates from a blockage of West Berlin by the Russians, which was still a concern at that time. The way things progress are semi-realistic and the book is fairly short, so it didn't take me long to read it.

[Bea]

1960’s doomsday book that couldn’t make up its mind if it was a war story of a world on the verge of nuclear disaster or a love story that was completely dysfunctional on the verge of divorce. I decidedly couldn’t finish it as it wasn’t worth my time.

[Aaron]

A harrowing tale of a world gone mad and on the brink of total atomic destruction
Yes. A tale. Straighforward, quick read. Almost bland. Focused on how countries might react to threat and war. And stalemate, and compromise. And dated, to the early 60's. A necessary novel.

[Ehirgelt]

This is a book rescued by Singularity and Co. (http://savethescifi.com)

Chris Tolliver is a Colonel in the US Air Force recently assigned to Wing D under the command of his friend General Gus Barnes. Chris finds out that the D in Wing D stands for Doomsday. The US has found a way to ensure the complete and utter destruction of the world. As luck (bad) would have it there is an insane Russian general in charge of an ICBM installation in the USSR who manages to set off a first strike,

What ensures is a rather pulpy but reasonable look at what might have happened. Wrapped up in the technical details are the relationship of Chris with his wife, Delia (not a good one), with Claire, and old flame assigned as a civilian to Wing D, and Sam, a rather pompous martinet of a Senator who happens to be Delia's father.

Exciting and a fun read.

[Hákon Gunnarsson]

George Henry Smith wrote some better books than Doomsday Wing. In most respect it is a rather unremarkable novel. Maybe not boring as such, but one easily forgotten, and one I will not reread when it starts to fade in my memory. I found it mostly interesting as an over the top depiction of the cold war mentality.

[Michael Hanscom]

A quick read, and not horrible, but very pulpy and not so much my style. A 1960s nuclear end-of-the-world scenario, with a mad Russian General launching a renegade first strike against the US.