What do you think?
Rate this book
City Wars
As fiery death rains down on the city, Chicago arms itself to strike back against New York….It’s the not-too-distant future. Following the Great Wars, the city-state of Chicago has become an urban wasteland. Re-armed to defend itself, the government and its citizens wait in constant readiness for the day when war would break out again…with New York, Los Angeles, perhaps Dallas. Then, without warning, the attack comes…a limited atomic bombardment that threatens even worse devastation.Thrown together by the winds of war, embittered ex-soldier Jake Bowman and elite bodyguard Cassandra Ingram are drawn into a deadly combat mission against New York. As they are equally drawn into an unexpected, passionate affair. With the government of Chicago crippled by panic, betrayal and murder, Jake and Cassandra are forced into action alone. Can they save their city---and themselves---as total annihilation nears?... Hailed by award-winning producer Vince Gerardis (Executive Producer, HBO’s Game of Thrones) as “a one-of-a-kind, franchise-friendly, big action sci-fi title,” CITY WARS is an exciting, suspenseful thriller sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
6 people are currently reading
97 people want to read
About the author
Dennis Palumbo
33 books40 followersFormerly a Hollywood screenwriter (My Favorite Year, Welcome Back, Kotter, etc.), Dennis Palumbo is now a licensed psychotherapist and author
His mystery fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, The Strand, and elsewhere, and is collected in From Crime to Crime.
His acclaimed series of crime novels (Mirror Image, Fever Dream, Night Terrors, Phantom Limb, and Head Wounds) feature psychologist Daniel Rinaldi, a trauma expert who consults with the Pittsburgh Police. All are from Poisoned Pen Press. For more info, visit www.dennispalumbo.com.
His mystery fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, The Strand, and elsewhere, and is collected in From Crime to Crime.
His acclaimed series of crime novels (Mirror Image, Fever Dream, Night Terrors, Phantom Limb, and Head Wounds) feature psychologist Daniel Rinaldi, a trauma expert who consults with the Pittsburgh Police. All are from Poisoned Pen Press. For more info, visit www.dennispalumbo.com.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 17, 2025
My selection for the most poorly-written book in the entire canon of fiction. If you want to quit reading altogether, then this should be your catalyst. Even AI generated bullshit has more life than this dead fish. Grammatically wretched and with as much creative wit as a dirty diaper, I think Palumbo missed the whole gist of the book. For a novel about NYC and Chicago going to war, there is absolutely no 'war' in it all. Like nothing, zilch. The only war to be had in this one is within the reader's head: should I deep-six this in the gutter, or keep reading for to gratify a notch on goodreads.
Reading the phone book with a gun to your head would be more gratifying than this. I'm afraid that if I keep this book in the shelves, it will infect all the other paperbacks.
So enamored by the classic Lou Feck cover art, I had to grab this 1979 Bantam paperback. Only to find that I've never read such vomitous garbage. There's absolutely no tension, no characters (not one character has any physical description besides a nice pair of 'cans', or a shitty purple robe worn by elite politicians who all appear to be old Jewish men). There's no movement, no setting, no action, nothing, absolutely nothing. There are characters who we don't even know, and offsprung from them are other characters who have nothing to do with anybody else. A villain comes through in the last 1/4 of the book (simply b/c Palumbo forgot he had to have a villain), and the great escape from a ravaged NYC is completely abandoned by Palumbo. Shame on you, Palumbo. Shame. You owe me an 8-ball and ibuprofen for this dreck.
Reading the phone book with a gun to your head would be more gratifying than this. I'm afraid that if I keep this book in the shelves, it will infect all the other paperbacks.
So enamored by the classic Lou Feck cover art, I had to grab this 1979 Bantam paperback. Only to find that I've never read such vomitous garbage. There's absolutely no tension, no characters (not one character has any physical description besides a nice pair of 'cans', or a shitty purple robe worn by elite politicians who all appear to be old Jewish men). There's no movement, no setting, no action, nothing, absolutely nothing. There are characters who we don't even know, and offsprung from them are other characters who have nothing to do with anybody else. A villain comes through in the last 1/4 of the book (simply b/c Palumbo forgot he had to have a villain), and the great escape from a ravaged NYC is completely abandoned by Palumbo. Shame on you, Palumbo. Shame. You owe me an 8-ball and ibuprofen for this dreck.
December 13, 2021
Thank the Maker for the Internet. The title of this book, first read 40 years ago, has been escaping me for several months now. I finally sat down, typed in a few phrases ("post apocalypse"; "city-states"; "war"; "chicago new york"; and the name of the only character I could remember, "Cassandra") and voila! The third hit was exactly what I was looking for.
April 28, 2017
Breve romanzo di fantascienza, ambientato in una Chicago del futuro reduce da un grande conflitto e a breve impegnata in altri scontri che potrebbero pregiudicarne l'esistenza. Alcune soluzioni narrative, su tutte lo scenario postatomico, provocano un senso di déjà-vu che si basa tuttavia su libri e film quasi sempre successivi a questo (scritto nel 1979). A mio avviso c'era la possibilità di fare di meglio, nel senso che ci sono parecchi spunti interessanti ma tutti restano appena accennati, come se l'autore volesse per forza cavarsela in poche pagine. Ho apprezzato molto il senso di fondo della storia, nonostante la profonda tragicità.
February 20, 2022
Urania eccezionalmente breve, 121 pagine (e anche l’edizione originale è poco più lunga), al netto dell’appendice che contiene la curiosa terza parte di un racconto di Keith Roberts.
Se gli Urania venuti bene, come “Cronomoto” di Bob Shaw, possono essere paragonato a “B-movies”, cioè a quei film realizzati con pochi mezzi ma efficacemente incentrati su un’idea, questo somiglia piuttosto a un telefilm a basso costo: per la durata ma anche per la povertà degli ambienti e degli approfondimenti anche se l’idea di fondo non è male: le metropoli USA sopravvissute (più male che bene) a una guerra globale, che avrebbe addirittura sconvolto la struttura geologica del continente,. ridotte a guerreggiare tra loro.
2/5 è voto forse un po’ stretto ma quando ci vuole ci vuole.. tutti gli spunti potenzialmente interessanti (la rivolta delle “scimmie”, la rinascita delle città, il territorio in mezzo alle metropoli..) vengono ignorati: non è nemmeno un romanzo da ombrellone, ma tram affollato mentre si sta in piedi. Il buon Palumbo, Carneade della fantascienza in cui non si è più cimentato, come altri colleghi ha scritto soprattutto gialli ed è psicoterapeuta; in effetti nella essenzialità del romanzo spiccano ogni tanto frasi di taglio psicologico, con momenti di introspezione da parte dei protagonisti.
Buona traduzione di Bianca Della Frattina, a parte l’immancabile “panino caldo con salsiccia, senza mostarda” (cioè “hot dog senza senape”.. eppure a Milano dovrebbero conoscere la specialità di Cremona?), e un curioso “dopo le innovazioni tecnologiche, le città ripresero a lavorare” (qui “to work” è nel senso di “funzionare”).
Se gli Urania venuti bene, come “Cronomoto” di Bob Shaw, possono essere paragonato a “B-movies”, cioè a quei film realizzati con pochi mezzi ma efficacemente incentrati su un’idea, questo somiglia piuttosto a un telefilm a basso costo: per la durata ma anche per la povertà degli ambienti e degli approfondimenti anche se l’idea di fondo non è male: le metropoli USA sopravvissute (più male che bene) a una guerra globale, che avrebbe addirittura sconvolto la struttura geologica del continente,. ridotte a guerreggiare tra loro.
2/5 è voto forse un po’ stretto ma quando ci vuole ci vuole.. tutti gli spunti potenzialmente interessanti (la rivolta delle “scimmie”, la rinascita delle città, il territorio in mezzo alle metropoli..) vengono ignorati: non è nemmeno un romanzo da ombrellone, ma tram affollato mentre si sta in piedi. Il buon Palumbo, Carneade della fantascienza in cui non si è più cimentato, come altri colleghi ha scritto soprattutto gialli ed è psicoterapeuta; in effetti nella essenzialità del romanzo spiccano ogni tanto frasi di taglio psicologico, con momenti di introspezione da parte dei protagonisti.
Buona traduzione di Bianca Della Frattina, a parte l’immancabile “panino caldo con salsiccia, senza mostarda” (cioè “hot dog senza senape”.. eppure a Milano dovrebbero conoscere la specialità di Cremona?), e un curioso “dopo le innovazioni tecnologiche, le città ripresero a lavorare” (qui “to work” è nel senso di “funzionare”).
June 11, 2025
Man, what I get for wanting to read more pulpy Sci-fi.
City Wars is a thankfully slim novel that, within the first 20 pages, commits all the sins of cheap sci Fi. Invented jargon thrown haphazardly without the context clues to integrate it into the world? Check. Female characters described only by their breasts? Check. The science fiction parts of the story being seemingly grafted onto what would otherwise be a "normal" story? Check.
Palumbo does not deliver the goods with this one. $3 was too much for it.
Two stars for a surprisingly bleak and effective ending that is wasted on this dreck
City Wars is a thankfully slim novel that, within the first 20 pages, commits all the sins of cheap sci Fi. Invented jargon thrown haphazardly without the context clues to integrate it into the world? Check. Female characters described only by their breasts? Check. The science fiction parts of the story being seemingly grafted onto what would otherwise be a "normal" story? Check.
Palumbo does not deliver the goods with this one. $3 was too much for it.
Two stars for a surprisingly bleak and effective ending that is wasted on this dreck
March 11, 2013
Overall the story was pretty good. Though it took me 3 chapters before I really stated getting into it.
March 26, 2019
Brilliant
From start to finish a high concept ride into an otherwise unimaginable future where foreign enemies are the least of our worries
From start to finish a high concept ride into an otherwise unimaginable future where foreign enemies are the least of our worries
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews