Sex, Politics and Nuclear Terrorism is Food For Thought In Chilling Novel, "King of Bombs"

A controversial new novel pits an incompetent President against a bold plot by Al-Qaeda, in alliance with Iran and North Korea, to inflict an apocalyptic terrorist strike on America with nuclear weapons.

(PRWEB) October 27, 2005 -- A controversial new novel pits an incompetent President against a bold plot by Al-Qaeda, in alliance with Iran and North Korea, to inflict an apocalyptic terrorist strike on America with nuclear weapons.

As though lifted from today's news headlines, first-time author Sheldon Filger weaves a tale of intrigue, byzantine politics, espionage, seemy sex and nuclear terrorism in a chilling new novel about the ultimate form of terror, entitled "King of Bombs." From the corridors of power in Washington, to dens of intrigue in Europe and the Middle East, Mr. Filger has written a thriller that is both forebodding in its portrayal of the future, yet grounded in far greater factual basis than is usually encountered in a novel. A witness to the 9/11 trauma while residing in New York City, Filger was inspired to write "King of Bombs" after the Al-Qaeda attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center. Though "King of Bombs" is a work of fiction, Mr. Filger conducted extensive research on the threat of nuclear terrorism before writing the novel. His website, www.kingofbombs.com, features an information page on the issue of nuclear terrorism. "After 9/11, I became convinced that nuclear terrorism is an imminent danger to the civilized world, and I felt compelled to carefully research and understand the threat, so my readers will feel as passionately as I do about the imperative requirement to confront this menace before it is too late," Filger said.(http://www.kingofbombs.com)

The title of Filger's book, "King of Bombs," is derived from an acutal weapon developed by the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. It was called by the Russians "Tsar Bomba"(King of Bombs),and was the most powerful nuclear bomb ever built and tested. Only one such weapon was built; it was detonated on October 23, 1961 in a test conducted in a remote part of the former Soviet Union, with a yield equivalent to 58 million tons of high explosives, roughly 3,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. At the center of the plot in Filger's novel is a conspiracy involving Al-Qaeda, Iran and North Korea, with assistance from the nuclear weapons black market, to build a duplicate of the "King of Bombs" nuclear device developed by the Russians in 1961. Their goal is to detonate it inside the United States, inflicting apocalyptic devastation and mass slaughter that would eliminate the U.S. as a global power.

While the plot unfolds in "King of Bombs," Mr. Filger portrays a presidential administration in Washington as a thinly veiled version of George Bush and his chief officials, as they wallow in incompetence and cronyism, diverted by an endless war in Iraq, while ignoring clear intelligence warnings of an Al-Qaeda plot to attack major American cities with nuclear weapons. It is in his portayal of a fictional president, patterned on George Bush, where the novel almost reads as today's news headlines. The Department of Homeland Security is presented as a nest of cronyism by the White House, while clear threats to the nation's national security are ignored. Dedicated intelligence agents from the CIA, who uncover clues that point to a maniacal plot by Al-Qaeda, are ignored by their superiors in Washington. It is as though the terrorists are being aided, unwittingly, by Americans who are most responsible for protecting the nation.

"King of Bombs" is a chilling and terrifing book. It reads at a heart-stomping pace, as it also challenges the reader to understand the moral ambiguities that characterize the post-September 11th world we now live in. One of the moral issues Mr. Filger confronts in "King of Bombs" is the question of torture, and if situations ever arise when it is permissible for a democracy to use torture, such as in a context where a terrorist suspect is believed to have information on the location of a weapon of mass destruction that could conceivably kill millions. Another matter that the novel raises is the wisdom of diverting the nation's resources to a war in Iraq, while relegating the struggle against Al-Qaeda to a marginalized sideshow. "I believe history will judge the Iraq debacle by the Bush administration as one of the most monumental strategic miscalculations made by any major power in modern history," Filger said. "Its nightmarish consequences will be long-lasting and likely devastating."

http://www.kingofbombs.com

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