2025

by Carl Berryman

A surprise attack launched from the International Space Station will result in 95% of the urban and suburban U.S. population dying within two weeks due to starvation, violence, and the effects of radiation. There will be no time for a retaliatory strike as strategic assets are destroyed. Our cities will become jungles ruled for a short time by gangs that carve out their territory, seeking food, water, plunder, and rape. An EMP attack will immediately magnetize all internal combustion engines; airplanes will fall from the skies; all unprotected vehicles will immediately crash due to loss of control. Survivors will wait in vain for a return to normalcy. China invades the U.S. while Russia invades Europe. As Albert Einstein once remarked, “I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but I am confident that World War IV will be fought with sticks and rocks.” This is a story of survival.

354 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 12, 2019

Reviews

[Rob Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

2025 is intense, high-stakes, and unapologetically realistic. Carl Berryman imagines a catastrophic attack that decimates urban populations and explores the resulting collapse of society with meticulous attention to detail. The narrative is a survival story, but it’s also a sobering meditation on human behavior under extreme duress, global geopolitics, and the fragility of modern civilization.

I was particularly struck by the way Berryman blends rapid, action-driven sequences with broader societal consequences. The combination of personal survival stories, territorial conflicts, and geopolitical incursions gives the book both an immediate emotional pull and a layered speculative depth. The grim plausibility heightens tension while keeping readers engaged with the human and strategic dimensions of the crisis.

This book will appeal to readers of dystopian fiction, survival thrillers, and speculative military science fiction, offering both visceral intensity and thought-provoking reflection on how fragile the structures of contemporary life can be.

[Mrs K J Carter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Proof reading is required. Read the previous book, 2023, and thought it was a good story. This could have been good except for typos that just distracted me from the story.

[John F Prange · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written.

The WORST spelling, punctuation, grammar and story flow that I have ever read. A very frustrating read of an interesting notion.

[JOHN PHILIP BROWN · Rating 1 out of 5]

Where is the story?

Clicked on this book. Found that there is no story at all, just blank pages. Why is this? I find myself wondering why I purchased this..