GOLAN, This is the Future of War, asks a question few want to consider. What will happen if Iran acquires nuclear weapons in the next ten years? In true Future of War style, GOLAN explores the question through the eyes of front line participants on all sides, in a conflict set ten years into the future. Featuring military tech that is on the drawing boards today and characters you won’t easily forget, GOLAN throws the reader straight into the center of a nuclear storm and doesn’t ease up.
In Buq’ata in the Golan Heights, Amal Azaria, Robotics Engineer with the Israeli Defense Research Directorate has designed an assassination microdrone that memorizes the face of its target, little knowing her drone will be firing the first shot in a new global war.
In the air over Turkey, Gunnery Sergeant James Jensen of the 3rd Marines, 1st Battalion ‘Lava Dogs’ settles in for a short flight to Kuwait and some well earned liberty. Then learns the quadrotor carrying his squad is not headed for Kuwait at all.
150 miles southwest of the Russian Black Sea Fleet Base, Islamic Republic of Iran Captain Hossein Rostami - commander of Iran’s newest and most capable guided missile destroyer - watches as a delicate cargo is loaded aboard his ship. At sea. In the dead of night.
On Cyprus, court-martialed pilot, Karen ‘Bunny’ O’Hare, is visited in detention by a project lead from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, who offers to get her out of the jug, and back in a pilot’s seat … with a catch.
In Syria, Iranian Quds Force sniper, Abdolrasoul Delavari, takes on a mission to free hostages allegedly being used as 'human shields' by American troops in a UN buffer zone. But freeing them will require the longest shot of his life.
Under the waves of the Mediterranean, Israeli Navy Captain, Binyamin Ben-Zvi, brings his nuclear-armed Gal class submarine up to communications depth to report that after a long patrol via the Cape of Good Hope his submarine is in position. But in position for what?
In Washington, the newly appointed Director of Cyber Security, Tonya Dupré, connects all the dots that lead to a frightening conclusion. Iran and Syria, backed by Russia, are planning an All Domain Attack – cyber, space, air, land and sea – against Israel. But as a combined Russian-Iranian fleet sails out of the Aegean and into the Mediterranean, and Syrian troops mass on the ceasefire line outside the Golan Heights, can anyone stop it?
FX Holden writes action thrillers (The 'Aggressor' and 'Future War' Series) and Science Fiction (The 'Coruscant' and 'Red Legion' Series). He has been awarded two US Publishers' Weekly Stars (the Michelin Star of publishing), the US Readers' Favorite award for Best Political Thriller (twice, including in 2025), and the US Book Excellence award for Best Military Fiction!
FX Holden is a pen name for author Tim (TJ) Slee, winner of the HarperCollins Banjo Prize for Australian fiction and the US Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize for Fiction.
Hi there, this is not a review ... consider it to be author notes (a spoiler free version!) However I have included the very first 'hot off the shelf' trade review of GOLAN at the end of the notes, if you are looking for an impartial review.
AUTHOR NOTES
One of the aims of the Future War series is to show future wars and conflicts from the points of view of the soldiers, sailors and airmen who will fight them – on all sides of a conflict.
Nations will disagree, and the disagreements between the nations in this novel - Israel, Iran, Syria, Turkey - can in some cases be traced back thousands of years. Sadly, I believe war between Israel and Iran is a conflict waiting to happen, and it is not a question of if it happens this century, but when. Any book about a conflict between Iran and Israel is potentially controversial.
In GOLAN I have tried not to take sides, but rather let the ebb and flow of the events – which often take a life of their own while being written – come to a natural, unforced conclusion. Any writer of course brings their conscious and unconscious bias to their work and if yours differs from mine, then I hope we can agree to disagree. You are welcome to open a debate on my FB author page!
In each Future War novel I focus on the possible application of one of more emerging military technologies. In GOLAN that focus is primarily on the battlefield application of small armed drones. These are drones usually weighing under 20lb or 10kg, which can be carried by infantry squads, deployed from manned or unmanned ground vehicles, and even printed on demand using parts made by 3D printers.
If you need an example of how advanced this technology is, and where it is going, think about this: as I was writing GOLAN, NASA flew a tiny unmanned drone … on Mars!
Israel is a world leader in the research and development of this technology. Already in the Israeli inventory now, or in advanced stages of development, are: reconnaissance micro drones the size of large insects; high level reconnaissance drones almost invisible to radar and the naked eye and able to loiter over targets for hours; combat drones which can be launched by infantry to attack targets inside buildings or hiding behind cover, with anti-personnel or anti-armor grenades; unmanned remotely-operated weapons systems; aerial drones which can be used to either detect mines, or even to lay mines. At a larger scale, are unmanned aerial vehicles - both armed and unarmed - and unmanned ground vehicles.
Another application many military writers explore is the potential of AI to support both tactical and strategic decision making. In GOLAN I took that one further, asking myself what would happen if a nation combined AI with an autonomous underwater vehicle and – not least of all – atomic weapons. AI breakthroughs will offer the opportunity for the makers of naval vessels to reduce, or even eliminate, human crews on maritime platforms.
In GOLAN I chose a model by which a nuclear armed vessel was still crewed by officers who had the ultimate responsibility for using nuclear weapons – their commands cannot be overridden by the AI. But with the human crew much reduced in size, I wanted to explore how decisions between a limited number of individuals, prompted by an AI, might play out.
Finally, in GOLAN I explore the idea of an All Domain Kill Chain – a military strike which utilizes data from space, air forces, ground radars, ground and naval forces, to quickly and effectively destroy a target. Also taking that to its ultimate end, the All Domain Attack, which is how major wars in the future will be fought. A surprise attack – the future equivalent of a Pearl Harbor – can be executed with almost complete anonymity in the cyber and space domains. Economies can be crippled, and communications catastrophically disrupted, by nation states hiding in the shadows.
How then should a nation respond to such an attack? Against who should they direct their retaliation?
Imagine a Pearl Harbor in which the US could not prove it was Japan who had attacked them. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the allies of the US declared war on Japan within days, sometimes within hours. But if the attacking aircraft had been invisible, if the damage caused had been entirely deniable, would the allies of the US have rallied around it so quickly and completely?
Imagine now a Pearl Harbor where this invisible attacker went after Wall Street and the communications infrastructure of the USA first. Where the bombs they dropped didn’t hit battleships, but the economy, the internet, cellular, satellite and electricity networks, both military and civilian. Where kinetic air, sea and ground warfare was the second phase of the attack, not the first. How much pain would the US have been able or willing to suffer before it lashed out at its perceived adversary – with or without proof?
Now add nuclear weapons into that mix and imagine that one adversary had either a complete or partial nuclear weapons advantage over the other.
If you see parallels between events in GOLAN and the Cuban Missile Crisis, they are deliberate, right down to the element of ‘fog of war’ President Kennedy complains about in the opening quote. Oliver Henderson’s address to the nation in GOLAN was modelled on President Kennedy’s address at the onset of the Cuban Missile Crisis. But where President Kennedy managed a crisis that stretched over nearly two weeks, modern warfighting, intelligence gathering and dissemination, and speed of communications, will not give our future State leaders the same luxury. Hence the All Domain Attack described in GOLAN takes place over just four days.
I hope as the reader, similar to myself as the author, you find it very hard to pull a winner or a loser out of this conflict.
I don’t much like quoting failed leaders, but the thoughts of British pre-war PM, Neville Chamberlain, are apt here: In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers.
FX Holden Copenhagen, June 2021
READERS' FAVORITE REVIEW (UNEDITED)
Reviewed By K.C. Finn for Readers’ Favorite, 21 June 2021
Golan: This Is The Future Of War is a work of fiction in the military, action, and thriller sub-genres, and was penned by author F. X. Holden. The work is intended for the general adult reading audience and contains mild profanities and references to military conflict throughout. Set across the globe in various locations and told through the eyes of different participants on the front lines of both conflict and decision making, this novel asks important questions about the future of nuclear conflict and what could happen if restrictions were lifted on weaponry. What results is a very engrossing blockbuster military tale that is sure to keep readers turning the pages from cover to cover.
Author F. X. Holden has crafted a cinematically vivid work of fiction with plenty of twists, turns, and surprises to offer readers alongside its suitably complex plot. Having read some of the author’s work before, I knew I’d be in for a wild ride with plenty of action, varied characters, and interesting situations, but this particular novel had such a desperately exciting and realistic feel to it that it has swiftly become my new favorite. There is certainly something for every reader amongst the cast of well-developed characters, but for me personally, it was wayward pilot Bunny O’Hare who stole the show. Overall, I would highly recommend Golan: This Is The Future Of War to fans of immersive military fiction, original storytelling and plot ideas, and for readers of near-future action stories everywhere.
Wow, excellent future war scenario and story. Very difficult to put down
Wall to Wall action with a great story line and characters. This is focused on an Israeli/Syrian/Russian conflict starting with cyber warfare and advanced drones from small to minimally crewed vehicles and vessels. A little scary actually to see where warfare is going. Really excellent and highly recommended
Another great book in the series. Although, interesting that I read an article this week indicating that the Russians had abandoned their SU-57 fighter plane. And the SU-57 (Felon) plays a huge role in Holden's books. I'm interested to know the real deal there.
This is a never put down read, full of plots and counter plots. You will be intrigued by the realistic plots and future weapons. The story line is so profitic and makes an intelligent person wonder why nation states are so nieve and power hungry.
Another near-future techno conflict explodes! The fifth book in FX Holden's Future War series unfolds in the near future in the simmering cauldron of the Golan on Israel's northern border with Syria and Lebanon. Deploying the evolving threats of cyber warfare, drone tech and advanced AI into a region seething with factional and political tensions, Golan weaves a tale of treachery and courage that is impossible to put down. This is a worthy follow-up to Kobani and Holden fans will not be disappointed.
Very good story and well researched. Though it is futuristic, the weapons and defenses are believable. I'm definitely moving on to the next book in the series.
Don’t usually take the time to write a review, but having read the first five books in the Future War series, the only two comparable novels (in terms of scope, entertainment and quality) I can think of are Red October and Red Storm Rising. Holden is that good. His books are superbly researched, well plotted, and expertly written. They’re also free of the mind-numbing simplistic politics that often accompanies the genre. That’s already a 4.5 to 5 star grade. Holden goes further by incorporating complex, interesting, funny, and courageous characters and caps it off by having many of them appear in multiple books. As an avid reader of modern popular fiction, I’m hard pressed to think of a character I more look forward to encountering that Karen "Bunny" O’Hare. And that’s out of literally hundreds of novels in the last twenty years. If you have ANY interest in the genre, please do yourself the favor of checking these books out.
The plot was fast-paced and easy to follow. The characters were somewhat more than two-dimensional and very relatable. The author has a great touch of making the storyline believable, even though it is futuristic. The technical language was very researched and detail-oriented, but not too confusing. The geographic and scenery details almost make you feel like you are actually there. The multiple plot lines were well mixed and short to keep the readers' attention flowing. I look forward to this author's next novel.
How does anyone review a war story? I do not know why ANYONE likes war. This one is a hypothetical future war that sounds all too possible and actually scares the snot out of me. Wars cost millions of dollars, and far too many lives of good people. War has only one outcome, it stops for awhile someone from doing what they are doing. It does NOT solve the original problem. Why do we insist on killing one another? I have one question that GOLAN does not really answer: What are they fighting for?
I have been waiting for this book ever since I finished the previous volume and I have not been disappointed. The same great characters, the same acknowledgement that ALL nations have their good and bad, competent and incompetent citizens. Really good to read and the battle scenes pulled me right into the action. OK, FX; I have one question. Where are you going to go next?
I have read all five of FX Holden’s books and love them all. I’m also learning to slow down my reading speed in order to enjoy all the action as it unfolds at breakneck speed I love the ideas that are coming out in the area of warfare, although it’s a little too scary too contemplate
This is the kind of book you have to keep reminding yourself to take a breath because you get so caught up in the story. The author has done a great job of developing a cast of characters that are easy to believe in and get behind. I really liked this book and I highly recommend it.
I enjoyed this latest offering even more than the author’s previous well constructed and written offerings. Fiction, yes, but all too credible and a reminder too of earlier days in uniform at a time of great international tension.
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. The action never ceased. The attention to character development makes the action scenes become even more intimate and the story engrossing.
The story line is consistent with current international events and situations extended into the future. It will be interesting if AI development evolves as it is depicted here. Good believable story.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Gets your interest from the beginning, and holds it to the end. Good characters that you get involved with. This is the second book I have read by this author, and plan to read more.
Great near-future military thriller. Suffers from prequel problems: knowing who lives reduces some of the character arcs. Focuses on some aspects of AI and small combat drones. Of all the combat zones across the serie3s, I feel this one is most likely to occur.
Holden writes war gaming books with really exciting plots and interesting characters, like Australian air force pilot Kafen "Bunny" O'Hare, like Russian AF pilot Yevgeny Bondarev. and like Kurdish sniper girl Amary All Kobani. Golan is an excellent war gaming novrl, almost as good as Kobani. I've already downloaded book 3 Bering Strait.
This book was just fantastic it reminded me of Red Storm Rising one of my very favorite books. I couldn't stop reading it. It was just so exciting, I just loved it.
The only problem with the series so far has been the wait the Between release dates. Great read most assuredly one of the best summer read series out there.