Countdown to Armageddon

by Edward M. Lerner

Hezbollah has obtained an atomic bomb and a would-be martyr eager to deliver it-and that's the good news. The bad news, unknown even to Hezbollah, is that their physicist has also found a way to take his new bomb back to a turning point in European history. Harry Bowen, an American physicist, and Terrence Ambling, a British agent turned historian, are determined to stop Abdul Faisel and prevent the nullification of all Western civilization. Their mission can be accomplished, if at all, only in the darkest of the Dark Ages-- And there, too, time is running out...

248 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 8, 2010

About the author

I'm a physicist and computer scientist (among other things). After thirty years in industry, working at every level from individual technical contributor to senior vice president, I now write full-time. Mostly I write science fiction and techno-thrillers, now and again throwing in a straight science or technology article.

Reviews

[Sean Randall · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s an element of freneticism to this work; it’s not a relaxing, laid-back sort of a novel. Take your eye off a character for half a sentence and you’re playing catch-up before you know it. I found this better than Learner’s other work I read last week, it in fact had more in common with the michael Crichton novel I read at a similar time. If time travel appeals and you prefer quick, thought-provoking work rather than slower and more dolorous offerings, this is a worthy contender (and it goes back to an era less worked-over by the masses, too).