This rec is a deep cut: Fail-Safe, a novel written in 1962 and set in a futuristic 1967… in which unquestioning faith in a complicated technical system turns out to be tragically misguided.

In the book, a large array of characters, almost entirely male, go about their Cold War business relying on a highly secured system that’s supposed to make sure that nuclear war can only be started in certain circumstances, by certain people. “This system is infallible,” declares a colonel at the beginning of the book. Immediately, he is proved horribly wrong.

That very morning, bombers progress to the “Fail-Safe” point as usual; they are only supposed to go on to attack if the system confirms they should. Yet somehow, one morning, during a routine alert, one set of planes receives the signal and flies past the Fail-Safe.

The rest of the book is a nail-biting race against time to figure out how to avert an apocalyptic nuclear war. I was left in suspense virtually the entire time so I will not give away the ending.

Eugene Burdick, one of the co-authors, was a bit of a Renaissance man; he not only wrote novels but was a political scientist and an early pioneer in using big data to affect politics (bonus book rec: If/Then by Jill Lepore, which goes further into this development in history, and is the reason I picked up Fail-Safe). Plus, he wrote the book that was the source of the phrase “ugly American.”

While an exciting book, this is not a very literary one. The characterizations are what you’d expect from the 1962 equivalent of a tech bro (women are mainly there to illuminate characteristics of the men they interact with). The prose is mostly serviceable and makes liberal use of cliches (people’s throats go dry, their eyes burn). 

But still, the story has a propulsive rhythm, and the narration becomes urgent and gripping whenever it delves into the technical problem: the system, its failure, and the threat of war. I’m recommending it both for its oddly prescient description of how people rely on algorithms, and an unfortunately all too relevant geopolitical conflict. But mainly, I’m recommending it because it’s a hell of a fun read.