BOMB

A riveting graphic novel adaptation of the award-winning nonfiction book Bomb — the fascinating and frightening true story of the creation of the Atom Bomb. With excellent detail, this tracks the story from the beginning. In 1938, a German chemist split a uranium atom and launched a scientific race that spanned three continents. The race was on, with the top U.S. scientists, aided by refugee scientists from conquered nations, working to figure out the bomb’s secrets first. If the Germans had been first, the allies might have easily lost the war, as bombing Japan changed everything in 1945. This is the story of the ultra secrecy of the team of 3000 at Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Hanford and elsewhere all working together to create the first nuclear bomb before the Germans while also hiding the plot from our own allies, the Russians. It also details how the British Special Forces found out where Germany was working on heavy water, a key ingredient. Sending in men with cyanide pills to commit suicide before capture, they took out the first facility, hidden in Norway. Then they sank a ship that was moving the operation from Norway to Germany…all delaying the Germans. It’s a page-turner…the plotting, the risk taking, deceit, espionage, sabotage, and genius that created the world's most formidable weapon and its first use in World War II. It wasn’t developed in time to change the war with Germany, but for better or for worse, it was the crucial element that saved hundreds of thousands of both American and Japansese lives if the allies had had to invade Japan. But it also took so many other innocent lives at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to convince the Japanese to finally surrender and end the war in the Pacific. This is the story of the atomic bomb. The New York Times bestselling author Steve Sheinkin's award-winning nonfiction book has been re-imagined in the graphic novel format with full-color illustrations from Nick Bertozzi, the bestselling author of Shackleton: Antarctic Odyssey. Instead of a glorified light read, I found this both very entertaining but also very informative. What little I knew about the Manhattan Project was nothing in comparison to what you’ll learn here, step by crucial step, both the science and the secrecy (not even Congress knew, the risk was too great). And you read about the people caught in the middle, supporters of our Russian allies but in the eyes of the U.S. after the war, spies and informers. The U.S. was already worried about the balance of power to come after the war, thus only Britain and America were in on the secret. And creating just one, or two bombs in time to turn the tide, was a monumental undertaking by so many people who didn’t know much more than their small part in the effort, but still risking their lives in the process. - Bud