After 50 years of the Cold War and 25 years of the War on Terror, the world hoped for peace and prosperity but instead faced crisis after crisis: genocides in Iraq, Somalia, Rwanda, Congo, and the former Yugoslavia. Meanwhile, global militaries shrank as nations pursued a "peace dividend," relying instead on technology to act as force multipliers stealth bombers, advanced tanks, and digital systems that made small forces devastatingly effective.

Yet history echoed Plato's warning: "Only the dead have seen the end of war." Every collapsed regime and ignored genocide was a signal of how quickly the world could spiral into total conflict. After 9/11, counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke told the commission America failed due to "a failure of imagination."

Black Rain for Christmas, written in 1992, imagines how a small international crisis could spark a third world war. Told through news reports, letters, and narrative, the novel explores how 21st-century technologies might both empower and endanger modern militaries. Decades later, its predictions are familiar. It's a haunting reminder: when mankind stares too long into the abyss, the abyss just might stare back.