SFF Stories with Strong Cold War Elements

[Extollager]

Plots, settings, predicaments, atmosphere. The real Cold War era on this planet, not sf stories that are veiled allegories of the Cold War, etc.

Could include tensions leading to atomic war. I’d allow Alas, Babylon. But not post-atomic war stories about mutants. Anxiety, irony, shadows, escapes, secret losses and victories, rumor, courage, betrayal, ordinary people in danger, the unthinkable, some of these might be in these stories.

Budrys’s Who? is a good example of what I’m seeking. Powers’s Declare.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Dave Hutchinson maybe?

 

[Toby Frost]

There's quite a few things that nearly fit your requirements, but off the top of my head, I can only think of a short story by Harry Harrison about rival androids that really fits. It's in Prime Number.

I'd bet a large amount of money that there's a Lovecraft Cold War novel, because there's a Lovecraft story for everything.

 

[alexvss]

Dune has foreseen many cold war elements.

 

[Guttersnipe]

"Foster, You're Dead!" and "Second Variety" are a few examples by Philip K. Dick.

 

[BAYLOR]

Not This August by C M Kornbluth

 

[BAYLOR]

The Universe Maker by A E Van Vogt
Under Pressure by Frank Herbert
Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney
The Puppet Masters by Robert A Heinlein
Colossus by D F Jones
Tomorrow Might Be Different by Mack Reynolds

 

[Extollager]

Asimov’s Fantastic Voyage

 

[AllanR]

The Bamboo Saucer (movie, 1968)
Americans, Russians, and Chinese!

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

"Eon" by Greg Bear.
"Missile Gap" by Charles Stross.
"Yellow Blue Tibia" by Adam Roberts
...none of them exactly on target, but all use the Cold War in interesting ways.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I'd bet a large amount of money that there's a Lovecraft Cold War novel, because there's a Lovecraft story for everything.

Might be a bit difficult as he died in 1937, before WW2, let alone its Cold War sequel.

 

[Toby Frost]

If a story goes on for long enough, it gets a Lovecraft tie-in. It's a law of nature, or at least of non-copyright.

 

[Randy M.]

Speaking of which ... I think Charles Stross' "A Colder War" novella (novelette? noverillo? steroidal short story?) might apply. I found it a highly effective story, whether or not it does.

 

[hitmouse]

2010 by Arthur C Clarke

 

[Pyan]

Some more suggestions here: The Cold War in Science Fiction

 

[BAYLOR]

Bombs Away : The Hot War
Fallout: The Hot War
Armistice : The Hot War

By Harry Turtledove