Zoe Meng and John Thompson are in love. It is 1950 and they both attend Berkeley College in San Francisco where they study nuclear science. However, patriotism inspires Zoe to return home to China to teach for a few years before she and John get married. Her plan quickly goes awry when she is singled out by her superiors at Qinghua University as a possible spy — her letters to her American fiancé used as evidence she is not sufficiently committed to the People’s Republic. Zoe’s father is likewise accused, and to relieve the suspicion on both of them, Zoe agrees to work at a facility on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau where a nuclear bomb is being constructed. Back in America, John eventually marries another woman but continues to pine for Zoe. He seeks fulfillment in a career moderating nuclear proliferation.
Helen Huang’s NUCLEAR POWER NUCLEAR GAME is well-researched and Huang works historical background into the plot effectively through characterization, realistic settings, and conflicts, both internal and external. Zoe is a well-crafted, complex character. She is intelligent and savvy about the people and structures of power around her. She knows how to build a bomb and pass herself off as a dutiful and loyal daughter of Communist China. Fortunately, she does not spend the entirety of the novel pining for her lost love; the plot of the novel is much more interesting than that. John is a little more one-dimensional, and it is difficult to root for this couple to be reunited over the course of the story when the reader only sees them together for a few pages at the beginning before Zoe returns to China. However, there is a lot more going on here than a simple love story, and the thrilling exploits engaged in by both characters, particularly a trip John takes to Islamabad to inspect its nascent nuclear program. The book’s minor flaws include some instances in which historical information is provided through dialogue that reads as a strained info dump. For instance, one of Zoe’s superiors at the university tells her, “Comrade Meng, we are in a difficult period. During the Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War, the National government had no intention of promoting scientific research…” It doesn’t come across entirely natural. Also, readers are advised that the novel contains a fairly graphic description of a sexual assault.
NUCLEAR POWER NUCLEAR GAME is a smart, taut, action-packed thriller with a strong and clever female protagonist. The love story angle is less compelling, but the suspense of the nuclear arms race makes up for this weakness.
~Lisa Butts for IndieReader