Book Review: Clouds in the Future (The Great War of the Worlds)

Reviewed by Andrea Marks-Joseph

A moving human story in a brutal future where a soldier must fight against instinct to get revenge in the war with the aliens

Soldiers and civilians are living in the aftermath of the Martian invasion as written in H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds inthis sequel by Eric Goebelbecker. 

Clouds In the Future is about the kind of life that’s possible when the dust settles and humans move past the survivalist instinct and begin sinking back into their natural inclinations for greed, rage, compassion, or kindness, depending on their nature. In the foreword, author Eric Goebelbecker raises these questions, which this novel explores at length: “What happened after the attack? What did humanity do with the technology the Martians left behind?”

Clouds In the Future explores these questions from the perspective of Christian, a soldier who is a perfect shot and excellent at the examination of greed, violence, and motives for attack. He’s a valuable asset out in the field, but he’s beginning to question whether that’s all he is—and all he wants to be. 

In his experience witnessing both the vicious, calculated kill-or-die military and the genuine, almost shocking gentleness and kindness from grateful civilians, something is opening up—like a crack of light streaming through his chest—that he can’t ignore, and it keeps distracting him in the heat of a tactical mission.

At the start of this book, we witness a horrible attack, assumed to be the Martians because of the tech used to kill, but as Christian and his team ask around, they learn it may be worse than that: It looks like humans are using Martian tech to enact mass murder—possibly to earn favor with the Martians and save themselves in a future attack. The brutal, calculated cruelty of this attack inspires a rage in Christian that the soldier within him would channel into precise headshots and act-first, talk-later acts of   vengeance; thoughts like “These butchers were using Martian tech on civilians and belonged in Hell.” 

But as the information they are gathering gets more complicated, and it’s clear that someone they know and trust is being duplicitous and killing their own on behalf of the aliens, he and his team must second-guess their impulses and instincts that kept them alive for the last few years.

In between the mystery and the discussions about other soldiers’ motivation to “profit from the invasion” by being “smart enough to pull it off by keeping the aliens happy,” this turns out to be a quieter, more intimate book than the first in the series. We spend more time on connecting with Christian’s feelings and conflicted thoughts. I loved the moments of introspection when Christian is trying on different versions of himself in each new scenario. It feels true to the experience of wrestling with a big, life-changing decision that would alter everyone’s perception of me and unsettle my understanding of myself but still feels like something you have to do. 

As the soldiers around him discuss the ongoing murders and dissect the intel from villages that have been ravaged, we hear Christian’s heart racing and breath picking up as he overthinks and imagines different scenarios: How would this soldier act if I did this, not that? How would the military react to me leaving? Would this feel uncomfortable or freeing? Would I regret this decision or be proud of myself? 

“Emil hadn’t killed anyone. Did that make him less of a soldier than Christian? Or a better man?” We really understand the feeling of coming up against something insurmountable when Christian confronts his peers, enemies, and friends with the questions he’s wrestling with: “Are those my only choices? Kill them or join them? I want people to be safe. Does that mean the Martians have to die? I hope not, because I’m not sure we can kill them all.”

Christian wrestles with his sense of justice and his years of experience enactingjustice with a gun in a way that feels so true and human. There are scenes where, even as he’s thinking about his potential civilian life without violence and guns, we still get flashes of his instinct to kill—when it feels urgent and fair to him, and we watch how easily he can slide into his super-sniper role when his brain clicks or snaps into act now mode. 

Goebelbecker’s writing is fresh and fun and thrives in the moments where Christian catches himself acting on something he promised he wouldn’t do anymore. Christian is wise and brilliant and willing to admit when he doesn’t know the best or right thing to do in a situation. It’s admirable to consider such a life change—leaving the army, relinquishing his leadership role in the field with his soldiers he’s spent years with.

I struggled occasionally in getting invested in the background mystery and scenes about the general state of the world, but I remained invested emotionally in where   Christian’s head is at the whole way through. It ‘s equally satisfying to read his action-packed sniper moments as scenes where he decides not to act like a soldier and instead be the man that civilian kids in a new town sees him as. 

Christian has a lot of disdain for the church and bitterness toward anything to do with them, and he makes it well known right from the start. When we learn the origin of his hate, which is rooted in a heartbreaking, devastating experience with the church as a child, we immediately understand. It’s such a radicalizing, rage-fueling moment that it feels like, by Goebelbecker telling us what happened he’s passing the torch to us to carry this fire of anger on Christian’s behalf, to remember the cruelty even if he decides to be a more forgiving, kinder human after all. 

Patriotism and nationalism knock against humankind’s battle against the aliens in such a fascinating way in this book. Even in urgent moments of attack, when Christian tries to warn people in immediate danger, he is dismissed as an enemy. Christian understands this and doesn’t judge them for it, only tries to explain himself further, to show them the urgency of the situation in their lives. Endearingly, he holds no frustration or judgment against them; he simply wants to help where he can, telling us that “Clearly, the war the Martians had interrupted—the one between Germany and the rest of Europe—had touched [this person] in one way or another.”

The action and adventure of Clouds in the Future never stops. Of course, we have moments of relaxation and contemplation, times when the characters must refuel for the journey ahead or pause to discuss the best way forward, but even when this story reaches a point where another novel might wrap things up, Eric Goebelbecker switches up the pace in a way that feels like we are climbing onto a horse and setting off for another adventure—an exciting prospect looking forward! 

I felt so emotional and proud of Christian for his willingness to change his life and his bravery to actually follow through. I couldn’t have put the book down if I needed to, because I wanted to be sure things worked out for him. I wanted so badly for the soldier to have the life he wanted and to see his acts as heroic—his kindness to a child he just met as life-changing as his killing of an enemy—and I love that the author gave him that gift.

Of note, there are some descriptions that could bring up images of the Holocaust in this book: Bodies piled into “macabre mounds” and killed en-masse with Martian heat rays that set them alight, as well as using gas, which Christian describes as “the most humane option” in that situation. There’s xenophobia in casual conversation with some people they meet along the way: “Who cares about feeding foreigners? We should be home, protecting the fatherland.” (I enjoyed Christian’s responses to these people, who—like most xenophobes—frankly don’t see how ridiculous they’re being). We also read about a killed man who was left on display, a suicide, and implications of a horse being put down.

Filled with action and ambushes, entrenched in one soldier’s thoughtful consideration of treachery, Clouds in the Future is perfect for fans of stories about assassins who want out but must complete one more mission to do so, like the Netflix series Black Doves. It might behard, but Christian has been resisting against enemy attacks and complex, hostile situations for long enough that sinking into a life worth living—and fighting for his right to enjoy it—is worth the struggle. This is a deeply satisfying read.

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