An Enemy of Peace: He Rebuilt a City from the Ruins—Now He Must Save It Again

The atomic war is over, but America has not found peace.

Center City survived because Lloyd Riddell refused to let it die. While nuclear fire devastated the country and civilization collapsed around him, Riddell held his people together and helped build something worth protecting from the ruins. Now another city is preparing to take it away.

Northburg is controlled by David Barr, a ruthless leader building an army from the survivors gathered under his command. Barr wants Center City, and he is willing to send his soldiers south to get it. Riddell knows his people can fight back—but another war could destroy everything they struggled to rebuild.

Instead of waiting for the attack, Riddell makes a dangerous decision. He crosses into enemy territory disguised as one of Barr’s soldiers, determined to discover what is happening inside Northburg and whether the coming battle can still be prevented.

What he finds is a city ruled by intimidation and a leader who understands exactly how to turn frightened survivors into an obedient army. Getting inside Northburg may have been difficult. Getting out—and stopping Barr before his forces march on Center City—could be far more dangerous.

An Enemy of Peace is an early Robert Silverberg science fiction story from 1957, originally published under the pseudonym Ralph Burke. Set amid the shattered cities of post-atomic America, it delivers a fast-moving confrontation between two very different men trying to determine what kind of civilization will rise from the destruction.

Robert Silverberg became one of the most prolific and celebrated writers in science fiction. Born in Brooklyn in 1935, he began selling stories while still in college and produced an extraordinary amount of fiction during the 1950s before developing into one of the field’s most acclaimed writers. His long career brought multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association named him a Grand Master in 2004.