I first read Down to a Sunless Sea about ten years ago. This is interesting because it is written in first person, as though related to someone at the South Pole. British passenger jet pilot Jonah Scott lands in New York City about 1983 in the midst of a United States that cannot find or buy enough oil with its ruined currency, has urban lawlessness and poverty, and is about to be destroyed by the Soviet Union and China after a) terrorists poison Israel's water supply and b) Israel executes a nuclear retailatory strike and c) the other two superpowers want to rule the world without America. Then, d) Ireland wants to conquer Northern Ireland, e) Britain threatens "cauterization" and f) British airports are destroyed in the middle of a conversation with Jonah Scott. The aircraft can't find a landing spot and only a chance sighting of a NATO base in the Azores hit by a neutron and not an H bomb lets the plane and passengers land to refuel. A naval officer in the Falklands dies of radiation poisoning to inform Scott that McMurdo base at the South Pole has plenty of food and a nuclear reactor so all 600 on board can fly to safety without needing to carry food and fuel: meanwhile, a Soviet military transport of civilians lands, much to the initial tension of the SAS soldiers with Scott, because it could have been a military team to take the base. More heroism on the way to McMurdo when a few need to die for the good of the many. The combined Soviet, British, and American survivors work to continue humanity while Jonah Scott finds a new love. I read the optimistic version in which unexpected effects of the nuclear war will work to the good of the survivors. I am glad I read this book!