The Silent Bomb

War-anticipation stories began to published just before World War I, reflecting the mood of the times. During the war itself, the archetypal thriller was likely to be a covert spy story featuring new, game-changing technologies and embryonic superweapons.

Once the subgenre was established, it was maintained even in peacetime by its inherent melodramatic potential-it is still thriving today-but its difficult birth took place in France and Charles Dodeman's The Silent Bomb (1916) was one of its pioneers. It is one of the earliest thrillers to be set during a war that was actually going on at the time of its publication, without the benefit of hindsight.

In it, Dodeman imagines a new, revolutionary type of bomb that, one that today, we would call a "dirty bomb" capable of spreading radioactive particles, delivered through radio-controlled miniature aircrafts, i.e.: "drones."