On a semi-related note, I've found that both outright World War IIIs and Larry Bond-style "big war thriller" novels in general almost always have to be either around World War II or contemporary in some fashion to attract any kind of mainstream audience whatsoever.
Walt Gragg's The Red Line is what I've brought up a lot of times before as my go-to example with its clumsily shoehorning a Cold War gone hot into a "contemporary" setting. It's fairly easy to make a missile-age war a contemporary one, particularly if you know the audience won't mind/will overlook the technical inaccuracies.
Walt Gragg's The Red Line is what I've brought up a lot of times before as my go-to example with its clumsily shoehorning a Cold War gone hot into a "contemporary" setting. It's fairly easy to make a missile-age war a contemporary one, particularly if you know the audience won't mind/will overlook the technical inaccuracies.