Clara’s Verdict
I don’t often find myself sitting in the bath listening to a geopolitical analysis audiobook and feeling a steady chill that has nothing to do with the temperature of the water. Peter Apps’ The Next World War is that kind of book: thoroughly reported, relentlessly current, and genuinely alarming without ever tipping into scaremongering. It is one of the most important pieces of non-fiction I’ve encountered this year, and the fact that it reads like a real-life geopolitical thriller is, depending on your perspective, either a credit to Apps’ narrative skill or a damning commentary on the state of the world.
Apps is Reuters’ global affairs correspondent. He has sources where most journalists have none. He has access to the corridors of power in multiple governments, and he uses that access to write something that feels essential rather than merely informative.
About the Audiobook
At twelve hours and fifty-two minutes, The Next World War covers remarkable ground: Ukraine, Taiwan, cyberspace, the Arctic, the South China Sea, and even the contested strategic question of space. Apps moves between the macro – the fault lines of great power competition, the nuclear calculations of multiple states – and the micro: conscripts preparing for conflict, civilians stockpiling food on government advice, diplomats working to prevent escalation they fear may already be inevitable.
The book was published by Wildfire in January 2026, making it almost unnervingly current. One listener noted that as they reached the final chapter, the book had shifted from hypothetical to actively describing current affairs in real time. That quality – of a text overtaken by its own predictions – adds a particular urgency to the listening experience.
Apps draws on the voices of commanders, diplomats, technologists, and ordinary people caught up in events. The result is neither comfortable nor reassuring. He examines what he calls the “axis of upheaval” – Russia, China, and their increasingly coordinated partners – and the West’s often inadequate response, exploring everything from conventional military capability to hybrid warfare, sabotage, and new forms of influence operations.
The Narration
Apps narrates his own book, which is the right choice for a work of this kind. His Reuters correspondent’s voice – authoritative, measured, concerned without being apocalyptic – carries exactly the weight the subject requires. He reads with the slight urgency of someone who wants you to understand what he’s understood, and that quality translates into an audiobook that is difficult to put down. The twelve hours pass more quickly than they have any right to.
What Readers Say
The book holds a 4.8 rating from 19 reviews. One listener called it “brilliantly readable” and described the experience as “lifting the veil on global preparations for war in forensic detail.” Another awarded it five stars and wrote that if there were one book to read this year, this was it – “informative and well-researched but flows well.” A third described it as “sweeping and compelling” with “plenty of human stories that really pull you in.” General Sir Tim Radford called it “a warning order for the future.” The one four-star review praised it as good “instant history” with comprehensive factual coverage.
Who Should Listen?
Anyone trying to make sense of the international security environment – citizens, students, professionals, policymakers, or simply concerned adults – will find this essential. It’s accessible enough for those without a military or diplomatic background while rigorous enough to satisfy specialists. If you’ve read Lawrence Freedman, David Sanger, or Keir Giles, this belongs on your list immediately. And if you find the news cycle bewildering, this provides the framework to understand why.
Listen now on Audible UK: Listen to The Next World War by Peter Apps on Audible UK.
