Without Warning (Pauvre Monde)

Without Warning, is an alternate history novel written by Oceanican author John Birmingham and released in Oceania in September 2008 and in the United States and the French Empire in February 2009. It is the first book in a new stand-alone universe. A second novel, titled After America, continues the story.

On the eve of New Years, 31 December 2002, the bulk of the United States' population disappears as the result of a large energy field that becomes known as The Wave. Without Warning deals with the international consequences of the disappearance of one of the world's superpowers, and the rise of the French.