The Burning Mountain


The Burning Mountain is a 1983 alternate history novel by Alfred Coppel. The key change in history in the novel is that the Trinity nuclear test of July 16, 1945 fails. Then the novel goes on to depict the outcome of Operation Downfall, the 1946 invasion of Japan by American forces.
The author does not mention that the Hiroshima Little Boy gun type enriched uranium bomb did not need testing. However, there was only one Little Boy, and it did not get Japan to surrender unconditionally, so three days later the Fat Man plutonium implosion bomb, tested at Trinity, was used on Nagasaki.