One Second After by William R. Forstchen
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Book Reviews of One Second After
Book Review: If You Live In A Big City, You're Screwed ?!?!
Summary: 5 Stars
Since I was a fan of the TV show "Jericho", I decided to give this novel a "once over." The scenario is this: several nuclear bombs detonated hundreds of miles over the US, which created an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) wave that enveloped the whole country, thus rendering anything with a circuit board useless. Cars, planes, trains, TVs, computers, cell phones, my toaster, and every modern gadget stopped working. I like the feel of the author's small town and how people know and rely on each other, especially during hard times. They banded together in this crisis, welcomed a couple thousand strangers who were stranded on a nearby highway, and basically trusted each other to do the right thing.
Does a place like this actually exist? Are there towns where people are actually sincere and genuine? I live in Los Angeles, more specifically, the San Fernando Valley--which is a giant neighborhood of this city and has a population exceeding 1 million. I live in an area with 3 large police stations in a five-mile radius. You drive in my neighborhood and you will notice a heavy police presence. Why? Because there are a lot of criminals who commit violent acts. I don't watch the local news anymore because it's depressing to hear all the crap happening a few blocks or miles from where I live. The Valley really is a safe place; but you do see a lot of cops who make sure that bad things don't happen to ordinary people.
My point in mentioning my home and city: if a cataclysmic event occurred in Los Angeles, such as an earthquake, I know for a fact that I'm screwed. LA has a food supply of maybe four days or less. Water, food, medicine--everything we need to live--are shipped from someplace else. We don't grow anything here. Seriously, I have never seen a working farm in this city! The San Fernando Valley used to be the bread basket for LA in the 1930s and 40s, but everything here is now a home, apartment, or a strip mall. What the hell is going to happen when the "Big One" hits LA.
My brother and I have talked about this doomsday scenario and we came to this line of action: we would first loot the nearest Ralph's or Von's Supermarket for food, supplies and water; break into Big 5's and take several Mossberg Defender shot guns with several hundred rounds of ammo, and head for home. We're both graduates of the UC system and consider ourselves educated and law-abiding and that's what we thought about! Twisted right? You want to know something strange? None of us thought of helping our neighbors to make sure they're safe. I don't even know my neighbors. I don't know their names or what they do for a living. Once, a few years back, I tried to strike up a conversation with one, but I detected that he was annoyed with my breaching protocol. I never had a conversation with him again.
I want to live in a small rural city.
Book Review: The next 9/11...
Summary: 5 Stars
"One Second After" is a shocking expose on the catastrophic effect that as few as three nuclear warheads detonated in the atmosphere over the continental United States could have on our nation, due to a phenomenon known as "EMP." Electro Magnetic Pulse, or EMP, is an electro magnetic charge caused by a nuclear explosion that destroys electronic circuits and renders them permanently inoperable. As a consequence, such an attack would force Americans to live as our forefathers did in the 1800s. However, the technology of the 1800s could never have sustained 300 million people.
Nuclear tipped missiles could be launched from non descript cargo ships. A nation without intercontinental missiles could hit the United States with an EMP attack. Nations with intercontinental missiles could first use an EMP attack to disable communications, food and medical supplies, first responders' equipment, electricity and natural gas supplies, and even military equipment that has not been sufficiently protected, and then follow up with conventional nuclear attacks on selected cities or military targets.
Water, food, electricity, natural gas, gasoline, diesel, medical care and supplies, and all other life sustaining essentials would be indefinitely suspended. Restoration would be dependent upon the aid of foreign nations, since the entire electronic infrastructure of the U.S. would cease to exist.
Unlike 9/11, there would be few people around to watch the "Post-EMP Commission" try to uncover who was responsible for allowing such a calamity to occur. The U.S. Department of Defense estimates that 70%-90% of the U.S. population would perish. Congress did open a bipartisan EMP commission, but closed it, when it concluded that such an attack was "possible" but "unlikely." The FBI regarded suggestions of terrorists flying planes into skyscrapers with the same skepticism.
While Americans now take hurricanes and influenza outbreaks much more seriously, as a result of Hurricane Katrina and the H1N1 virus, we still do not take nuclear terrorism by rogue nations seriously. Until 9/11, no one had ever flown two planes into a skyscraper and the Pentagon; to date, no nation has ever launched an EMP attack against the U.S.. Therefore, Congress considers it a waste of time and resources to prepare for an attack that has never happened; the U.S. has no official preparation for an EMP attack.
Bill Forstchen's book is a wake up call to all Americans to prepare for such an event for personal and family survival and to take the political action necessary to move members of Congress to reopen the EMP Commission, to prevent rogue nations and terrorists from acquiring nuclear weapons, and to prepare a national disaster plan if such an attack should occur.
Book Review: "Alas, Babylon" meets "Lucifer's Hammer"
Summary: 5 Stars
Like the two classics listed in the review title, "One Second After" shows the inexorable consequences of a cataclysmic event from the viewpoint of a rural American setting. "Alas, Babylon" (Pat Frank, 1959) posited a nuclear exchange between the USSR and the USA, while "Lucifer's Hammer" (Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, 1977) dealt with multiple impacts from a fragmented comet. "One Second After", as noted above, illustrates the consequences of a few very-high-altitude nuclear blasts over the continental United States and the resulting massive electromagnetic pulses (EMPs).
Of the three, "One Second After" may be the most terrifying.
In the 50 years since "Alas, Babylon" and even in the 30+ years since "Lucifer's Hammer", we in the US have become vastly more dependent upon information technology, global supply chains, near-universal communications, rapid transportation, and distributed manufacturing. The horror of an EMP attack on the US -- vs. the nuclear war and comet impact scenarios -- is that it would leave virtually the entire population of the US alive and healthy while in a few seconds destroying or degrading the infrastructure to a level that could support maybe 10% of that population. The result is a relatively quick death for those dependent upon medical care, and a slow death by starvation for most of the rest.
This isn't great English literature, though the writing is above 90% of the novels out there (the flip side of Sturgeon's law), and the overall plot is a bit predictable, particularly for anyone who's read "Lucifer's Hammer" (which this novel echoes in places, especially towards the end, though one could argue that both novels are simply dealing with similar developments and consequences). But it is unflinching in its portrayal of how steep the costs of such an event would be, even in a relatively isolated, rural community; the utter hell that any large urban center would quickly descend into is largely left to indirect reports and the imagination.
The entire novel also made me rethink my own approach to emergency preparedness, something I firmly believe in and have made use of in the past, having gone through a few natural disasters of my own (Tropical Storm Claudette in southeast Houston in 1979, the Loma Prieta Quake in the Bay Area in 1989, Hurricane Isabel in Washington DC in 2003). But my preparations assume some level of infrastructure recovery over time, typically days or, at most weeks or months. "One Second After" underlines the uncomfortable truth that an EMP attack on the US would cause infrastructure damage that was near-universal and that would take years or decades to restore.
Food for thought, so to speak. ..bruce..
Book Review: U.S. Disaster Strips Away Thin Veneer Of Civilization
Summary: 5 Stars
I just finished William R. Forstchen's "One Second After" and it is an eye opener. Like "Into the Forest" or "Gift Upon the Shore", it paints a picture of the U.S. after a disaster strips away the thin veneer we call civilization over the whole of America. "Into the Forest" is written mostly from an individual perspective about coping with the loss of civilization and "Gift Upon the Shore" from a small group's ability to cope with disaster. "One Second After" is about a small town just outside of Ashville, North Carolina and how it deals with the aftermath of an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attack on the U.S.
An EMP is generated by the exploding of a nuclear weapon 250 to 300 miles over the U.S. The electric pulse that is generated fries the computer innards that run our society. The electronics in our modern cars is fried, our financial system, that is primarily electronic, is fried along with anything in the way of energy production, food production, and hospital care. We suddenly living in a country as it was 400 to 500 years ago.
Forstchen writes a page turner that pulls at your heart. His city must confront ways to handle the sick and their medical needs. It must confront lawlessness and summary justice, food shortages with no help from the outside. In fact with all communications cut off, thwere isnooutside any longer.
In an EMP attack we may lose 10% of our population in the first week. Just imagine the plight of commercial aircraft. On an average day there are 3,000 planes flying over the U.S. and an average of 200 people on each plane. With no way to steer, six hundred thousand people would be lost in an instant as the planes fall from the sky.
Forstchen thinks that in the farm belt we could lose up to 60% of the citizens. In the big cities after a year only 10% would be left.
In 2004, a reprt was issued called the Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack. The report is 62 pages long and outlines the threat we face and seems to focus on stopping an attack rather than hardening our electronics to withstand such an attack. It is dry reading. I recommend "One Second After" and when you are done, I ask you to contact Congress about protecting the nation.
Or you can start accumulating arms and ammo to protect yourself and to forage for food. You can start setting up a food larder. You can acquire knowledge to make your self useful in the new society, like how to generate electricity, steam engine technology, animal husbandry and horticulture.
Book Review: Thanks for the nightmares, Mr. Forstchen!
Summary: 5 Stars
Before I get into a review, I have to start by saying: this book scared me to death. Thanks, Mr. Forstchen, for giving me something else to worry about late at night.
One Second After is a work of fiction, but the introduction by Newt Gingrich lends a somber air of credibility to the story. This could really happen, folks. And from page 1, the author tries to beat that truth home without dramatics, and with a good, healthy dose of survivalist know-how.
The story chronicles one community's struggle to survive the aftermath of an electromagnetic pulse -- a nuclear bomb detonated high over the US soil that renders all modern technology useless in one second. The anonymous foe that provided the first strike is never really identified, adding credence to the atmosphere of not knowing that causes panic nationwide when cell phones, TV, radio, the Internet and all other communication devices are silenced forever.
The narrator, John, is a likeable guy and provides a great perspective of the events. He is a former Army officer, current military history professor, widower and father of two teenage girls. As a parent, his obvious priority is protecting his children, finding them food, securing their home and -- most dread-inducing -- going to whatever lengths necessary to try to keep his 12-year-old diabetic child alive without a reliable supply of insulin and refrigeration.
The book follows the events of the first year after the EMP, as people pull together to plant Victory Gardens to feed the town, fight bands of cannibalistic gangs bent on taking over the community and struggling in the daily fight to stay alive. It is a chilling view of how much we take for granted every single day.
This book made a huge impression on me. I actually had to take a few days to process the story before I could think about starting another story -- that doesn't happen often. Forstchen does a wonderful job of creating characters that the reader will care about, conceiving a surreal natinoal crisis that is all-too-real, and drawing attention to a threat to all of us that is almost to horrible to think about.
As a final note, I hope that this book doesn't fall into terrorist hands. That sounds melodramatic, but seriously. I think that people that hate our nation would read this book cackling with glee and chomping at the bit. (insert shiver here)