ONE SECOND AFTER: A Review

Electromagnetic pulses can result from natural phenomena and, in much greater strength, from nuclear blasts. The result of an EMPs is the destruction of unprotected electronic circuitry, about 95% of it in the United States. A nuclear bomb set off at a high altitude would cause electronics over a large swathe of the planet to fail and almost nothing has been done to protect the US from this threat. This frightening novel depicts what life might be like in the case of an EMP attack.

With no electronics -vehicles won't run; no phones, computers, radios, or televisions; no electricity. America descends into the Middle Ages.

In One Second After, a lack of food and medicine leads to mass death. Society crumbles quickly. Cities turn against the countryside; friends and neighbors turn against each other in a desperate struggle to survive. Criminals take advantage. Forstchen humanizes it by giving a detailed look at how events unfold around the idyllic small town of Montreat College in North Carolina.

The weeks pass, and society deteriorates quickly - food runs out, people die due to lack of treatment and medicine, tyrants try to take advantage of the weak and confused, and criminals run rampant.

One Second After is a masterpiece of distopian literature that ranks with 1984 and Brave New World, but is even more horrific. You will have restless nights while you are reading this, and several nights after. Particularly when you realize that our government has done nothing to prepare this country for this serious threat.

BIBLIO SAYS: Highly recommended.

Companion Read: Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.