One Second After
by William R. Forstchen
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Book Summary Information
Author: William R. ForstchenForeword: Newt Gingrich
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-03-17
ISBN: 0765317583
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Forge Books
Book Reviews of One Second After
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..
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