Bookworms: One Second After (2009) by William R. Forstchen

One Second After by William R. Forstchen follows John Matherson, a history professor at a North Carolina College who reminded me of a less kick ass Tom Mason of TNT’s Falling Skies, as modern life falls apart after America is hit by an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, knocking out technology and electricity across the United States.

The story is a slow one, detailing both the immediate break down of communications, relations and supply chains, as well as the slower deteriorations and struggles through a cold winter without modern conveniences.  If you prefer your books to have correct grammar, here’s another warning for you, this novel will annoy you to no end.  I struggled through reading this (having to put it down a few times only to pick it up later) due to the grammar issues.

As it seems with many dystopia books written these days, to get to the meat of the story and the points of the text, in One Second After, I really had to let go of structural, flow, and character development expectations.  However, when I was able to do that, I definitely enjoyed the tidbits of unique ideas and perspectives on what could occur through an apocalyptic event, which is really the reason that I delve into so many end of the world tales.

These details, specifics of unpredicted and unexpected issues that could likely arise in an apocalyptic America, as well as the mainstream introduction to the possibility of dystopian country via EMP, are why this book made waves when it was published.  The Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack gives a more official look at the possibilities of such an attack and survival situation occurring.

Even former Senator Newt Gingrich has jumped on the apocalypse bandwagon hitting our entertainment outlets lately.  He wrote the foreword to One Second After and has spoken about the dangers of an EMP attack several times.

Don’t let this convince or dissuade you from reading this book however.  The science fiction- like idea takes a realistic hold here, aside from any political agendas, and draws in both the creative and practicals souls who have ever read the classics like 1984, Farhenheit 451, and  Earth Abides.  While One Second After does not make a name for itself as a classic by any means, it does present a more modern struggle and perspective, and it holds its own in its current realm of fiction.

Questions of pharmacies and medications running out, of the stability of the American government after such a tragedy, of just how long canned goods will last and how well we as modern Americans will do with farming and creating our own food supplies, of living without modern heating and without technology and modern transportation are all tackled in this book, and the outlook according to William R. Forstchen is one of survival but at great personal and nationwide cost.

One Second After brought up my own thoughts about the short term and long term implications of such a situation, which again is why I read these kinds of stories.  I wonder, and hope this book allows you to also think deeper and more clearly, about actual survival skills and knowledge, about cigarettes’ potential use as currency, about contacts versus glasses versus Lasik and so much more.

What questions does this book, or the thought of an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attack, bring up to you?  Do you think modern apocalyptic and dystopian books are as influential, thought provoking, and epic as the classics we grew up with?