'One Second After' by William Forstchen - Book Review

One Second After is a riveting and chilling tale of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack on the United States. It is a thrilling page turner, but is also so much more. The danger it illustrates is so great and so real that leaders in our government are now reading this book. Let's hope they take it seriously. To make sure they do, read this book today and get the word out.

William R. Forstchen is accustomed to asking "what if" questions. In One Second After, Forstchen asks not what could have been, but what will be the results of an EMP attack.

Electromagnetic pulses result from natural phenomena and in much greater strength from nuclear blasts. EMPs fry unprotected electronics. A nuclear bomb set off at a high altitude could cause electronics over a large swathe of the planet to fail. Little has been done to protect the US from this threat. This novel depicts what life might be like in the case of an EMP attack.

With no electronics vehicles won't run. How do we move necessities without modern transportation? Without electronics, we have no phones, computers, radios, or televisions. How do we communicate? How do we grow food or run our factories without vehicles or electricity? In One Second After, a lack of food and medicine leads to mass death. Society crumbles. Cities turn against the countryside and 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 Montreat College in North Carolina. He uses convincing detail to make the events real.

One Second After is a masterpiece of distopian literature that ranks with 1984 and Brave New World. More important though than its role in our literature is what we do about the grave threat it portrays. Because, one second after the attack, it'll be too late.