Review: One Second After by William R. Forstchen

The premise is intriguing: what happens if the US is hit with an EMP strike, wiping out all electronics across the entire country? It makes you realize just how deeply dependent we are on modern technologies—phone, radio, TV, Internet, computers, air conditioning, heating, industrial food production, cars, planes, antibiotics, vaccinations, sterilization, pacemakers, anti-depressants, and so on—and how quickly society could collapse if these suddenly disappeared.

Unfortunately, the writing isn’t great, the characters are not particularly believable (the main character is a Colonel, Professor, Historian, single dad, hero, leader…), and there is too much flag-waving patriotism (“this is America!” is said over and over). It’s also likely that the threat of EMP is somewhat overstated. It would likely damage the power lines, but most electronics, cars, etc would likely keep working.

So, overall it’s an interesting look at how quickly the modern world could crumble, and what it would take to survive, but be prepared to cringe, both at the brutality of the story, and the adolescent writing.

Rating: 3 stars