Review
One Second After by William R. Forstchen
Food becomes scarce, and societal breakdown proceeds with inevitable violence; towns burn, and ex-servicemen recall Korea in 51 as military action by unlikely people becomes the norm in Forstchens sad, riveting cautionary tale, the premise of which Newt Gingrichs foreword says is completely possible. --Whitney Scott. Johns list includes insulin for his type-one diabetic 12-year-old, candy bars, and sacks of ice. Deaths start with heart attacks and eventually escalate alarmingly. Newt Gingrich provides a foreword. g All rights reserved.In a Norman Rockwell town in North Carolina, where residents rarely lock homes, retired army colonel John Matherson teaches college, raises two daughters, and grieves the loss of his wife to cancer. Next morning, some townspeople realize that an electromagnetic pulse weapon has destroyed Americas power grid, and they proceed to set survival priorities. In this entertaining apocalyptic thriller from Forstchen (We Look Like Men of War), a high-altitude nuclear bomb of uncertain origin explodes, unleashing a deadly electromagnetic pulse that instantly disables almost every electrical device in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. History professor John Matherson, who lives with his two daughters in a small North Carolina town, soon figures out what has happened. Airplanes, most cars, cellphones, refrigeratorsall are fried as the country plunges into literal and metaphoric darkness. When phones die and cars inexplicably stall, Grandmas pre-computerized Edsel takes readers to a stunning scene on the car-littered interstate, on which 500 stranded strangers, some with guns, awaken Johns New Jersey street-smart instincts to get the family home and load the shotgun. While the material sometimes threatens to veer into jingoism, and heartstrings are tugged a little too vigorously, fans of such classics as Alas, Babylon and On the Beachwill have a good time as Forstchen tackles the obvious and some not-so-obvious questions the apocalypse tends to raise.