One Second After by William R. Forstchen

Title: One Second After
Author: William R. Forstchen
Publisher: Doherty, Tom Associates, LLC
Acquired: Bought
Age Group: Adult
Grade: 92% or A-
Buy It: Amazon 

New York Times best selling author William R. Forstchen now brings us a story which can be all too terrifyingly real...a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages...A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP). A weapon that may already be in the hands of our enemies. Months before publication, One Second After has already been cited on the floor of Congress as a book all Americans should read, a book already being discussed in the corridors of the Pentagon as a truly realistic look at a weapon and its awesome power to destroy the entire United States, literally within one second. It is a weapon that the Wall Street Journal warns could shatter America. In the tradition of On the Beach, Fail Safe and Testament, this book, set in a typical American town, is a dire warning of what might be our future...and our end.

My Thoughts::
It isn't a surprise to know that my favorite genre of books beyond dystopian are books based in some kind of post apocalyptic world. Some of my favorite books from the most random authors are books that have that theme. There is just something so interesting, frightening, and surreal about how society would react to such a collapse. Just going into this book I was so excited to read it and find out how this specific situation would turn out.

The book takes place in a pretty small community, which is pretty common in books like this. I'm getting a bit tired of that, but this book added a bit of a spin on it by having this town next to another small town and not too far from much larger cities. So even though they started out secluded it didn't last long and they had to deal with all of the problems that come with more people trying to get into their town than they could possibly help or support.

The best thing about this book was how realistic and plausible it all seemed. An EMP is pretty darn serious and there were so many results that I didn't even think about before. Books like this never really address one of the biggest issues besides food, which is disease. Without electricity and medicine people get sick and die so easily. It was scary how little of the population made it through the year.

A lot of moral dilemmas were brought up as well. Is it okay to sacrifice a large amount of people to get supplies that only help a few? If you only have enough food to feed 100 people through the winter and if you feed more everyone will die, what do you do? It was so hard to read this book because the problems that come up are so hard to answer.

Overall this was a great eye opening read that shows that such a simple weapon can destroy most of what we take advantage of everyday. My only complaint is that the book would skip ahead of large chunks of time and then give only a summary of the events that occurred during that time.