One Second After
by William R. Forstchen
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Book Summary Information
Author: William R. ForstchenForeword: Newt Gingrich
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-03-17
ISBN: 0765317583
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Forge Books
Book Reviews of One Second After
Book Review: Sobering for the uninitiated, but disappointing in quality.
Summary: 3 Stars
I rated this three-stars only because of the importance of the subject - potential EMP attack, but I would really rate it one-star in quality of writing.
I'm not a published author so who am I to make such an audacious statement, but nonetheless, if I had written this book by Forstchen I think I would be embarrassed. I'm really surprised that Newt Gingrich wrote the forward without insisting on more work being done on the text and clearing up some obvious omissions and point absences. If you like books, are an active reader and you read this book, I think you will quickly see what I mean. I got the feeling that Forstchen wrote the main draft in a weekend, actually, because some very obvious details were left out that would have rounded out the story and made the reader more experience the content and the setting better. Don't get me wrong, please. I believe the subject of EMP and our absence of "hardened" infrastructure is vital and such a work as this is extremely important to try to help wake up the reading populace to this potential disaster and motivate them to perhaps pressing for a solution. I'm just really disappointed with the quality of the writing. Though I had not before read Forstchen, he is apparently a well-established author but if the rest of his work is like this I would seriously question the quality of the editors/publisher and I strongly suspect his editors let this one go on to print based on his past work success. There are just so many credibility short-falls that I found myself several times muttering, 'come-on, now........' as I read along. It took me a week to get through the book and comparably I usually get through a volume this size in a couple of days........ I was sort of mindful of this as I read and sort of half-tried to figure out why, and finally realized that it is just not comfortable to read in many places and not a page turner nor did it yield much satisfaction as I read the dialogue doesn't flow well......and there is just a lot of 'stuff' contained in the text, details and descriptions of events and proceedings that don't make logical sense to me and likewise, many other pertinent situational details that were never mentioned at all. I come to these observations as a retired military officer with 30+ years service, much of it involving nuclear matters, I have some knowledge of what Forstchen speaks, far deeper even, and while I have no problem with the technical content of the nuclear detonation and EMP effects, per se (even though they seem alot worse in the book than actual tests have shown they would be), I have more problem with the main character, the man, Matherson himself, his life circumstances and the way his participation in the drama unfolded. Some examples:
The main character, John Matherson is a retired Colonel who retired from the Army for the sake of his wife's health rather than take a Brigadier General promotion - in the real world, in my experience, if he was valuable enough to promote to the general officer ranks a suitable 'other job' would have been found for him for the duration of his wife's illness. So, post military retirement he is now a history professor in a small Christian college tucked back in the hills of North Carolina. All of this supposedly gives him credibility but many times as I read the descriptions of his private thoughts and of his actions I found myself wondering how he was ever advanced to Colonel and how he because so universally revered in the town. Absolutely, one-star promotions, in my experience, are not handed out to officer's with such seeming flaws. Matherson, for example, struggles with smoking addiction - throughout fully 90% of the book he is struggling with his addiction and his rapidly dwindling stockpile of cigarettes - what was this supposed to do, humanize him? Just very hard to believe for me - the world as you know it falling apart around you and you are counting the cigarettes left in this pack and how many packs you have left? I found myself thinking, time to get serious, dude, each time he counted them, and yet again and again lit up. So here is this amazing man, retired Colonel, PhD History Prof, and right before his eyes he allows his 16 year old daughter to get pregnant by her 17 year old boyfriend. He had worried about such potentiality for at least 5 chapters but never found the time to put the word on this daughter, the image of his beloved deceased wife, we are told over and over again, that this was not the time for such shenanigans . Likewise, his ever-present mother-in-law, written as an amazing southern grandmother with an iron-will and serious intelligence, somehow missed the opportunity too. Then when the daughter turns up pregnant as the world is crumbling around them he doesn't even talk to them about the selfishness of such an act or how it will further stress resources. Then, amazingly, shortly afterward the 17 year old boyfriend, with no prior military training or experience at all, becomes a war hero that everyone is sooooo proud of. And then his younger daughter who suffers from Type 1 Diabetes - he scrambles to get her extra insulin but has no refrigeration - and here is the issue - he lives up on the side of a mountain at the edge of a small hamlet in the current era - bright guy well prepared in all respects but, incredulously, he nor for that matter, anyone else in the entire town has a small home gnenerator which could be used for cooling a refrigerator and the medication. There is no shortage of gasoline through the entire book, but no generators mentioned anywhere. Hard to believe. Then there is the near idiot female town mayor who, in over her head, makes all sorts of goofy opinions which tend to complicate matters yet is entertained, even after the impossition of martial law, and not really ever removed. There is the student body of the Christian college that transforms into this amazingly effective fighting force in about a month that is rushed into a victorious battle against a sizeable, organized, rogue, small-army. Simply amazing. And not one mention of "thou shall not kill" from even one student or one professor, including the school president. I'm just Then there's lots of other stuff........lots........Matherson talks several times about how groady he is and how much he stinks with no hot water to bathe does everyone else, but his is worse because he's always running around getting sweaty and at one point nearly dies from a badly infected hand wound....... complicated by being in a coma for several weeks, sweating out the poison....... but even so, never finds time or requirement for a sponge bath from the water in the brook running by his office window or the swimming pool full of water in his patio. Just amazing. Nearly a year he went without a bath of any kind. No mention of toilet activity either or of insects without the A/C and the absence of TP or ways to clean clothes or your own body. Huh? For me, these albeit disjointed observations barely scratch the surface of the apparent flaws in this work and my intent, considering this important issue of EMP, is not to be overly critical.
This book was recommended by Glenn Beck, whether you like him or not, and Beck praised the book highly. I wish I could talk to Glenn, though, to clarify what he was praising, and I strongly suspect it had to be for the very real potentiality of the EMP phenomenon and what serious damage it can potentially do to any society. As an aside, this, of course, is a very serious problem which should, make that MUST, be elevated into national consciousness withut further delay - it has not been even acknowledged as an important issue and is yet another example of derelectio of leadership at the national level with virtually no visible actions having been taken to prepare. Regarding content and style of this book, though, by way of comparison, another of Glenn's recommendations, The Road (the movie based on this), which I read before this one, was even more grim than was this book by Forstchen. The Road, too, was not perfect with absences of detail that would seem to have made it more complete for me - conversely, however, The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, was hauntingly and beautifully written - no comparison in quality, in my view.
Sorry this is so long but even much more to say that won't be said here. To conclude this, however, I repeat, I rated it three-stars for the importance of the subject matter, but it's really a one-star in quality of writing. Just my view.
Summary of One Second After
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.
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