One Second After
by William R. Forstchen
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Book Reviews of One Second After
Book Review: A unique fiction polemic
Summary: 3 Stars
One Second After is unique. It is the only fiction book I know of which has the purpose of promoting a particular public policy, which I'll get to in a minute. I think the only analogue I can think of would be Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle", which depicted the awful conditions of meatpacking at the beginning of the last century. Possibly, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Still, those books weren't focused on a particular policy, as much as generally alleviating a condition.
OAS's policy is promoting 'hardening' of key facilities to protect against an electro-magnetic pulse (EMP). The theory is that two or three nuclear deviced detonated about 25 miles above the earth around the U.S. could fry all electronic devices in the detonation's 'line of sight.' It's an example of asymmetric warfare where a small group or country could launch missles and effectively bring the U.S. back to the Dark Ages, with devastating consequences for the country: to begin with--cars stop working, thousands of planes crash, environmentally 'controlled' buildings become unliveable, food and water comes in short supply quickly. Because we depend so much on modern 'conveniences' like autos and a complicated chain of logistics to supply us goods and services, and so few of us can 'live off the land' practically--hundreds of millions die in a worst case scenario over the course of a year.
[SPOILER ALERT...some particular plot points follow]
It's these devastating consequences, taken from the perspective of a family living near Asheville, NC, that becomes the subject of the novel. This is a competently written book and achieves its polemical purpose in an 'entertaining' (that is, keeps your attention), but a bad piece of literature. Some howlers include hitting the reader over the head with foreshadowing, like noting the clear blue sky was 'just like 9/11' on the day the EMP hit. A nurse assures the protagonist that it was ok for him to check her out because it was a 'stress response' to a recent altercation--who talks like that? The polemics can get as obvious as an Atlas Shrugged diatribe--more exposition from one of the characters about how Reagan saw the problem and tried hardening policy but it was abandoned by later administrations. Ah, Ronnie--the good old days!
This is as Red state a book as you will find, which I think in a way defeats the polemical purpose: 'liberals' will automatically be turned off by the Redness, but, that said, maybe enough of the 'persuadeable middle' would find the Redy ideal characters kind of appealing. They are comic-book-ish like a Tom Clancy novel, which is what OAS most resembles. The protagonist is ex-military whose only vice seems to be smoking. His daughters are appropriately adoring--right out of the '50s. Only older people with their 'practical' knowledge has any use; liberals and fancy corporate types are all impliedly left to reap the horrific deaths that their ill preparedness consign them to, while practical blue collar folk with 'real' skills and ex military try to save the country, or their piece of it. In this vein, the climax of the story involves a confrontation between a druggie barbarian gang that has resorted to cannibalism known as the Posse versus the townies/local military school preserving their 'freedom.'
[SPOILER ALERT!!!] And, as it turns out, 365 days after 'the day', when a relief column of US Military finally passes through with news (since all radios, internet, fiber optics, cells were fried) America has completely changed. China has 'occupied' the West Coast to help with 'rebuilding' but there's 'no sign they intend to leave.' Meanwhile, Mexico has expanded northward to create a 'buffer zone' between them and the Chinese. Most of Europe was also hit by a EMP except for Britain, and all overseas military assets have been recalled to the East Coast to help with rebuilding. It's unclear who is now in charge.
Book Review: WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Summary: 4 Stars
I read this book over a month ago, and it still comes to mind often. Our country is always at risk for some kind of attack, and with the electronic age, we are sitting ducks if we would suffer EMP attacks.
Think of how your cordless phones will not work, if you lose power during a thunderstorm, then multiply that experience one million fold, or more. Think about how the people in New Orleans could not fend for themselves, and get out of the area, before the hurricane hit, then squawked about how they were not helped fast enough after the storm left. When did the people lose the idea that they should look after themselves, and be prepared for any emergency? There were plenty of warnings, well in advance, of the hurricane, why didn't the people of NO get the heck out??? Walk if you have to, but do so to preserve your own life....MOVE!!!!!!! We have devolved into a nation of people who don't do for themselves, and demand the government does if for them. Then, when they suffer because they cannot do for themselves, they blame all their problems on the government.....now, if that government is gone, not available at the push of a TV button or computer button, what do the citizens do? In every disaster, there are thugs who commit crimes of opportunity, looters come to mind, think of the LA Riots, seeing the looters on TV, the thugs pulling truckers out of their rigs and beating them, and every single hurricane or tornado or fire or earthquake......and the crimes against citizens after each event....this book reiterates all those happenings....
Now imagine, no grocery stores, no banks, no water, no sewage, no medical care, no government to tell the citizens what to do or where to go.
There ARE people who can fend for themselves, but they WILL be picked off by the criminals who cannot, the gangs and thugs who terrorize people now.....who want what someone else will have, but don't want to earn it.....
Then again, we can only hope that there will be a way for the few who can do for themselves, to join together, and figure out ways to keep people alive, even if not to the style they are used to. There are ways to get communications going, it all started with cave drawings, someone had to invent the telegraph....that knowledge is not gone, it is in books, which are not online, and can be read and studied......
Our country has smart, knowlegable people, maybe we could survive, but, I don't feel very good about that happening with todays' thoughts and values about self preservation....or decency to other citizens.
This book was formulaic, sad, thought provoking, generally not hope inspiring....it just states what some of us already know, we are not the country of the Greatest Generation, who did band together to get us through...food rationing, fuel rationing, doing without things made of certain metals, secret plants and cities working for the defense of our nation, all for the good of the country. There are very very few people today who would put up with not being able to buy, say, all the sugar they want, when they go to the store, or very few gallons of gas, because the nation needs those items, those people will not put up with being denied.....
We are a bunch of whining self righteous wimps, who demand transparency in our goverment even if it will harm us, by divulging our defenses.......I could go on...
Unfortunately, this book has left me angry......because we are a nation of mostly wimps and very few of us will state it and stand by our statement. I was left with the feeling that even though the author, and most thinking people see little hope for us to be a nation that is united, the people that really need to GET THIS MESSAGE, will somehow overlook the message, and wait for yet more help, bailouts, maintain lack of responsibility for self, etc...
Quack Quack
Book Review: Hard to believe prose this inept could be published
Summary: 1 Stars
I'm a huge, huge fan of apocalyptic fiction (just finished World War Z and it was great) and I had high hopes for this book. The idea of a small American town dealing with the outcome of an EMP attack intrigued me. Unfortunately I had to stop reading after a few chapters because this author simply doesn't understand the basics of fiction writing: the prose is hackneyed and the author has no ear for dialgue.
The prose is the kind of stuff any high school creative writing teacher would take a red pencil to, and yet for some baffling reason the editor of this book, who I assume understands how to construct an effective sentence, just lets it slide. Here's an example of what I'm talking about--from page 42, as our protagonist, the cardboard character John Matherson, who is obviously a veiled stand-in for the author himself, faces off against a bunch of potentially belligerent construction workers on the highway who notice he has the only working car after the attack:
"Come on, buddy," the one worker said, his voice now edged with a taunting edge.
'His voice now edged with a taunting edge?' Really? That's the prose you're giving me, Mr. Forstchen? An edge has an edge? Where oh where is the editor? How on Earth is Publisher's Weekly giving this book a positive review? Doesn't anyone care about words anymore? Good prose isn't just for literary snobs, it's a basic requirement of good fiction.
Or how about the first line of the novel? Ideally, your opening should grab the reader. The first sentence should be, if not a classic of Western literature, at least interesting. Here's what Forstchen gives us:
'John Matherson lifted the plastic bag off the counter.'
Yup, that sizzling line sure made me want to turn the pages! It's obvious this author doesn't give any thought to his word choices, doesn't consider whether or not his sentences magnify the reader's experience of the story or merely serve to move things along. Words are important. Books aren't just plots, they're collections of ideas stitched together by words and if the words fail the reader won't be moved.
I might have been able to slog through the bad prose (okay, I'm lying, I wouldn't have) if the characters were at least real. But they aren't, they're two-dimensional and I never believed in any of them. Their dialogue is essentially interchangable, and it seems that this author really doesn't understand how to create a believable character. The main character is actually two-dimensional and objectionable as well: not only does he constantly bitch and moan and obsess about cigarettes to the point where it starts to seem bizarre but here's a guy who decides the best response to a crisis is--and I'm not making this up--to send all the women in his house to bed at 8 p.m. while he sits in the den trying to figure out what's going on. If his daughters were five years old that would be one thing, but one of the girls is 12 and the other is 16, and they acquiesce to him like sheep. And his mother-in-law is there too, and he sends her to bed with them! (And this is on day one, during the immediate afermath, before anyone even knows the country has been attacked, when people are just assuming it's a simple power outage. Makes you wonder what he would have done if there was a tornado.) What century is this guy living in?
Bottom line: pass on this. If you want a compelling story of post-apocalyptic survival, try World War Z--in that book Max Brooks creates literally dozens of characters, all wildly different from each other because they come from every part of the world, and they're all perfectly believable as three-dimensional people. And he was able to do it with very few pages devoted to each one. Because he understands how to create characters through dialogue. Unfortunately, William Forstchen simply doesn't.
Book Review: Abusive to the Reader (spoilers)
Summary: 1 Stars
I have been an ardent reader of Dr. Forstchen's work for some time now, starting with his Lost Regiment series up to his alternative takes on the Battle of Gettysburg. When I saw the plot behind One Second After, I found it a departure from his usual fare, but nonetheless interesting.
He posits an interesting scenario where a coordinated EMP attack cripples most Western powers. The U.S., in the blink of an eye, is rendered without any electrical device save those with older, more primitive electronics. A valid concept.
But almost from the beginning, he starts to exercise a new fault, one common to authors in all mediums: "Fan Abuse".
The main character, a thinly veiled doppelganger of himself (a device I find no fault with), has a diabetic daughter. Right out of the gate, we're hit with the fear that in the ensuing chaos she'll be deprived of her precious insulin (similar to what happens to another key character in another apocalyptic tome, Lucifer's Hammer). He obviously falls into the trap of the old stage-plays where "If a gun appears in the first scene, it will be used by the third".
But the pathos continues, with neighboring towns attempting to foist off refugees to the hometown of our hero, roving biker gangs, and a climatic battle where many of our most familiar characters die. There's a distinct overtone of criticism of the American sedentary culture with people dropping from heart attacks after walking a few miles.
It is a typical cataclysm book though, so one must expect the darkness of the journey. When we get to the end, and outside contact finally returns in the form of a military column bearing food, our main character is told that BIG chunks of the U.S. has been taken over by China and Mexico. Again, typical pathos all things considered.
But does our main character say "Well, we're going to have to build America all over again." No, he just sits there and laments about what they've lost and WILL NEVER GET BACK.
THIS is fan abuse. Not only do we have to endure the slow death of the main character's daughter from diabetes, the horrors of a non-electronic nursing home, parts of the U.S. falling into foreign hands (although the Pacific Fleet operating out of the safety of Perl Harbor might have something to say about that), but at the very end there IS NO HOPE! No impetus to try and rebuild America on a healthier and more robust foundation. No saving grace that tells us some good might come beyond the climax of the story.
This ending was the equivalent of taking the reader through a harrowing gun battle, then when he survives kicking him in the back and shoving his face in the mud. Was this some sort of preparedness shock-drama to get Americans to be more aware of how vulnerable we are to EMP? Perhaps. But the TRAUMA, the PAIN we see in this book is so unnecessary to accomplish this task; write an ARTICLE!! Put the word out in Time or Newsweek but do not take people on a dark journey with no light at the end of the tunnel.
ALL other collapsed society tomes treat their readers better: "Patriots" restores an economically gutted United States, "Day by Day Armageddon" leaves the main characters with an unresolved ending but NOT turned into the zombies they're hiding from, even "Lucifers Hammer", where MOST OF THE WORLD POPULATION is killed, has a more upbeat ending.
So to sum up: a novelist takes his reader through the story he writes; the makes decisions about where we go and what we see. At the climax, the reader should be wiser and perhaps emotionally drained. NOT depressed, anxious, and tasting mud while rubbing his sore back.
Book Review: Badly written propaganda
Summary: 1 Stars
Let's get the politics out of the way right from the start - William Forstchen's One Second After is a very heavy-handed attempt to convince readers of the dangers of EMP, or electromagnetic pulse. He is convinced - and there is certainly evidence out there to support his conviction - that this is a huge threat to national security, and even to the security of the planet. He thinks it's a bigger threat than global warming (which he blows off as unimportant), the economy, the war in Iraq, or countless other things we hear about on the nightly news to scare us all to death. I really don't know much about Mr. Forstchen, other than that he's an historian and a friend of Newt Gingrich, but my guess is he's a conservative Republican who believes in God and country and the military. I'm pretty much a liberal Democrat, I'm not so sure about God, and our country's military history hasn't done much to elevate America in the eyes of the world. But you know what? Politics isn't what's wrong with One Second After. I'm willing to believe that EMP is a real potential threat . . . to both Republicans and Democrats alike. And it doesn't matter which political party you belong to if the electronic infrastructure suddenly crashes and you're left in the dark without communication, water, and food. The problem with One Second After is it's such a badly written novel. And I don't mean politically bad; I mean really, really terribly written.
The story centers on retired Colonel John Matherson, living in the rural town of Black Mountain, North Carolina, with his two daughters and his aged mother-in-law. When one or more nuclear weapons are detonated hundreds of miles above the United States, the resulting EMP takes out all electronic devices, plunging Matherson and his family into a nightmare of lawlessness, medical disasters, starvation, and loss. Pretty much everything you can imagine happening does happen - and it's all very reminiscent of post-apocalyptic scenarios from Earth Abides to Lucifer's Hammer to The Day After Tomorrow to The Road. There's a lot of cigarette smoking, flag waving, and plenty of love for the military. The story reminded me very much of the 2008 TV drama, Jericho, in which a small Midwestern town struggles to survive in the aftermath of a nuclear attack (similar characters, similar - if not identical - situations, similar setting, similar feel).
But the writing . . . well, it's difficult to wade through. Forstchen may have written 40 historical books, but he is not a novelist. His sentences are convoluted strings of fragments and disconnected phrases. His repeated use of "of" instead of "have" (i.e. "He should of left earlier") is downright embarrassing - a writer should know what a verb is, after all. His characters are two-dimensional and difficult to distinguish - they all sound exactly alike! The dialogue is wooden and unbelievable, the plot is derivative and predictable, and the plot drags, especially in the second half. Too much of the story is told after the fact, in summary, rather than unfolding as it happens (this violates one of the most common rules of fiction writing: don't tell us, show us!). I found myself wanting to edit this thing as I read, which is a bad sign for a thriller!
I totally get what Forstchen was trying to do here - he wants his readers to recognize how much of a threat EMP is to our nation. This is his agenda, and I'm in no position to argue with it. But as a novel, One Second After just doesn't work. And it doesn't matter if you're a Republican or a Democrat. Bad writing is bad writing, no matter what your political bent.