It’s taken me a while to get around to writing a review of “One Second After
The book was written with a certain political will behind it as it was fashioned as a warning tale to both the public and politicians as to the dangers of EMP’s and the relative unpreparedness of the world, and the USA in particular for its impact and aftermath. The promotion of the book states that it has been used as a discussion point in both the US Congress and the Pentagon.
The story is of an EMP-based nuclear attack on the USA with three warheads detonated in the atmosphere above the country. The resulting collapse of the electrical network and the breakdown of all electronic devices sends the US back a hundred years. The picture painted of no power, no communications, limited vehicles, no factories, food production, medicines, water treatment etc. quickly catches the imagination and it keeps the story focused by concentrating the narrative on one town and the inhabitants’ attempts to adapt and survive.
One of the main impacts of the story is to make the reader realize that it is one thing to go back over a century in technological terms, but another to take modern-day population levels to that point. We have developed mass-production of food, medicines, clothing, food and so on in order to satisfy the demands and needs of a large population. It is simply impossible to maintain that population using centuries-old methods.
A second significant realization is just how quickly things could deteriorate, how the deaths of large groups come about in stages, initially due to lack of medicine, then food, then disease, then conflict. The book does a good job of showing how many people might belong to the group that lasts, for example, 7 days, 30 days, 3 months and 12 months.
The final stages of the book briefly cover the very start of the rebuild and how other nations have either provided help or have taken advantage of the situation with some potentially sinister motives.
The book does not feel exaggerated or over-blown except in the depiction of the scale of the conflict that was envisaged. Hundreds, even thousands of people having to fight to defend the town seemed unlikely and over-the-top and only really works in a US-based situation due to the availability of weaponry. Also, it can feel in hindsight like the author was filling out a list of bullet points that he wanted to explain in his depiction of the collapse of a nation but this does not detract from an excellent and thought-provoking read. Some reviewers have complained about the politics of the book, but I didn’t find it of any concern, maybe as I am not an American reader? Being from the UK I can imagine the story being transposed here without major alterations, my misgivings about the conflict depictions aside.
“One Second After” gripped me from the beginning and certainly served to expand on the idea that an EMP strike is not only possible, but its aftermath would be quite devastating. Our way of live is more vulnerable than many think!
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