One Second After

A terrifying story

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This story was harrowing. I downloaded it as the daily deal and was just checking to make sure the down load worked correctly when I found myself hooked. I listened to the whole book in a matter of days putting aside the book I was currently reading. The narrator did a great job but the story itself captured a sense of truth that made it seem terrifyingly possible. On a personal note, having survived a six day power outage with no water and no where to go after a hurricane and earthquake and flooding several years ago, the reactions of the characters rang true. The deadly aftermath of the EMP attack really made me think about being prepared for disasters in future. Thought provoking. Be warned --considerable graphic violence. Disturbing.

133 of 154 people found this review helpful

A Realistic Worst Nightmare

Do NOT let the negative comments sway you; this is an EXCELLENT book. Maybe the impact regarding EMP is a bit overblown, but who cares!? It’s not about EMP, it’s about what happens to a modern society when it suddenly isn’t modern. The results are terrifying. Bill Forstchen’s conclusions may be extreme, but they are well thought out and certainly possible. While the story does continuously harp about our reliance on modern technology, that’s exactly what the characters are realizing as their modern day conveniences disappear nearly leading them to the point of utter despair. Some may also be put off by a political tone associated with religion and nationalism, but Forstchen supports this societal tendency by weaving in enlightening historical references as seen through the eyes of the main character. This is a fascinating book that holds your attention, smacks you across the face a few times, and hopefully makes you appreciate that iPhone you are currently taking for granted. Finally, Joe Barrett’s narration is also one of the best I’ve ever heard for an Audible book.

83 of 96 people found this review helpful

A page-turner, no doubt, but...

The preaching about the dangers of relying on technology gets a little old. If it had been straight-up post-apocalyptic thriller, it would have been fine; throwing in a couple of comments about how dependent we had been on technology would have been OK, too, but the book really beats it into you. Still, I could hardly turn the audio off on this one. If you are interested in similar themes (minus the preaching), try Lucifer's Hammer (huge meteorite) or The Stand (flu pandemic).

234 of 276 people found this review helpful

Phenomenal

Amazing narration, terrifyingly realistic story, this book is not for the faint of heart or stomach.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

It could have been more...

Good premise but struggled to finish.
Very predictable except when the the plot and characters are forced and when plot becomes Outlandish.
Author stopped developing some characers early.
Also, I feel like the author sold the American Spirit so he could make a better story: Resilience, innovation, and integrity only apply to the main characters, everyone else is garbage.

There are some head scratchers too, where plot is just too forced.
Main character isnt prepared at all for EMP even though he helped write a report about EMP and never mentions how to be prepared for an EMP.
The briefly mentioned survivorists don't have some standard supplies (like a HAM).
Yea, he dropped the ball here so, I wont be reading/listening to rest of series.

21 of 26 people found this review helpful

OK, I guess.

I do like post-apocalyptic fiction, but this one deals too much in military procedure. It has some interesting scenes, and some interesting conversations. I liked the first half of the book better than the second half.

This is the first book in a trilogy, and this type of novel probably appeals to some who may finish the trilogy, but this first installment doesn't really make me want to continue on with the series. It wasn't terrible, just not really for me. The Maddaddam trilogy, for instance, by Margaret Atwood is a great post-apocalyptic trilogy and one I would recommend over this trilogy.

Overall rating: 3.85 stars

31 of 39 people found this review helpful

Bummer--I should have listened to the reviews

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I should have listened to the reviews--if I had, I wouldn't have tried to listen to this book. The reader is fine, no problem, but... the story? I love dystopian 'end of the world' stories, whether the 'end' is via zombies, flu, nukes, whatever. I enjoy reading and thinking about how one copes with harsh new environments, trying to survive. But this book is not... that. This is a tedius, finger-wagging LECTURE, period. The protagonist is a professor (surprise, surprise!), everyone around him, after the EMP hits and destroys the U.S., endlessly asks him 'what's it all mean? And, 'what's it all about', and the professor LECTURES them (and us, alas) ad infinitum, boringly and endlessly, about our reliance on technology, til you could just keel over and die of boredom. The book pretends to have an actual story--the professor has two daughters, one of whom is diabetic, and of course, medicine is an immediate emergency, but to me anyway, the actual 'story' is thin and fake. The book is simply an excuse--an excuse for the author to lecture (endlessly!) about mankind's reliance on technology. Boring and annoying--trust me, don''t waste a credit.

175 of 224 people found this review helpful

The Good, Bad, and Overall...

The Good: Interesting approach on an overlooked threat.

The Bad: Reminds me of the fear factory that is 24 hours news. Linear approach to hardships and obstacles faced during a world changing incident does not allow for alternative options not presented within the story. Lake full of fish - ignored, eat any source of protein - ignore insects, limited resources in a poorly defensible position - stay in place, enforce martial law on others - refuse to give up 'MY' car, have running cars - not apt enough to use them as generators, and the biggest: -use 'MY' morality to dictate your survival. For an Ex-military persona I would expect better survival techniques.

Overall: The author makes reference to Jonestown fanaticism but fails to see his own hypocrisy in his own writing. The story is fine, the writing is apt, but this is mostly earmarked for the Kool-Ade drinkers who are rating this as firewall 5 stars. I bought it for $5.95 (sale) and got my money worth out of the story. Your mileage and/or Flavor-Ade may vary.

26 of 33 people found this review helpful

A Civil War Re-enactor Saves a Community?

I think not!

But I get it. This is meant to be a cautionary, worst case scenario tale against doing nothing to prepare against an EMP event. If that was the goal, then I think it could have been better handled as a satire, (A Modest Proposal) because Forstchen’s portraiture of America and Americans didn’t ring true for me.

In under a week the protagonist, John, is publicly executing looters. In less than 20 days this small town representation of America has turned into a “show me your papers, please,” East Germany, and in less than two months the author has us devolving into cannibalism. Not unlikely events, to be sure, but on that timeframe when all the buildings are still habitable, roads passable (with the dead cars out of the way), potable water and fertile land? Bear in mind, there’s been no direct nuclear devastation, no pandemic, no major natural disaster – no zombies or aliens. Power is out, communications are down and transportation is limited.

In trying to paint this bleak picture of America, Forstchen neglects one of the ingredients that makes America, America: imagination. If we lost the use of our cars, and cell phones, and computers, and drugs we would be annoyed and frustrated – and scared, but we wouldn’t become helpless to the point of cannibalism in less than 60 days! Not our DIY, “think globally, buy locally,” live off the grid, alternative fuel, ride your bike to work day society!

Throughout the story, too many times I caught myself thinking things like, “wait a second! You mean to tell me that a small community outside of progressive Asheville doesn’t have a co-op run organic farm or a community garden? It has horses but no mounted police? No farriers? No yuppie urbanites with $3000 dollar bicycles to form a courier system or bicycle brigade? Really?”

This is a town made up of chain smoking college professors and ex-military, Cold War military. There appear to be no artisans, blacksmiths or gunsmiths... or carpenters, electricians, or plumbers. The youth at the local college are particularly useless and only good for training as militia. Where are the nerds – the engineers, the techno and auto geeks who would view the lack of electricity and functioning circuitry as a challenge? There are Civil War re-enactors, but no Native American folk-life demonstrators, or traditional life-ways practitioners? There are “survivalist-types,” but none with a stockpile of MREs? Really? And no one, except for the campus security guard, demonstrates any real individual leadership, not even our protagonist. He gets placed into leadership positions through circumstance.

In the best post-apocalyptic, dystopian future novels (think Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Atwood’s A Handmaiden’s Tale, Orwell’s 1984 or King’s The Stand) the “bad thing” happens before the story and the story is about how the indomitable human spirit overcomes. In the end, One Second After is a cautionary tale against homogeneity and the loss of imagination – killers of our human spirit, for without that, whether we face a super flu epidemic, an EMP strike or the zombie apocalypse, our society is lost.

316 of 418 people found this review helpful

A must read for the genre

Inspired by alas Babylon by pat frank this is a modern telling of a similar story. An EMP hits the U.S. and survival of a small town ensuse. Realistic and not played as this genre often is.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful