One Year After: A John Matherson Novel Hardcover – September 15, 2015

I’ll confess to a bias up front before getting into the review. I live in Black Mountain, North Carolina, the village where Forstchen has set his story about a community struggling to survive after an EMP attack devastates the United States. Forstchen truly captured the feel of our town, the people, the way they would react, the way they think and talk, and how a small Southern town could indeed band together to help each other get through a crisis. He did his research well on that.

This book is definitely another five star job by Forstchen. The sequel, One Second After deals with the first year after an EMP attack and focuses on how the total destruction of our electrical infrastructure would forever change our lives, and the reality of how so many experts predict that at least 4 out 5 Americans would die in the months after our nation is destroyed by the detonation of just several small nuclear weapons about the atmosphere that then wipes out our electrical infrastructure. One Year After picks the story up, literally, a year after the end of his first novel. The author explores “what happens next,” a question nearly all fans of his first book have asked. It is one thing to survive that first terrible year, but Forstchen now takes us to the next level. . .we survived but now what in hell do we do? Do we continue to let our nation slide into a final decline and oblivion? Do we hand off to our children and grandchildren a society left in wreckage, the way the descendants of what had been the Roman empire gazed at the ruins about them as they lived in squalor? Or do we band together and start to try and rebuild?
The fascinating question Forstchen presents is exactly how do we rebuild? Do we sit back and wait for FEMA to one day show up and rescue us (it is obvious that Forstchen must have been thinking about Katrina and Sandy when dealing with this question) or do we roll up our sleeves and get to work? One plot detail I will give away, which is not a spoiler, is that the main character, John Matherson, is suffering from an infected tooth when the story opens. Anyone who harbors some crazed nostalgia that life must have been simpler and thus happier back in the “good ole days” should read this book while suffering from a tooth ache and contemplate how such things were dealt with! That alone leads Forstchen, who has a Ph.D. in history with a specialization in the history of technology, into an interesting subplot asking if enough local knowledge is out there to make anesthesia, pain killers, and the antibiotics we take for granted.

It is but one of many questions Forstchen presents to us to ponder on, and shows yet again how we take the wonders of modern technology for granted. The book also moves more into political questions of how to rebuild rather than the harsher issues of brutal day to day survival he wrote about in book one, but that I see as a strength as he opens up the next chapter of the story about the town of Black Mountain and can it survive.

A final political observation, a reality check here. Read the novels, then read the news. Is our country really going to turn a blind eye to the nuclear ambitions of Iran? An EMP hit is a first strike weapon. The results of its use, literally thousands of times worse than what we endured on 9/11. Our leaders, (who would be safe in their bunkers if we were ever attacked) actually tell us not to worry about the deal with Iran? Does anyone recall twenty years ago when the leadership then said not to worry about North Korea’s nuclear ambitions? I am writing this review on Sept. 16th, and just this morning I read where North Korea announced it is building yet more bombs and will soon demonstrate its ICBM capacity. ICBM plus a nuclear warhead equals EMP, which equals the nightmare Forstchen is trying to warn us about. Read and take heed.

Since I read "One Second After", I've been hoping for a sequel. I really wanted to find out how the characters fared as time went by, as well as the evolution of the local politics. It was exciting to be taken back to Black Mountain, NC to continue the adventure. As usual, Forstchen kept me riveted to the book and introduces new and interesting characters. Old enemies become new friends. New conflicts. New battles. I enjoyed the strife between our heroes and the "Big City" of Ashville. The locals are faced with possible anarchy or fascist rule. Stcik together or perish fighting among themselves.
Overall, this book was an enjoyable experience. I will mention that, inevitably, "One Year After" does not have the same level of impact on current society as "One Second After". The naration of the actual effects of an EMP attack on modern day North Carolina was very powerful. But the continuation of the story allows us to follow characters that we already know and love. Or hate.
Forstchen has a gift for bringing characters to life and creating realistic interpersonal adversities. His battle scenes always keep me on the edge of my seat. I always feel like I'm part of his stories.
If you haven't read "One Second After" yet, by all means do. If you have then you will want to follow up with "One Year After".

Just finished reading "One Year After" by William R. Forstchen released by Forge Books.
When I first discovered "One Second After" by William R. Forstechen nearly ten years ago amongst the circular rotunda of new books on display for the week at the Barnes & Noble near my house, I immediately bought it after reading the cover and interior flaps because it brought to mind "Alas Babylon" by Pat Frank - a classic masterpiece of Cold War apocalyptic literature - which oddly has never been adapted for movies, television, and/or radio.
In "One Secnd After," the United States is devastated by an EMP attack which knocks out all our technology.
Despite not returning to the lives of the people of Black Mountain, North Carolina for nearly a decade; Forstchen deftly picks up story one year after the events where the Black Mountain survivors successfully defended themselves against attack from a cannibalistic tribe of survivors. At the end of "One Second After," the American military has just arrived and began to hand out supplies - just like in "Alas Babylon."
"One Year After" finds the folk of Black Mountain just beginning to repair and restore their electrical power plant when the surviving powers that be in the American Government decide to re-institute a draft in order to reclaim vast swaths of American territory in the Untied States that is no longer under the control of the government. To achieve this end, the acting government of the Untied States has used Neutron Bombs in Chicago against American citizens; and it's willing to kill anyone who does not comply with the new government regulations.
The Black Mountain survivors now find themselves in open rebellion against a self proclaimed tyrant who is charge of rouge elements of the legitimate, if any still exists, American government.
A thoughtful and provocative look at rebuilding Western civilization after an
apocalyptic event.
One observation: "One Year Later" received a lot of, in my opinion, unfair criticism for its unflinching look at what happens to those people who willing allow rouge military rule to go unchallenged here in the United States. There are way to many real life examples of what happens to free societies when unlawful military dictatorships are given free reign.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
FIVE STARS!