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One Second After (A John Matherson Novel, 1) Paperback – November 24, 2009
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A post-apocalyptic thriller of the after effects in the United States after a terrifying terrorist attack using electromagnetic pulse weapons.
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.
The John Matherson Series
#1 One Second After
#2 One Year After
#3 The Final Day
Other Books
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48 Hours
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherForge Books
- Publication dateNovember 24, 2009
- Dimensions6.05 x 0.95 x 9.2 inches
- ISBN-100765327252
- ISBN-13978-0765327253
- Lexile measure860L
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Customers find the narrative well structured and bizarrely realistic. They also find the content extremely thought provoking, eye opening, and sad. Readers describe the plot as page-turning, realistic, and intense. They describe the atmosphere as scary and real. However, some find the writing style overly jingoistic, cliched, and predictable. Opinions are mixed on the pacing, writing quality, and character development. Some find it wonderfully paced and engaging, while others feel it starts out slow.
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Customers find the book insightful, riveting, and an eye opener. They also describe the writing as easy to read, inspiring, and captivating from the first page. Readers also say the story is personal and has plenty of emotional punch. They say the book is based on reality and science and helps them be prepared in the event.
"This is an important book to read and understand. as well as a vital subject for the continuation of Western Civilization...." Read more
"...This book has opened my eyes, and broadened my thinking for the possible. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO HELP YOU PREPARE FOR THE POSSIBLE!" Read more
"OMG, this book is incredibly well written and researched...." Read more
"...This is such a great story and very heart wrenching." Read more
Customers find the premise believable, realistic, and brutally truthful. They also say the story does a fantastic job describing things you wouldn't think of being affected by. Customers also say it's reminiscent of post-apocalyptic scenarios.
"This book is well thought out and a truly realistic story. It could easily be a non-fiction book, re-living actual events...." Read more
"...plot armor, no last minute day saving supply drops, and a well structured story.This is book 1. Looking forward to reviewing book 2" Read more
"...what, and who survives, particularly compelling factually and brutally descriptive...." Read more
"This has been the most realistic book I have ever read. It scares the you know what out of me...." Read more
Customers find the atmosphere of the book eye-opening, powerful, chilling, and haunting. They also say the book is riveting, thought-provoking, and terrifying. Readers also mention that the EMP threat is compelling and real.
"...Nobody is safe, no unnecessary plot armor, no last minute day saving supply drops, and a well structured story.This is book 1...." Read more
"...So, final point: I recommend the story as an eye-opening though scary read, and I hereby ask for a job as a copy editor at Tor/Forge." Read more
"...The book is a page-turner, and adequately suspenseful that you will read it quickly...." Read more
"Scary, thought provoking and relatable to current events." Read more
Customers find the plot to be riveting, engaging, and complex. They also say the book makes them think of survival techniques. Customers also mention that the book is brutally honest and terrifying.
"...It also made me think of survival techniques that I hadn't even thought of before...." Read more
"...The book is a page-turner, and adequately suspenseful that you will read it quickly...." Read more
"...This is one of the best written post apocalyptic novel I have ever read." Read more
"...in orbit, they are miniature in size, very fast, and destroy enemy warheads by direct impact ... a kinetic hit ... without either a nuclear or..." Read more
Customers are mixed about the writing quality. Some find the book very well written, easy to read, and straightforward. They also say it does a great job of showing the challenges and advantages of surviving as a community. However, others say the dialog is stilted, the grammatical errors are ongoing, and the characterization is poor.
"OMG, this book is incredibly well written and researched...." Read more
"...Well written !" Read more
"...The only negative in this book were the ongoing grammatical errors. If it weren't for them, I would have given it 5 stars...." Read more
"...Mr. Forstchen is an excellent writer - the characters are believable, and the action is just fast enough to keep you on the edge of your seat...." Read more
Customers are mixed about the character development. Some mention the characters are believable and have narrative skill, while others say they are flat and one dimensional.
"...Mr. Forstchen is an excellent writer - the characters are believable, and the action is just fast enough to keep you on the edge of your seat...." Read more
"A griping story with unbelievably real characters...." Read more
"...Part of the problem is that his characters are about a half a centimeter deep. Blow on them and they will fall right over...." Read more
"...The story was well written with truly believable characters. This is one of the best written post apocalyptic novel I have ever read." Read more
Customers are mixed about the pacing. Some mention that it's wonderfully paced and engaging to the last page, while others feel that it starts out slow.
"...an excellent writer - the characters are believable, and the action is just fast enough to keep you on the edge of your seat...." Read more
"...The story began a little slow, with conversations seeming a little sophomoric, for a book that was dealing with an extremely serious possibility-the..." Read more
"...If they were placed in orbit, they are miniature in size, very fast, and destroy enemy warheads by direct impact ... a kinetic hit ... without..." Read more
"...but that makes it a really fast read and accessible to more readers who may not get through a deeper read...." Read more
Customers find the writing style repetitive, cliched, and predictable. They also say the characters are cartoonish and the dialog is cringe-worthy. Readers also mention that the book has shortcomings and lacks suspense.
"...From that point onward, the book's other shortcomings became more grating...." Read more
"...ovens won't turn on, electricity is kaput, there are no communications with even nearby cities...." Read more
"...are heavy praise (4 or 5 stars), and 3 (6%) are dismissive and overtly sarcastic. One 3 star review rounded out the field...." Read more
"...the clumsy plot, laughably cartoonish characters and saccharine dialog are so cringe-worthy that even skimming brings too much sap over the..." Read more
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Bold statements. This is not for survivalists, this is for national defense and civil preparedness. This is to keep 280 million Americans from being killed. This is to stop the single largest genocide in human history - us. This is also about kicks and grins for the liberals that think this is about conservative politics, rather than their survival, for they will be the first ones to disappear from America after a successful EMP attack.
This tome is a fictional attempt to describe the horrors of an EMP attack on the USA, for a real attack has not occurred (yet), and there will, almost certainly, be no one left that will either be able to write such history, or that will be an American that will mourn our passing. As a fictional account it is far too optimistic, but still a compelling story. It is written in a colloquial manner, almost as if it was dictated into a recorder. That type of writing apparently doesn't appeal to a variety of readers, but I believe most of them are opposed to Newt Gingrich and conservative politics, and can't see past their politics to see the appropriateness, and beauty, of this type of writing. Not every book can be written within the rules of incomprehensible dribble, such as Orientalism (by Edward Said) and Profits Over People (by Noam Chomsky) are.
The story is that an EMP attack occurs, although that is not known immediately, and the protagonist, a college professor with a military background in a small college town in the Appalachian foothills, bands together with his family and town leaders to survive the crisis. Various horrid effects of an EMP attack are evidenced both personally and societally, with some violence included. Overall, I believe this is an irrationally positive story of the aftermath of such an EMP attack, but the author had to put together a story that covered the basics, and allowed someone to survive to be the protagonist.
The United States House of Representatives Anti-Terrorism Caucus, approximately 122 members, including 40 Democrats, understands that an EMP attack on the USA is a clear and present threat once Iran acquires nuclear weapons: that a false flag attack, such as one by China disguised to be one from Iran, is also possible with a probably higher than one. If indeed this is a silly conservative political book, than there are lot of serious Democrats that understand the mortal danger the USA is in.
There will be no electricity for many years. No electronics. No Computers. No internet. No phones or cell phones. No TV. No Post Office. No telegraph. No airplanes or airlines. No trains. No busses or trucks or cars unless they are old (pre 1975) points ignition cars or old diesels. No gasoline. No water. No medicine. No hospitals. No food. No heat.
Modern water supply is via big pumps and purification plants that run off of electricity. After an EMP, the only water will come from rivers, lakes, and shallow, manually powered wells. If you live far from a river, and many stories up in a major city, life will become impossible in less than one week. For safe water, boiling is the only option. No refrigeration, so no food storage. Grocery stores only have about one day of food in them. No transportation of food. No production of food, other than gardens and small farms that have real, horse pie producing, horse power available. Starvation will start within a couple of weeks. How far can you walk each day for water and food, and return to your shelter (house, apartment), without having anyone else steel whatever you have?
If you have a generator, how much fuel do you have? There won't be any more fuel for many years. Everyone of your neighbors will know you have a generator, and you will have more friends that you ever imagined, until the hospitality and the generator run out of fuel.
No heat in winter, unless you have a wood stove/heater, and the wood (and tools - no chain saws) to keep it stocked through winter. No medicine, as there is no refrigeration, which many anti-biotics need, and there will be no new production or transportation. Hospitals will shut down as their generators run out of fuel. No operating rooms or fancy equipment. A small cut, with no treatment (no water for cleaning or ointment) may kill you.
First responders will be in deep trouble just like everyone else, for their equipment won't work either, and their families will be in deep trouble as will everyone else. The military used to be hardened against EMP effects back in the cold war days. No more, as most new equipment is no longer hardened, for, obviously, after the end of the cold war there are no nuclear problems, or threats, anywhere else in the world. Right!
As civilisation starts breaking down, each family will be on its own, and violence will break out as everyone fights over the few remaining resources. Whether there will be some small towns that hang together as this book states is highly unlikely.
The House of Representatives estimates that nine out of 10 of us will die within the first year due to thirst, starvation, exposure, disease, and violence. That is the death of 280 million Americans within the first year. No country in the world has any significant capability to come to our aid. They don't have the airplanes, helicopters, supplies in storage, or ships. They don't have the military capability. Europe, Canada, Russia, China, South America, will all be unable to provide anything more than token assistance that will save a few thousands, but not even one million. It will be the single largest genocide in human history, by a landslide.
Per the House of Representatives Anti-Terrorism Caucus, Iran has launched advanced scuds straight up for 30 miles, from barges off their coast. Why would they do that, other than to practice for an EMP attack? EMP effects were discovered after some US atmospheric nuclear tests in the early `60s wiped out half of Hawaii's electrical grid. An EMP attack requires a nuclear fission bomb, like the Hiroshima bomb. A hydrogen bomb will not produce an EMP effect other than locally. The bomb must go off between 30 miles up and 100 miles up in order to interact with the earth's magnetic field. So that the Compton effect will occur, which means the effects of the bomb will be magnified and focused back towards the earth. Because no one dies immediately and there is no significant radiation effect, it is easy for those with little knowledge and less sense to deride this type of attack.
The science behind an EMP attack is sound. It has been verified by experimentation. It is not a theory, it is a scientific fact.
Iran has said that one nuclear bomb would destroy Israel, but that no retaliatory attack could kill most Iranians, so that see no problem with such an exchange. "Moderate" President Rafsanjani said that in 2001. We, the USA, are the Great Satan, is the mantra of the late, unlamented, Ayatollah Khomeini. President Ahmadinejad has stated on numerous occasions that he imagines a world without the USA with pleasure. He doesn't say anything major such as that without the approval and concurrence of Ayatollah Khamenei and the Revolutionary Council. It would be simple to eliminate the USA, via an EMP attack, and then the Little Satan, Israel, could be dealt with easily..
MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction, as Ayatollah Rafsanjani stated above, will not deter these religious fanatics. So what if we turn Iran into a radioactive glassine parking lot? 280 million of us will still die. Revenge is worthless if the USA no longer exists. Enough Hezbollah and Shia Islamists will still exist, along with Sunni Islamists, to applaud our eradication, although, officially, numerous crocodile tears will be wept.
Forstchen, in this novel, promotes the type of attack that is the most likely, and the safest from a retaliatory attack. Three container ships, one each off the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts, outside of USA territorial waters, all open up one special container lid. One advanced scud with a Hiroshima style and size nuke warhead, is launched straight up from each ship. Thirty seconds after launch, 30 miles up, the warheads explode, and America goes dark. Forstchen has all three ships immolate themselves in their own nuclear explosions so that there is no evidence left behind as to whom launched the attack. We retaliate and wipe Iran and North Korea off of the map. And 280 million Americans die.
A possible scenario is three nukes launched by submarines. We are rapidly losing our anti-submarine capabilities that we developed so highly during the cold war, such that this will become more likely as time goes by.
Iran has launched satellites into orbit. They can launch one with a nuke on it, . brake it such that it re-enters over St. Louis, and explode it 100 miles up. 280 million Americans die. A conventional ICBM attack with the missile and warhead exploding over St. Louis, 100 miles up, can't happen until Iran has ICBM's capable of doing that. If we are still around in 4 or 5 years, they will have them, as will North Korea. As do Russia and China.
In a military scenario, which this is, one has to protect against what can happen, not what one thinks will happen, for as soon as one does that, the enemy will do something different, and you are dead. Sun Tsu taught this over 2,000 years ago.
We have no defenses against an EMP attack. We need a perfect missile defense system that can react to anything within a few seconds so that a scud launch off our coast can be intercepted and destroyed before it reaches 30 miles up and explodes, ie within 30 seconds.. We have no missile defense against an ICBM. The technology works. We can not only hit a bullet (missile) with a bullet (missile), we can hit a spot on that bullet (missile). We need the anti-satellite capability. The technology exists, but we haven't built or deployed it.
Obama cut the missile defense system that was to be deployed in Eastern Europe. Russia laughed and screwed us. Obama has cut missile defense funding and projects. Obama and Hillary believe a couple of short range Aegis anti-ballistic missile cruisers off of the coast of Iran can protect us. Dumbest, most ignorant statement, and policy, I have ever heard.
Obama has stated that he will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. When Pakistan notified the world that they had nukes, they exploded 6 of them in one day in May, 1998. No one knew anything before then about Pakistan. At lease, we know Iran is working on nuclear weapons. Iran will do something similar to Pakistan, and I believe the Israelis, who have far better intelligence capabilities in the Middle East than we do, that Iran will have nuclear weapons and capabilities before the end of 2012, plus that their weapons and capabilities will be buried so deep even we won't be able to do anything. Israel doesn't have the military capability unless they use their own nukes.
Sanctions are not working, and will never work. Anybody that believes Obama will do anything to stop Iran should bid on the slightly used US embassy available in Tehran.
I have put together over 380 pages of documentation to substantiate what is stated herein, spent over 100 hours studying this threat, and spoken with members of Congress.
This is a vital book, I am glad Forstchen wrote it, and there should be more, more realistic, novels written on this subject. Remember, your life, and the lives of 279, 999,999 other Americans depend on your beliefs and actions.
However, it took me far too long to get in to the story. One of the main reasons for that is because of a grammatical error that plagued the book throughout. It is a huge pet peeve of mine when people write, "Could of", "Should of", "Would of", instead of "Could HAVE", "Should HAVE" or "Would HAVE". Every time I came across that error, (and it's everywhere), it completely shattered my concentration and brought me right out of the book and back in to the real world. This is not what I want from a story. I want to be engrossed in the story. An error here or there is one thing but constant, non stop errors, grammatical errors that we were taught in grade school is unacceptable to me. While the story does still ring possible in my head, what I remember most of this book are those grammatical errors.
This book and I were not off to a good start.
Ultimately, though, I found this story to be quite believable. Were we ever to face this sort of situation, I do believe that many would act much in the manner the writer exposed. In the beginning, people would be in denial while others would hoard, raid and loot to their hearts' content.
Marshall Law would have to be brought back. Horrible decisions would have to be made that wouldn't normally be made for what was once considered a petty crime. Lives would hang in the balance and each and every person's actions would indeed affect those around them far greater than they do right now.
It's also believable that neighboring towns would not be so willing to help out; that they would be looking out for their own and not wish to share. Basically, this story displayed the true animal instinct in people; fight or flight.
When we face a disaster of this proportion and are left with essentially nothing and what supplies we do have can easily run out if not closely monitored, we have only two choices left: Fight or flight. This book illustrated both reactions of the people in this story.
It also made me think of survival techniques that I hadn't even thought of before. What to get, how much to get, how long certain people could live, how much should this one be rationed compared to that one, what people could do and/or would do just to survive...I understand from reading some of the reviews that some people out there don't think any of this could happen. I think they will be lucky if they make it through this life without an awakening of this magnitude as they will be ill prepared to handle it. I live in hurricane country and I see people flipping out over one week without power or the ability to do the things they normally do. I see people brush off these hurricane warnings and not prepare themselves in case the hurricane does hit. I've seen people shut down, areas of the city come to a crawl or screeching halt because people would not do for themselves, prepare in advance for a disaster. I've seen people rely on the government to bail them out with ice, water and baby formula within one day after the hurricane. It's ridiculous! Because I've seen what people do after a hurricane where there was no excuse not to be prepared, I can completely and totally believe this story.
One thing this book prompted me to do was read up on the subject at hand and learn much more about it. I also started to brush up on some history because of the story and I've come away far more educated than I did before I read it. There's no sense in being paranoid and living life in fear of when or if it could happen but it's definitely wise to learn about it and think of ways that one can prepare themselves should something like this ever happen.
This story is not pretty. This story is not a feel good story. This story is based on something that could happen, the reaction to that event and the fall out from both. This story is a slap upside the head that many of us are desensitized to the realities of the evil in this world. This story illustrates a very possible reality and it will be a hard road for those who choose to shove their heads in the sand and ignore it.
Although the writer drove me nuts with his grammatical errors, this story turned out to be an up all night, page turning tale.
When I first put it down and thought about what I might say in my review, I was going to give it 3 stars because I was so ticked off about the word, "of" instead of "have" in the situations I described above. I chose, instead, to sit on that awhile and come back to it. The only negative in this book were the ongoing grammatical errors. If it weren't for them, I would have given it 5 stars. But because of them and because the book really was that good, I'm giving it 4 stars.
Formatting on Kindle was excellent.
Top reviews from other countries
The characters are well written and lively, which makes it all the harder having them be affected by thee apocalyptic situation they’re thrusted into.
As stated in the book, this is an event that could happen, and it certainly brought to life the potential consequences if it does.
Les explosions type EMP (Electro magnetic pulse) sont presque totalement inconnus du grand public en France et ignorés de nos politiciens, même si quelques militaires ont tiré la sonnette d'alarme, dans le désert.
Pour résumer, un missile nucléaire tiré à une certaine altitude dans l'atmosphère, au dessus d'une zone donnée, qui peut-être de la taille d'un pays ou plusieurs, peut neutraliser l'ensemble du système électrique de la zone donnée. Concrètement, cela veut dire que physiquement nous ne percevrions pas grand chose, peut-être même pas l'explosion et au premier abord, il n'y aurait rien de visible au sol sauf des transformateurs et des lignes électriques fondues. Mais la totalité du réseau électrique s'arrêterait instantanément de fonctionner ainsi que la tous les véhicules ayant de l'électronique et bien sûr trains, avions, camions, etc.
C'est à dire que seule la jeep de collection ou le tracteur de arrière grand papa pourrait continuer à rouler, plus des véhicules ou des installations spécialement protégées, mais il n'y en a quasiment pas en France. Toutes les communications téléphoniques et informatiques seraient suspendues. Le réseau et les appareils étant "fondus" (pour faire court), il faudrait des mois ou des années pour reconstruire le monde actuel, selon l'étendue de la zone ou des zones touchées.
La trilogie de W. R. Forstchen raconte les conséquences d'une telle catastrophe survenant sur le continent US, vues depuis une petite ville des Blacks Montains en Virginie.
W. R Forstchen est un historien, spécialiste des XVIIIème et XIXème siècle US d'où la crédibilité de son récit sociétal d'un "retour vers le passé". Pour toutes les conséquences d'un EMP, il a travaillé en collaboration avec un de ses amis, spécialiste militaire car les Américains, "eux", comme les Russes ou les Chinois ou les Israéliens travaillent sur le sujet.
Le récit est extraordinaire de "réalisme", assez dur parfois, mais parfaitement cohérent sur ce qui se passerait dans un monde privé de ravitaillement, de médicaments, de communications et correspond aux prévisions des experts sur le sujet.
90% de la population mourrait en 1 an, dont la presque totalité des habitants des grandes villes.
Les survivants appartiendraient à de petites communautés soudées, créant leur milice de défense et mettant en place une protection de leur zone contre les réfugiés. Eh oui, c'est terrible, mais quand il n'y a plus à manger pour tout le monde et presque plus de médicaments, on arrête d'accueillir toute la misère du monde, il faut choisir entre les siens et les autres et, parmi les autres, trier les savoirs utiles en revenant à ce qui est véritablement utile dans une société. Il en fut ainsi dans toutes les sociétés pendant des millénaires. C'est à dire plus de place, ni d'espoir pour le licencié en droit , sciences po, ou en lettres mais une petite place pour le chasseur, le mécanicien, l'infirmière, le forgeron, le collectionneur d'antiquités ou l'historien des techniques.
Les interrogations humaines des survivants et du héros principal, ancien colonel de l'armée US, professeur d'histoire de l'université locale, leur souci de se raccrocher à des principes tirés de la constitution US, de l'histoire US, de la religion, les rend plus vrais et donne du corps au récit, rappelant qu'aucune société ne se construit ou ne se reconstruit sans un fondement idéologique.
Ok, il y a quelques guerres, un peu à la John Wayne. Un commentateur a trouvé l'attaque d'une armée de voyous peu crédible. En ce qui me concerne, je la trouve non seulement hautement crédible car les voyous croulent déjà sous les armes en tout genre, mais serait également les 1ers a être organisés en bandes armées, en mesure de piller armureries et autres lieux de stockage d'armes en cas de catastrophe.
Pire, la France n'est pas les USA ou la Suisse où tout citoyen a le droit de posséder une arme y compris de guerre.
En France, des séries de lois, qui auront peut-être un jour des circonstances catastrophiques, ont privé les honnêtes citoyens de presque toutes leurs armes. Ce n'est pas les fusils des chasseurs "français" et leur médiocre provision de cartouches qui iraient loin face à des AK 47 ou des colt 45 qui sont monnaie courante dans certains lieux qu'on ne citera pas. C'est donc la quasi-totalité des citoyens honnêtes qui seraient incapables de se défendre si une guerre civile survenait, quelle que cause que ce soit.
Effrayant de comprendre à quel point, on serait vulnérable dans notre pays car je n'ai pu m'empêcher de faire des parallèles entre ce qui serait possible dans une petite ville des USA et dans une petite ville de France. Ici, nous n'avons aucune chance.
Serait à envoyer à tous nos candidats à la présidentielle pour qu'ils réfléchissent.






















