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.

341 people found this 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).

254 people found this helpful

Like a TV Movie of the Week

What disappointed you about One Second After?

The writing was depressingly shallow and none of the characters reacted as they should. Although the main character is a Colonel in the military, he is constantly shocked and surprised by the way people are reacting to what appears to be an apocalyptic emergency. Then, during a mad rush for supplies, he takes time out to explain everything from the history of EMP's to which countries have been working on strategic weapons, to a bunch of townspeople who have apparently been hiding under a rock. If the town were populated by ten year olds, I expect they'd be more educated. It is unfortunate when a novelist has to cram his entire back story into a pedantic monologue at the feet of fools.

Surprisingly (or not surprisingly if this were a TV movie of the week which had to wrap up in 2 hours), despite heavy looting our hero is able to find just the thing he needs, untrampled and hidden all the way in the back where no other person has managed to find it.. The last bags of ice, the last candy bars, the last cans of Ensure. This guy's incredibly lucky! The rest of the town is not very persistent in their quest for survival, so they keep leaving the last of everything for him!

For a great post-apocalyptic book which is as fresh as the day it was written, try "Alas Babylon" by Pat Frank, and don't waste your money on this badly put together junk. I don't bother writing bad reviews, but I'm so disappointed that I spent money on this and I'm done assaulting my ears, so into the trash bin it goes.

Have you listened to any of Joe Barrett’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

The reader did a great job with a terrible script.

206 people found this helpful

Bummer--I should have listened to the reviews

Any additional comments?

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.

191 people found this helpful

A terrifying story

Any additional comments?

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.

178 people found this helpful

Complete Garbage

Do not read this book, unless of course, you are a right wing nut, then you should really enjoy this long and boring journey filled with plot holes and neocon nonsense. Further, the audio performance is atrocious, it is perhaps the worst I've ever heard. I would have given it zero stars but the page would not submit unless I gave it at least one.

172 people found this helpful

Is he kidding?

I was so looking forward to this book based on the ratings and a couple glowing reviews. I enjoy post-apocalyptic scenarios and was hoping this would be a great one. Then... Newt Gingrich gives the foreword trying to compare this author's effort to HG Wells and George Orwell masterpieces. Right. Forstchen, after further research, is a Civil War buff and seems to be stuck on some idyllic notion of what "America" means or should mean, and presents us with a cast of Mayberry types that are absolute comical characterizations of what it means to be a "real man" and "real woman."

The male characters are sexist, simple minded, shallow and hypocritical. They say things like "This is still America" about a hundred times, and apparently are all ex-smokers, ex-military Scotch drinkers, just waiting for an excuse to start up again. The women are sex objects, with nursing skills of course, and would be "insulted" if they didn't catch a man subtly staring at their chest. The kernel of truth that threads the story together, regarding the break down of a civilization after an EMP burst, is barely enough to keep the iPod running. In fact, I was hoping for one so that it would stop. Andy Griffith, I mean "the Colonel", is the protagonist and prototypical reluctant leader, but ready to "do the right thing" and blow away a miscreant at a moment's notice. OK, OK, I'm just going to stop now. I could go on and on about how bad this book is, but won't bore you any further. Just don't buy the hype, unless you fancy yourself a good ol' boy.

150 people found this 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.

148 people found this helpful

excellent wake up call but tear jerker also

excellent book on disaster preparedness set in a fictional near future, sort of red dawn, road warrior and the postman movies in one book, im sure this will be made into a movie, a realistic view of what will, not maybe, happen should our Great Country devolve into anarchy from war, or similar catastrophe and i dont mean global warming, but a real crisis

101 people found this helpful

This Book Is The Real Disaster

I listened to this book with the expectation that it would be an interesting examination of the fragility of our modern electronic infrastructure, a spellbinding post-apocalyptic science fiction story, or hopefully both. Unfortunately, this book is neither. First, the author merely posits that an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) generated by unnamed terrorists disables every single machine in the US. There is more information in the short Wikipedia article on EMP than in this book. And second, rather than a good science fiction read, the book is instead a long diatribe against all the things that apparently bug the author. When was the last time you heard someone rail against "hippies"? Everyone in the book who matters is ex-military (the only ones with the guts to shoot looters), and the phrase "I can't believe we've come to this" is repeated ad nauseam. The fact that the hero of the book, coincidentally like the author in real life, is a history professor at a small North Carolina college, makes the reader wonder whether this is really a fantasy for the author -- particularly after the hero becomes the undisputed military ruler and savior of the town in the wars against marauding cannibals. The new audio release on Audible of "Earth Abides" by George Stewart is a truly great post-apocalypse story that has withstood the test of time. With "One Second After", however, this book is the real disaster. The author's Web site says he has already sold the movie rights... God save us indeed.

92 people found this helpful