One Second After by William R Forstchen

Growing up as a teenager during the Cold War I read dozens of post-apocalyptic fiction novels, and I've never tired of them - be they about nuclear wars, man-made viruses, killer zombies... it doesn't matter. The fascination of how society survives, or doesn't, is the draw.

One Second After by William R Forstchen was fascinating to me. Despite all the end of the world books I've read, I've never believed in a prophecy of when the world will end, or stocked up a bunker just in case. I have, however, been concerned at our increasing dependence on computers and all things digital. When we lose power, we seem to lose everything - TV, phones, cell phones; all outside communication. After 2 weeks of such loss in 2003 and a week in 2008, I did get to wondering, what would we do if a terrorist found a way to knock this all out? How would be cope?

And here it is.... EMP's. Electro-magnetic pulses caused by nuclear warheads deployed above the earth's atmosphere & destroying all things electronic, including modern cars. The US is hit & how does society cope? Pretty much the same as all disasters: we're no longer trained to work the soil, to transport goods by horse & cart; to build form scratch & cope without medical supplies and our freezers. The storyline in this was, in my opinion, excellent. Well thought out with society & structure collapsing, trying to find ways to rebuild - as individuals and as a community, facing starvation as well as threats from outside. I've no doubt the author feels very strongly about this story & the possibility of this really happening, just as the authors of the Cold War era wanted to make us fear the worst. Unlike the man-made viruses and killer zombies, this is something that makes many of us sit up and think "Wow! Could this happen? When? What would I do?"

Where it falls short of being a great novel is in the writing. The characters are rather one dimensional and stereotypical, and the grammar starts to grate on one's nerves after the first 1/3 of the book. Yes, as others have said "would of" and "could of" became unbearable - and it wasn't just in speech but also in narration. How can an editor let that slide? William R. Forstchen: Fire your editor! It might seem petty but a great novel should flow, not be interrupted by such basic mistakes that pull you out of the story when you want to be thoroughly absorbed. For that, it loses a star. But for the story itself, it's great!

Follow up comment by the author to my Amazon review:

Thank you for the kind review and what I must say was an insightful observation. The properly edited edition of the book, which should have been the original release, is finally coming out the middle of November.

Sincerely,

Bill Forstchen

I think a new edited edition will be well worth a another read. It is a good story, thought-provoking and frightening. With some good editing, I think it would be an even better read. And not long to wait until it's release in mid November!