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Book Review of One Second After (After, Bk 1)

One Second After (After, Bk 1)
reviewed on
Helpful Score: 2


A bit tedious. The point of the book: To provide a fictitious story that would inform the reader about the dangers of an EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) attack on the US. An EMP would overload all electronic circuitry in cars, phones, etc....

It should have been a hint the story would be in great parts exposition when we learn the main character is a college professor. Pages upon pages feature the professor talking about the post-EMP problem in town meetings, at the office, at home, at the Quicky Mart, and everywhere more than two people might gather.

His small town bands together, in no small part, to the professor's sense of the events. The rest of the world goes chaos where life is nasty, brutish and short. I think he could have conveyed the same message in a shorter novel. I also felt 2-3 weeks was too short of time for people to go malnourished.

The beginning of the Tom Cruise movie 'War of the Worlds' has an EMP attack. Author appears to have taken some inspiration from this film, the parts without aliens. Expect some subtle politics, like, liberal Dems who quickly succumb when they can't feed off the government. Newt Gingrich writes the introduction.