Book Thirty-Four: One Second After

This book was a slow burn.  As I guess any homeland catastrophe might be.  First, there's the shock.  'We're gonna be fine.  They will send people to take care of us.'  Then, there will be the realization days, weeks, maybe it'll take months, that no one is coming.  God help you, if you're not prepared 'cause I don't think anyone else will.

Author William R Forstchen sets the novel in the Black Mountains of North Carolina.  I chose to read this novel will vacationing in the very same area.  Why these towns lead additional credence to the story, I can't say.  What I can say, is the realism will affect you and leave you thinking even after the novel ends.

Although set in a picturesque town, the story is far from it.  The author surmises an unexpected electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack on the US and how it affects the people living here.  The story is clearly based in realism.  Under the guise of fiction, I believe the author is staking his case for how 21st Americans will not be prepared for such overt attacks.  The 'die-off' sequences and timelines foretold by the characters in this book could be chillingly accurate.  It is for that reason, the book is so riveting.

Our protagonist, John Matherson, is a history professor at Montreat College.  His background being a retired Army Colonel.  (That's helpful.)  What ensues is a systematic dissolution of everything.  Matherson, meets the crisis head on alongside others in his quaint community but no one leaves the crisis unscathed.

As I see it, One Second After is more terrifying than anything Stephen King thought about putting on paper.  But before you rack this review alongside other tea-partying, conservative nonsense, consider this...  Better informed and prepared for action than mindlessly led to the slaughter.