I was watching Brooke Whipple on the Girl in the Woods YouTube channel where she recommended the book One Second After by William R Forstchen. When ever anyone says to me this book will change your life. I at-least have to look it up. The Glass Bead Game and The Celestine Prophecy were two other such books.

One Second After arrived yesterday so I wanted to write this down and see if in fact it altered my perceptions in some way when I started reading it.

In 2009, Forstchen’s latest work, One Second After, was released. Based upon several years of intensive research and interviews, it examines what might happen in a “typical” American town in the wake of an attack on the United States with “electro-magnetic pulse” (EMP) weapons. Similar in plotting to books such as On the Beach and Alas Babylon, One Second After, is set in a small college town in western North Carolina and is a cautionary tale of the collapse of social order in the wake of an EMP strike.

Postscript 03/AUG
It took me three days to finish the book and it was indeed a life changer. If I mention specific parts of the book it will ruin it for others. You realize just how fragile our system is and without an ongoing supply of meds most of the population wouldnt last two months. Ive lived in some pretty feral area and i still predict more than ever that the middle class would turn within a week being optimistic more like three days without food. In all honesty I really wonder how many people would actually work together anymore after what I saw at the beginning of covid. Disease on top of food and you saw how peoples attitudes changed and paranoia reigned. I probably wont read the next two novels, they go more into the military side but A Good Read.

As I was reading this book I am reliant on 25 meds a day. I had one day left of dog food before I can get it delivered at the end of the week not counting dry food. I always try and stay ahead with my own and my staffys meds. A book like this brings home a lot of realities. If an EMP hit today Im in a walking frame and brace with atleast another 3 months of rehab to stretch and strengthen the knee.

An EMP wont do damage, you dont have to invade, or you have to do is sit back and let the targeted populace destroy itself.