Book - "One Second After"?

[creeky]

"One second After"

By William R. Forstchen

Saw this today and have been reading up on it on the web. I read a couple of pages on lunch it it drew me in pretty quick.

It's about life after an EMP attack in a small town in North Carolina. It also seem that the leader character has a daughter that has Type I Diabetes so he has to manage that situation as well.

Has anyone read this book? It looks really good.

I'm pretty sure I'm buying it when I get off from work.

[TGO David]

Sounds very interesting. I'll be anxious to read your review.

PS: Things like this are why I want an iPad or Kindle soon. It'd be nice to download a book on the spot and just get started enjoying it.

[kckndrgn]

I've read the book, twice. It is an excellent, sobering read. Many people like to compare OSA and LightsOut by Halfast. There is no comparison in my book.

OSA does deal with some of the harsh realities, at least in my opinion, that we may face should an EMP hit the U.S.

I look at it like a learning tool. What did they have to do to survive and how can that relate to me.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

That book looks interesting to me, too. Another one to get. I just bought a stack at Books a Million:D

[creeky]

I like these type of books in general, the Type I / Insulin Dependent child just makes it the more interesting to me. Knowing me, if it is as good as those few pages I read... I'll have it devoured in just a few days!

[rab1961]

I read it and it is a great read. Foreward by Newt Gingrich in it also.

[mikegideon]

Sounds very interesting. I'll be anxious to read your review.

PS: Things like this are why I want an iPad or Kindle soon. It'd be nice to download a book on the spot and just get started enjoying it.

Interesting, but I'm wondering how you generate that kinda pulse without using the conventional method (nuke). We're talking lots of energy to be effective over a wide area.

[Guest Straight Shooter]

Fellas-

Last year, I watched, for the first and so far, last time, CSPAN. That night, the author of this book, One Second After, was doing a live interview with an audience. He had just released this book. Let me tell you about this guy. This gent is considered to be the EMINENT authority on EMP attack, and aftermath. He personally has appeared before Congress and literally BEGGED them to listen to him. He said, an EMP attack on this country, is the most effective, and DIRT CHEAP way to put the entire Northern Hemisphere back, literally, into the dark ages for years. Decades. He showed how ONE old, beat up trawler, out in the Gulf, with a cheap, easily obtainable scud missle, loaded with a LOW megaton warhead, sent up 50 to 100 miles, would stop life as we know it. No electrical nothing. Cars, phones, police, fire, MILITARY...everything..POOF..out like a light. He has showed our Congress, and even The Joint Chiefs of Staff, how so un-prepared we are, how so vulnerable we are, not only here, but Canada and Mexico too. The good news is, he has also showed, and told anyone who will listen, how we can be shielded from this for as little as $10 billion or less. He said it is not hard, and would only take 2-5 years, and we would be good to go. So far...not one single bit of action in this regard has our government taken. In the audience that night, were HIGH ranking members of the Navy and I think Marine Corps, and they ALL, to a man, agreed that what this gentleman is saying is 100% true, and highly probable. He has an outstanding website, I HIGHLY encourage you all to visit, just type his name in, youll find it. As for the book, he said himself, he wrote it as "fiction"..cause it is for now, but it was his best, proffesional opinion of what would really, truly happen One Second After an EMP attack. I swear to yall, I sat there spellbound for two hours listening to this guy. The thing about it, the lower the megatonnage, the better the EMP effect. I mean,literally Omar and Mohammad alone, on a junky, rented shrimp boat, could end life as we know it. Yall let me know what you think of the website, BEAU COUP info there on EMP, and what to do as an individual.

Oh-one more little bright spot to brighten your day. He showed U.S. Government estimates, that were an EMP attack hit America....that within ONE YEAR...well over 1 MILLION people would be dead, and hundreds of thousands dying.

READ his info gents.. itll keep you up at night. It did me.

Edited June 8, 2010 by Straight Shooter

[Defender]

I read the book a while back. Excellent. He has that rare gift of combining the truth with a likely scneario, and extrapolating it to the end.

[Guest Straight Shooter]

Mikegideon-

I thought the same thing too. I woulda thought youd need a really big warhead to affect a large area. According to the author...the complete opposite is true.

He said, that a small, "dirty" type warhead, MUCH smaller than what hit Hiroshima/Nagasaki..would be all it takes for lights out in the entire Northern Hemisphere. A big warhead overpowers the EMP effect, and actually diminishes it. A small warhead does little, if any physical damage, due to its height in the atmosphere, but really amplifies the EMP. One that he said could fit inside a large bag or briefcase, would do the trick. He also said, that the government has found proof that our enemies know full well about this, and have talked about it and some were even planning it, or had tried to.

[greenego]

I read it last summer. As others have said highly recommend. One of the things that got me was that the story takes place so close to us, Western NC. Makes you stop and think.

[mikegideon]

Mikegideon-

I thought the same thing too. I woulda thought youd need a really big warhead to affect a large area. According to the author...the complete opposite is true.

He said, that a small, "dirty" type warhead, MUCH smaller than what hit Hiroshima/Nagasaki..would be all it takes for lights out in the entire Northern Hemisphere. A big warhead overpowers the EMP effect, and actually diminishes it. A small warhead does little, if any physical damage, due to its height in the atmosphere, but really amplifies the EMP. One that he said could fit inside a large bag or briefcase, would do the trick. He also said, that the government has found proof that our enemies know full well about this, and have talked about it and some were even planning it, or had tried to.

OK, now you're confusing me. The bombs we dropped on Japan were around 20-30 kilotons, each. Not even close to a single megaton, which is 1 million tons. So, a low megaton warhead ain't a small bomb at all. You're talking a fusion warhead.

I don't disagree, an EFFECTIVE EMP attack would blast us into the stone age in a lot of ways. Anything with semiconductors would (could) stop working. Grandpa's old pickup will probably keep running. ALL your guns will work just fine

In order for an EMP to be effective, the magnetic field has to be strong enough to induce voltages in semiconductor equipment that cause junction failure. The military has done quite a bit of research/hardening of their gear. I don't have a lot of details, but theater nukes have been considered for years.

[G27]

A good read, I bought it a while back and enjoyed it.

Some sobering issues that come to a head in the book...

[G27]

Mikegideon-

I thought the same thing too. I woulda thought youd need a really big warhead to affect a large area. According to the author...the complete opposite is true.

He said, that a small, "dirty" type warhead, MUCH smaller than what hit Hiroshima/Nagasaki..would be all it takes for lights out in the entire Northern Hemisphere. A big warhead overpowers the EMP effect, and actually diminishes it. A small warhead does little, if any physical damage, due to its height in the atmosphere, but really amplifies the EMP. One that he said could fit inside a large bag or briefcase, would do the trick. He also said, that the government has found proof that our enemies know full well about this, and have talked about it and some were even planning it, or had tried to.

Nah, the EMP is directly correlated to the size of the nuclear detonation - for a HEMP to affect the entire CONUS it would have to be at least 1.2MT and detonate @ >200 miles.

If it were as as simple as implied above, it would have happened long ago.

[Guest Straight Shooter]

Go to the authors site fellas, Mike I MAY have gotten my Megaton & Kilotons mixed up. He can explain it better than me. And it is apparently just as simple as he states, just because it aint happened yet means nothing.

How easy would walking around Manhatten with a dirty bomb in a briefcase be? Or putting a willing matyr on plane with highly contagious deadly disease like ebola, and spreading that all over be? I dont discount something not happening just because it sounds too easy.

[memphismason]

I just added it to my wish list on Amazon so I won't forget about it.

[Guest KimberChick]

A good read, I bought it a while back and enjoyed it.

Some sobering issues that come to a head in the book...

+1. This book has made the rounds at the company I work for. I read it in one night, just couldn't put it down. It definitely makes you reconsider your SHTF preparedness measures and how effective the typical recommended on-hand stuff might be. I read it a couple days before the Haiti earthquake. Needless to say, I noticed a few glaring similarities.

When the book got passed to me that Friday afternoon I jokingly asked my boss if it'd make me want to immediately go out and buy random ammo for weapons I didn't currently own...he told me to ask him that Monday after I finished it:lol:

[Guest SUNTZU]

"One second After"

By William R. Forstchen

Saw this today and have been reading up on it on the web. I read a couple of pages on lunch it it drew me in pretty quick.

It's about life after an EMP attack in a small town in North Carolina. It also seem that the leader character has a daughter that has Type I Diabetes so he has to manage that situation as well.

Has anyone read this book? It looks really good.

I'm pretty sure I'm buying it when I get off from work.

Excellent book. I've read it a few times and also bought a couple for some friends.

[Guest Fuel]

I read the book back at the first of the year. Good read, but very bleak. I'd highly recommend it.

[Guest Straight Shooter]

I forgot to add....the author said he sold the rights to be made into a movie, supposed to be coming out soon, so we should be looking forward to that. Hope they keep it spot on to the book.

[mikegideon]

I forgot to add....the author said he sold the rights to be made into a movie, supposed to be coming out soon, so we should be looking forward to that. Hope they keep it spot on to the book.

I always wait for the movie. I usually read other stuff, like the recipe for a successful EMP attack. It goes something like this...

Single stage warheads actually work better, and a low kiloton yield is probably adequate. It has to be REAL high to get decent coverage, like this chart sez...

A limited number of countries have the ability to pull it off. A ground detonated dirty bomb doesn't have an EMP, and will just make a bunch of folks' hair fall out.

[creeky]

This pretty much nails it... I'm grabbing the sucker when I get off from work!!!

[G27]

Go to the authors site fellas, Mike I MAY have gotten my Megaton & Kilotons mixed up. He can explain it better than me. And it is apparently just as simple as he states, just because it aint happened yet means nothing.

How easy would walking around Manhatten with a dirty bomb in a briefcase be? Or putting a willing matyr on plane with highly contagious deadly disease like ebola, and spreading that all over be? I dont discount something not happening just because it sounds too easy.

EMP's are line of sight, so a briefcase in NYC won't do much of anything.

And creating a 1.2MT yield nuclear warhead isn't a simple matter.

There's tons of actual factual evidence about EMPs available online - it's not black magic, it's basic physics. It's a legitimate threat IF a group/country can create a large enough warhead and deliver it high enough.

[mikegideon]

EMP's are line of sight, so a briefcase in NYC won't do much of anything.

And creating a 1.2MT yield nuclear warhead isn't a simple matter.

There's tons of actual factual evidence about EMPs available online - it's not black magic, it's basic physics. It's a legitimate threat IF a group/country can create a large enough warhead and deliver it high enough.

It's the height more than size, especially since a straight fission warhead does better with the E1 component. This is old stuff. Not only does it require nuclear weapons technology, it requires good missle technology.

[TNrifleman]

Great book should be required reading.