Is the book "One Second After" worth ordering?

OSA is an outstanding book. I have read it several times and probably will again. I thought Alas, Babylon was stupid.

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Every author brings his/her personal experiences or personal bias to bear in what they write. The central character in "One second after" is a military historian, because the author is one. Written in terms of a regular guy not prepared any more than anyone else and has to work his way through the mess. Little in there in terms of preparedness or about anyone with practical skills.

"Dies the Fire" is another TEOTWAWKI series written by a medieval history buff, so of course in Sterling's novels electricity CAN'T work in his future distopia and we revert back to medieval ways.

You really have to read everything in the genre to get a grasp of what really might happen. Study the commonalities in all the stories and that will give you a pretty good clue as to what might really happen.

BTW, another good economic crash distopian novel is Dickinson's "Wolf and Iron", about a math student that has to survive his way cross-country to get to his older brother's ranch in Montana. Very relevant to what's happening with the economy right now.

I would strongly recommend buying the book as opposed to audio tapes for the simple fact that it would (for me at least) be much easier to take notes while reading it...there are definitely plenty of parts that I stopped reading the book and sat there pondering things before I continued reading.

yes!!!!

dean

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Hope is something you give yourself in your darkest moments, this is the true meaning of selfreliance.

greetings from the far east of the western world

One Second After, and Lights Out were the two that made me stop and think. I wish I could get my husband to read it. He hates to read.

I really liked Lights Out because it is set in Texas in an area I'm familier with.

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A good time to keep your mouth shut is when you're in deep water.

The book will make you think, assuming you never have before.....for example, if I had a family member that was dependent on insulin to live, I'd have SOME kind of solar powered refrigeration with multiple back up to insure a way to keep insulin, and have plenty of supply.....to depend on "the system" for life works only until the system breaks......as is the obvious point in the book.

That carries over into food, water, and other resources as well. If one is totally dependent on OTHER PEOPLE, and complicated systems ( such as the power grid ) to keep you alive, then guess what ? WHEN THEY BREAK, you die.

That's the real message of the book.

Then there is enough filler, and of course, the epic battle scene, to make it a book of fiction.

I'd give it a 7 out of possible 10.

Personally, I thought Lights Out was far more in the realm of real world EMP possibilities.

Will look at that one too, ty. I already tend to think like this. Yes there will be many many people who depend on modern medicine who will die in that kind of scenario.

Have read a couple of the Dies the Fire books, need to get back to it.

Hopefully these kinds of books will toughen people up a little and let them think a little more realistically. We are so pampered and soft in this culture that the majority of people cringe at the thought of killing an animal. What will they do when they need to kill a person? Most will die for sure if that scenario does come about. Then people like us will be left with gangs and scum of the earth type people to deal with

Yes read it, "Lights Out" and the Tom Sherry "Deep Winter series (3 books)."

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My library has both One Second After and World Made By Hand and I've put both of them on hold. I have always enjoyed most post-apocalypse novels although some are very unrealistic. As a 3rd generation rancher I've always found it ironic that most of the authors writing about the collapse of modern technology couldn't milk a cow or harness a horse correctly if their lives depended on it!

As someone else mentioned, two of the ones I've found most interesting over the years is "Dies the Fire" by Sterling and "Wolf and Iron" by Dickson.

It is a good read and has some things which will make you go "hum. . ." but it also has some plot holes in it. The one that jumped out at me was their stupidity on cooling. NH3 refrigeration is 1930's (or older) tech. Then there is the fact that you could take auto AC units and run them off any of several types of power to make a cool box.

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I just sent my copy to our DD in Alabama to read. I've read it multiple times and it's an excellent read. I'll be ordering another copy for myself here fairly quickly!

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I finished reading this book the other day.. while I thought it was a good read and it really does make you go "umh" there is a part of me that wishes I had never read it and that I had finished reading it before I suggested it to my parents. Both of my parents are diabetics and my dad has a defibrillator and pacemaker. They are both in their late 70's. It was really ironic that on Sunday my parents had us over to watch "Rumors of War lll" on GBTV. My parents are GB fans.

While I agree that an EMP is a very very good possibility(by the way DH said years ago that the technology was going to destroy the world..lol,)I find it very difficult to try and prepare for it. I think you could cross the line from doing basic prepping for an emer to being obsessed by trying to prep for something at this magnitude at the very least getting depressed over it.

For instance in my case, if you weren't able to use your vehicles, we wouldn't be able to get my parents or my daughter out to our farm, nor would they be able to use theirs. (they live about 15 minutes away from us). There would be no way that could walk that far. Although my parents keep a supply of insulin(only mom uses it)and pills, you can only stockpile so much. So the life expectancy of my parents wouldn't be very long. OTOH, they do stockpile food and basic needs but living in the middle of a town and in a subdivision how long would that last at their age? So realizing and thinking about those things made me feel pretty sad and helpless. My dad made the comment that he would save two bullets. I just cannot fathom at this time the hell my parents/daughter would have to go thru. My daughter would more than likely stay it out with my parents, she doesn't live to far from them within walking distance. But just thinking about not being able to get to your family was the last thing that I wanted to think about..lol So close but yet so far away~

DH and I are pretty self sufficient and probably could last quite sometime out in the country....and we have plenty of resources for water and food besides what we grow ourselves and what I stock. I have a couple things that I still need to buy like a water filter, a crank meat grinder(ours is electric). But my thinking is there is no way that you can totally prepare for everything. And if you did prepare for a year or two for this type of situation....whats to stop a natural disaster(like in our area tornado's)from coming thru and wiping everything out in less than 20 minutes. It is so mind boggling that I refuse to let myself get caught up in all of it and just continue to live like we have in the past 4 yrs.

I told DH the other day that somewhere in all of this you have to rely on your faith and that if it is our time to go its our time to go and that we cant get caught up in worrying whether we are totally prepared or not. All we can do is the best that we can do and we are a whole lot more prepared than others.

Guess I got off on a bunny trail... Sorry

I have to disagree. One Second After is the most realistic of all the books I have read. I didn't care for Lights Out at all. That book needs to take off the rose colored glasses.

I really found it a great read. It does help illuminate some areas that need to be examined when thinking of survival. It is a great read, and as far as scaring some people, I think if it scares someone then they have discovered their weaknesses and therefore more able to start to think of how to correct those spots. I certainly took a new look a some things, and am glad to have done so.

It certainly is hard to read, or listen to, at times. No doubt.

Imo the best prep strategy is learning and mental preparation.

Yes you need to have a certain amount of food put back to help your transition to producing all of it yourself. And some supplies and tools that would get hard to come by. But CAN you produce food reliably yourself? Can you garden without chemicals, mechanical tillers and city water? Do you grow and save seeds for varieties of plants that will grow in your area reliably without the extra inputs we are so used to having? Are you familiar with pests and animals that will destroy your garden and understand their lifecycles and know what to do to minimize their damage? Do you know what wild plants are safe to eat and where to find them? Do you know how to set snares and traps? Do you know where to set them? Have you thought about which type of animal you could raise realistically raise yourself without the feed store?

Then there's the whole safety/protection issue. Do you have ideas of how to keep your supplies/gardens/animals safe? Have you mentally prepared yourself that if the worst case situation were to happen that you at some point would most likely have to kill another human being if you and your family are to remain alive and unmolested? Would you be prepared to put one of your own out of their misery if their situation were hopeless?

I could go on and on but these are the things I think about when I think of prepping, not how much pre-packaged food I have squirreled away.

Personally, I dont think too many people can mentally prepare to kill another human being much less a family member. However I do believe instinct and survival mode would kick in for most of us. I have found in myself things I would never thought I would do when my life was threatened.
I do have to agree prepping is more than just having a closet full of food and water. Glad. I married a country boy! Lol

I read many PAW books and written a few stories and never thought of that myself.
May be a glaring hole to you, but all I can say is thanks for pointing it out to the rest of us. They would of course needed a way to charge their 12V batteries, but with the main characters old car working they could have done that.

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I agree. But simply by virtue of you being interested in the homesteading lifestyle you are closer than most of the people in this country. Most americans would absolutely fall apart at having to kill an animal. Most could not do it.

But I do think we need to think about these things and try to mentally prepare. If you put yourself in different situations mentally and play them out it will help you to better deal with things if you ever have to in real life. I think something that is helpful is to realize and consider the things that may happen to the people you love if you are unable to do what needs to be done to protect them without hesitation. The bad guys won't hesitate, you can't either.

I just thought the writing was bad. The editing is really, really bad. That kind of thing makes me crazy. I'm far from a professional, but I couldn't finish it. Plus, "The Road" ruined me for books of that type. On the other hand, "One Second After" is a great seller, so what do I know?

Demeter

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I quite like the book and purchased copies for a couple of other people. I would describe it as "thought provoking" rather than entertaining or the equivalent of a survival manual.

I found it interesting enough that I actually visited the town where it all takes place. Found it rather eerie, especially when driving down the highway at a couple of places mentioned in the book.