Friday, May 08, 2009

Book Review of One Second After, and shout to the 'new' Red Dawn

I am old enough to have seen Red Dawn in the theatre, and we still retain the DVD. The new Red Dawn's premise segues to One Second After (NOT A SPOILER if you start reading this great book) considering the finale of that story.

There are a lot of really great read 'end of the world' books around. I specify 'read' because while they are terrific and fun, they are not ever going to be considered with the likes of the product Pearl Buck or Truman Capote (by those who consider such things).

The best of these is undoubtedly 'Lucifer's Hammer' by two of the better scifi writers of our age.

This ain't that. There are a FEW similarities through the middle portion of the story, but while end of the world stories usually concentrate on how people survive, this is about how average Americans cope.

With the loss of America.
The preventable loss of America.
Cell Phone, IPods, 42" LCD screens, cars, generators, aircraft, ALL forms of communication, and then individual freedom, civil order, human decency, and everything we hold dear among men and women and children.
The premise is that a nuclear explosion in space over approximately Omaha can be performed by any number of third world powers who get 'lucky' with a longer range Scud launched from a freighter just off any coast, nation unknown, and that once this occurs we are far worse off than we were in 1776. We knew what to do then. We lived near food, medical help and cities were no larger than the local area could support.

When you finish this book you will be as angry as the characters have every right to be.
They lost almost everything. And the finish will leave you wondering WHO TO CALL.

The elegant point is very well made without belaboring it, that reducing the potential authors of this act to slag, as we do thoroughly, gives very little satisfaction. Is almost irrelevant to the aims of the aggressors which are achieved one second after.

The America we know is GONE. And not just because of what is physically destroyed.

The Wall Street Journal has outlined this problem, which I promise you is relegated to what would be considered by Barney Frank and the people who won this election as ring wingut, John Bircher Types, who belong on the DHS list.

But considering that one dedicated group (and there are several from Al Qaeda to the IRGC ) with one nuke (can you say Pakistan?) and one missile which would have to range in the 1500 mile area to take out most of the USA (but would they have to? How much national resources would be needed if it just took out all electronics from Washington to Portland Maine, and New York to Cleveland?) ...considering that one dedicated group could carry out such an attack with 'luck', you have to wonder what plans our govt has, IF ANY, and what we can do as individuals that would matter.

READ IT, and wonder.

11 comments:

revereridesagain said...

Even more important than read this book is, get other people to read this book. In particular, the ones you are trying educate as to the potential catastrophe that is the Pakistani nukes/Iranian nukes/their little helper elves in NoKo nukes proliferation.

Pastorius said...

Thanks for the review, Epa.

I have a few friends who know how to do pretty much everything. They know how to build from scratch, wire, set up plumbing, cook food, live off the land, make fire without matches (something most former Boy Scouts know how to do), etc.

There are quite a few such men in the U.S.

And, I know there are quite a few men who have stockpiles of guns and ammo.

But, for all that, one does have to wonder, how long can any of this hold back the impending chaos. It would be the new Wild West.

Epaminondas said...

You wanna protect electronics ?

COPPER SCREENING... a Faraday cage.
Otherwise find a tunnel.

Anything electronic left exposed will NEVER WORK AGAIN

It would be the middle ages with civil war level medicine. Food grown more than a few days manual travel away are useless to you.

And now I'll head out to get some dandelion greens, fiddleheads, catch some bass, and practice some hunting and gathering in general.

OY

midnight rider said...

It would be worse than even that, Pasto. How do you feed a town like L.A. or NYC or Chicago for months and months? Stuff like insulin that needs to be kept cold will go bad in short order, diabetics among the first to die off.

Or imagine entire populations of these cities now on foot to get away from the madness the urban centers become and are on the road, dieing along the way from lack of food, water, maruading bands.

The book is frightening and when you then apply it to your own life and where you live especially (urban, burbs, rural) it will keep you awake at night wondering just what the hell you're gonna do.

Life in many places in the U.S. would be reduced to raw savagery.

Pastorius said...

You're right. I was only thinking of the area in which I live. How provincial of me.

midnight rider said...

This type of threat is one of my worst fears, worse than a nuke taking an American city because, long run, it can do far more damage to America.

How are you going to get your kids home from school 3 miles away when this hits? How are you going to get home to even try to get them when you wok 20 miles away?

What happens to your college kid students?ot likely you will ever see them again nor know what happened to them.

Hospitals and nursing homes will practically overnight become dying grounds. Where are you going to go with all the dead? How are you going to do it?

Life will be a constant fight for food, water, medicine. Either fighting to keep what you have or fighting to get it. No more railroads to get it to us from the heartland. Within a day or so, unless someone takes change, looting will strip every supermarket shelf of every morsel. What then, when that's gone in 2 or 3 days.

No more sewers to flush the toilet, wash your hands afterwards. Which is another thing to ponder. In our great urban centers where will you get clean reliable drinking water? And how long will you last without it.

In the countries midsection, the rural farm areas may make out better food wise but where the great population centers are it will become, as the book itself describes, positively medieval.

Ok. Ranting over or I will go on all day.

midnight rider said...

Those questions are not directed at any of the commenters already here. you guys already understand the threat.

Our individual worlds will become very small.

Think of it this way. We all talk to each other here every day.

We're not likely to ever know what becomes of each other if this happens.

midnight rider said...

Pasto -- "You're right. I was only thinking of the area in which I live."

That's EXACTLY what people need to do.

When we are returned to a world lit only by fire, how are they and their individual communities going to survive? Eat, drink, stay warm, care for the kids, sick, elderly, dying and dead.

As individuals we haven't got much of a chance. As communities we might. Because at some point there will be open warfare between communities for resources.

America will be finished.

Sorry if I seem to be beating a dead horse here.

Pastorius said...

MR, You're making sense to me.

midnight rider said...

Pastorius -- Clearly, you have not yet had enough to drink :)

Anonymous said...

The "Who to call" says it all. What happened to taking care of problems yourself? Probably easier in the country than the city. Most of my friends are prepared for weeks/months with food prep, gardens, survival etc. When we have some problem (ice storm, power outage) we just pull out the emergency stuff and wait it out. In an end of the world scenario, 20%+ of the people will be dead in a month, 20%+ the next month when meds run out, 10%+ will die from in-fighting. It'll be a MadMax thing if we get EMP'd on.