Just Out: One Second After by Fortschen-a must read!

[maurice]

I finished reading this novel a couple days ago and think it deserves rereading.
Many of the problems it describes are directly related to PO problems. What
can a PO prepper do, at little or no additional cost?

First, make use of your cast iron Dutch oven when it is unused and empty.
Store one or more GMRS radiotelephones in your Dutch oven.

Second, consider an investment in general-purpose semiconductors such as
operational amplifier chips and discrete bipolar transistors. They don't take up
much space and can be cached in your Dutch oven in nooks and crannies
between the GMRS radiotelephones. They will very valuable and useful
for building new circuits from scratch after TEOTWAWKI.

[Satori]

just wanted to give this book a bump
it's getting good reviews on Amazon
also now available on Kindle
wanna see how the breakdown of society might progress
when the lights go out?
READ THIS BOOK

don't forget to check out the author's website
for more info on EMP's
http://www.onesecondafter.com/

[wordnerd]

It was much more realistic than The Road - the Road was way to gloomy and hopeless. I think ,most people would react like the people in One Second After - good and bad.
Small towns may try to continue some form of community "government" - just to keep people organized and working together
I liked how it showed how things progressed - digressed - over time. How what they accepted as their new reality occurred one step at a time. I liked how he showed that our reactions and acceptance would be a process - that we would keep accepting more and more "horror" as time progressed - as the situation became worse. For example the dogs . Now - I had a REAL problem with the dogs - I have 2 dogs myself - that part made me cry. And I don't usually cry in books. But those dogs did it to me.
None of us know what we would "resort to" under these kinds of circumstances.
What would it take for us to do those things?
Some of us would do it from the start - immediately turn into greedy beings - killing and looting for the fun of it.
Others it would take a step by step process - we would hang onto some semblance of "normal"  - some sense of values - as long as we could.
I thought the author did a wonderful job of showing that process

[cindy]

I just received my copy yesterday.  Amazon.ca is sometimes a bit slower than the American site.  Anyway, I'm really looking forward to reading it.  I just finished 'The Death of Grass' by John Christopher.  I learned about it on another thread and most were saying it was out of print and very expensive.  However, Penguin books has reprinted it and it is available at Alibris.com for about $10.  It was a very enjoyable read, too.

[Randwulf]

For example the dogs . Now - I had a REAL problem with the dogs - I have 2 dogs myself - that part made me cry. And I don't usually cry in books. But those dogs did it to me.

After I read the book, I started looking at our two pets with a greater sense of uncertainty.  I had always imagined that I could feed the dogs with squirrels and scraps, but now I am not so sure.

With only a limited supply of shells for my shotgun, would it be sensible to hunt daily just to feed the dogs?

I have decided to factor the dogs into my food production so that I can provide for my entire household, pets and all, if necessary.

[cindy]

Great book so far!  I am about halfway through already.

[Grim]

****  POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW - YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!  ****







Just finished "One Second After" yesterday and was impressed with the book.  Technical discussions of EMP aside - it was an interesting look at how quickly society can break down given interruptions of all the things we take for granted.  The way we (might) revert to primal behavior is pretty eye opening.  The best part for me about the book is that I live in Charlotte, NC and am very familiar with the setting of the book (Black Mountain, NC).  The Black Mountain area (Mt. Mitchell area, Lake James, etc..) is one of my favorite hiking areas, and we've driven many of the roads out there so it was eerie to read about those things happening in a place so nearby. 

The author seems to have a pretty good grasp of social interactions and the denial and confusion that would likely occur in such a scenario.  You can read it as an "EMP attack" book or look further into it as a "what if" book if any type of major catastrophe occurred (natural or otherwise).  It is definitely a book that will make you want to add a couple more items to your prep list or round out things you were missing.  One of the parts of the book I found most fascinating was the food aspect and how quickly they ran through their supplies and had to barely scrape along.  It was interesting, and probably a correct assumption, that city people might flee to the hills and countryside assuming that food is just magically more available there than in the cities, but that is a false assumption.  Having hiked extensively in the North/South Carolina mountains for years I can confirm that there isn't a huge wildlife population and just finding the game would almost entail burning as many calories as you would derive from it.  The book touches on squirrels, rabbits, and even bear.  All of those are things we automatically assume we might be able to hunt, but if the whole community is doing the same it wouldn't take long to decimate a forest of mammals.  The bartering aspect with bullets was also interesting.  I'm curious how a similar situation based along the coast would play out.  I've always wondered if it would be easier to get food from the ocean having done a lot of coastal fishing (sharks, rays, bluefish, etc..). 

I don't know.  The book is good.  An interesting story that should spawn a lot of discussion here.  I thought it was the most authentic "doomer" book I've read (and I've read just about all of them).  The "Dies in the Fire" books often get a bit too wishy-washy spiritual new-agey for me - I like my Doom sort of plain and gritty (ie: War Day). 

Grim
 

[wordnerd]

YES  --- BE AWARE ***** SPOILER IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK*****
WARNING WARNING WARNING

I agree - hunting and foraging would be quickly used up, because there are too many people on the earth today.
And I do believe people would "run to the hills" so to speak - believeing that food would be readily available.

I too looked at my dogs differently - I went out and bought 2 bags of extra kibble!!!

I think the book accurately portrayed how quickly the "criminal elelment" would surface and try to take over.
Also, the fringe fundamentalist religious movements - they would believe and convince others that it was Armageddon - the caue of "whatever" as evil or Satan.

There are so many people today that survive because of our modern medications and medical equipment - if those were to go, most of those people would not survive very long.

We would all be forced to make very hard decisions and choices that we can't even imagine making in our current lifestyles. They may be different than the ones portrayed in the book - but I'm sure, equally hard.

How long would it take us before we began to realize that "someone" was not going to come and save us?
How long would it take before lawlessness ensued?
Would we have leaders step and try to make necessary decisions - or would we allow the criminals to take over?

[Harcken]

I finished it a few days ago. Easy read, Forstchen preferred to just tell instead of show, but it worked fine for the book.

The warning is dire, of course, but I had a few problems with it:

*Spoilers*?


Gardening is not mentioned but about half-way through the book. It's like no one thought much about growing food until stock began to run low.

No mention of peak oil. It almost feels like the book is saying America would only die from without and from nothing self-caused.

___

Overall, it is a good doomsday scenario and enjoyable/easy to read. Even some tearjerkers...all the dying happening, but you feel very sad when main characters die.

[Max und Moritz]

Damn you, now I gotta order it too or wonder forever at the spoilers you DON´T share here, grmpgh 

*SPOILER*

After you mention "horrible things" and "dogs" in one breath, and even before reading it, I went and recounted my dog preps. Because I will not eat or sacrifice or abandon my dog. Apart from the family member aspect, he´s as much my life insurance as a couple loaded guns (prolly more so, since he can´t be turned against me).

[Tropicalgirl]

Satori - I've added it to my shopping cart, which is way overloaded right now,    Thanks for the recommendation.

Have most of you watched the "Jericho: series?  Its free on youtube and for Netflix customers, the commercial free versions are available on Instant Watch.... really addresses many of the things we would face if there was a powerdown/powerout scenario.  I started watching episodes and got totally obsessed!!  The second season wandered off a bit, but still compelling to watch what happens to an average small town (set in rural Kansas, farming town) and to see how "normal" people deal with the situation.

[Randwulf]

Have most of you watched the "Jericho: series?  Its free on youtube and for Netflix customers, the commercial free versions are available on Instant Watch.... really addresses many of the things we would face if there was a powerdown/powerout scenario.  I started watching episodes and got totally obsessed!!  The second season wandered off a bit, but still compelling to watch what happens to an average small town (set in rural Kansas, farming town) and to see how "normal" people deal with the situation.

I watched and liked Jerico when it was on. However, some things came too easy for the town.

The whole train of food that was found near town stopped by a wrecked car. Where I live, processed food products are not shipped by train. Everything comes in by truck. No bulk grain production around here either, so I've never (I live right near a main line) grain cars.  To me, this was a too simple and unlikely solution to a major problem.  After this, there were a few episodes that dealt raising crops, but in general you never see the characters spending much time acquiring food. 

Another major stoke of unlikely chance was the discovery of the Chinese dropped emergency generator plant.  After this, the town had power, but no mention was made of how this generator was fueled on a continuous basis.

Finally, a pet peeve of mine was the willy nilly way everyone used candles and lamps after dark (before the generator) with no hope of resupply or replacement.  Seems like they would have run out in a couple of days at the rate they lit their houses and whatnot.

[Tropicalgirl]

randwulf - I agree, there were flaws, but hey its TV, remember!    There were obvious plot lines to keep the story moving along, but it covered the breakdown, day by day, in an ordinary town, with decent citizens.  Also, it was clear about how we've been programmed to wait for the 'government' to fix it or come to the rescue.  As I recall, one episode dealt with a possible pandemic, too, if memory serves, and a lack of vaccinations?  To watch it w/o commercials was a big improvement. 

One Second After sounds like a good read, I've just ordered it!  Great comments, everyone.

[cindy]

Damn you, now I gotta order it too or wonder forever at the spoilers you DON´T share here, grmpgh 

*SPOILER*

After you mention "horrible things" and "dogs" in one breath, and even before reading it, I went and recounted my dog preps. Because I will not eat or sacrifice or abandon my dog. Apart from the family member aspect, he´s as much my life insurance as a couple loaded guns (prolly more so, since he can´t be turned against me).

The 'dogs' part of the story really got to me, too...made me cry.  As a person who loves both dogs and cats, though, I was surprised that not a mention of cats was made in the book.  Cats might do okay when TSHTF (well, as well as feral cats do in today's world).  I concur with those who highly-recommend this book.


I agree with Grim on 'Dies The Fire', too.  If only read the first one, but I think it would have been much better without all the Wiccan stuff.

[Grim]

More spoilers - CAUTION!






wordnerd - Good observations.  I have cats, and couldn't help but think of them and how they'd fare.  They are indoor cats and something tells me they wouldn't do too good on their own.  I'm sure their instincts would kick in, but competing with humans for their own existence probably wouldn't work out well for them.  The criminal element is definitely an important one.  One of my favorite novels when growing up was "King Rat" by James Clavell.  The "King", the kind of person that can survive anything, is the type of person you have to worry about in a survival situation.  I think most of us are probably too naive and inflexible to be able to adapt as well as some of the more opportunistic people out there.  The criminal element is probably very good at that. 

The best advice (I think) is to make yourself a difficult target because the criminal element will almost always scavenge the weaker people (and there should be plenty of those around).  I figure a few .223 rounds or some shotgun blasts might deter all the but the most desperate criminals.  In another thread though (or was it this one?) it was brought up that it takes a community to survive really..something the book demonstrates well.  Individually most of us could only hold out as long as our preps will. 

I watched the first half of the first season of Jericho.  It was pretty good and I'll definitely finish it up and watch the second season (already being shown I think).  I had some beefs with some things they were doing (wasting candles, and electricity on keeping the bar lights on).  Call it lightweight Doom for the masses <g>. 

Getting back to "One Second After" - I don't recall reading anything about fishing as a supplement.  I know the streams and rivers around Black Mountain don't have the carrying capacity to feed many people..but I thought I would have seen a mention of it.  Down here in Charlotte I think I'd hit my local reservoir pretty hard initially and try to supplement my preps as much as possible with fish from the lake (catfish, bluegill, bass, etc..).  It does make me wonder how quickly a reservoir could get fished out (?). 

The whole community rationing thing also makes me think of some questions.  For those of us that have preps enough to last for 6 months or a year or more - what is the plan for you as far as consuming those preps?  Do you try to limp along with the rest of the community and not touch the stuff until things become desperate?  I would think you'd not want to let others know about your stash and you might have to do a little "acting" to fit in with the crowd.  Utilize whatever public emergency supplies are doled out by emergency management organizations until you are forced to dip into your preps?  My thought is that you need to keep those in reserve through the initial "die out" (awful to think of that) so that you can survive for an extended period of time such that maybe the forest and lands around can start to replenish themselves naturally (ie - read "The World Without Us").  It's one thing to have an entire suburban population competing for a few squirrels, but after the big die-off I figure things might bounce back a bit.  Heck, rats might be prolific I guess (and cats - although I'd have a hard time with that!). 

The other big thing that I think modern cities and suburbs will have problems with is sewage and trash.  How many people will continue pooping in their toilet thinking it will magically disappear?  Contamination, disease and sickness will no doubt be rampant among communities unconditioned to losing their utilities and trash pickup.  Where clean water might exist it might quickly get contaminated.  I know..preaching to the choir here, but the book is really pretty good, jogged a lot of thoughts in my mind. 

Grim