bout forty years ago, I was still designing games for a living of sorts. One idea I had was a game about the fall of civilization and managing a community in the aftermath. Titled After the Fall, it was based off a little Atari game where Malthusian growth is gamed, with populating outstripping food. In mine, you had the added features of hordes from the fallen cities, failed crops and an early hot-seat multiplayer game. Alas, we never got it finished beyond play testing – couldn’t get the tech advancements to work.

It’s a good thing I knocked off when I did – having just read William Forstchen’s One Second After, I was really low-baring the idea of what happens when your globalized food supply is disrupted (and here in 2026, that seems to be a true danger). This book involves a small community (with the main character a level-headed ex-army history  teacher employed by a small Cristian college in Black Mountain,  North Carolina). Everything is all nice and calm and peaceful until some unknown parties detonate three nukes in the sky over America, blanketing us with EMP (electromagnetic pulse) blasts. Everything electronic (with the exception of a few classic cars) shuts down. This includes refrigerators, radios, telephones, trains, trucks, everything.

And the results aren’t pretty.

There are haggles and threats with the nearby cities (over accepting refuges and drinking water). There are wandering criminals looking for people to rob. There are mobs from the cities. There are blocked roads. It’s really, really bad. And it makes me realize how simplistic (even idealistic) my game was. Nothing could match the horror of this.

Think about it – most modern pharmacies only stock for as-needed supplies – they don’t keep huge stocks on hand, possibly only a week’s worth. That means all heart medicines, insulin, antibiotics and such things will be in very short supply. No painkillers. No anesthetics, not anything really. There will be die offs as people can’t get the life-saving drugs they need. Even walking to a ration center might be too much for the American obese. Even anti-depressants and such things will be gone, meaning those people who could function in society might not be able to – and what will you do with them? Lock them up? And put people to watch them?

These were the good aspects of the book.

To me, a lesser aspect was the bit of the open-handed conservatism the author employed. Country Christian people are beyond reproach. But city dwellers? Liberals and lefties, all of them on welfare. He even mentioned that there were “hippies” in Asheville. Really? I haven’t seen a hippy in ages. That was like 30 years ago.

There was also a lot of singing, of praying, and the fact that “we can’t do these things because WE ARE AMERICANS. It seems so quaint, life in 2008.

I was kinda expecting this anyway. The forward is by Newt Gingrich.

Still, it’s a grim reminder of how interdependent we are. And while I might fault the author for his straw-man tactics, I’ll give him credit for not pulling punches. There was one character who had a low survival chance because of issues. I used them as my determinant – would they survive with either a last minute arrival of outside forces? Or the hand of God? Or dumb luck?

No, they did not. So kudos for making a disaster story a true disaster story.

And if you like happy endings, be warned.

Anyway, thanks to my friend Phil for loaning me this one.

>>>MY BOOKS FOR SALE HERE. AND YES, FIRE AND BRONZE HAD AN UNHAPPY ENDING TOO.<<<