Books That Make You Think (And Not Always In A Good Way)

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Some of the best books are the ones that make you think.  These books can be so stimulating, you begin to think, “What would I do in that situation?”  Or, you wonder if what you read could ever happen.  This tends to be the case of a lot of good science fiction.  It can even be as simple as how you would direct the film version and who you would cast.

But then, there are those books who make you think, though not in the way the author had intended.

WARNING: LOTS OF SPOILERS AHEAD

Book Review – One Second After

One Second After by William R. Forstchen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had originally given this book 4 stars, but I downgraded my rating after thinking about it for a while. The book itself is fairly well written, though I had problems with the fact that it telegraphs a lot of what will happen pretty early on. The bigger problem I had with it is that it presents itself as a realistic depiction of the aftermath of an EMP attack on the United States. While I do not fault the author on logistical details (breakdown of communication, short supplies of food and medicine), the author is very cynical in his writing, which often moves the story past a “worse case scenario” to something a bit too over dramatic to accept.

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