Like One Second After, the earlier Lights Out by David Crawford a.k.a. Halffast, is about he aftermath of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack on the United States and comes with my highest recommendation. EMP affects modern electronic devices but not older electronics using tubes.
This story play out on the outskirts of a medium-sized town in Texas in the vicinity of San Antonio. The main characters are caught completely off guard – they are not survivalists or preppers, but they are intelligent and self-sufficient types. Any regular reader of this or other survivalist blogs likely is better prepared.
The main characters slowly end up becoming leaders in their subdivision, and a key element in this book is that it takes a group working together to provide community security. Those trying to go it alone come to untimely ends. The situation for the main characters is less dire than in One Second After, but the need to form a community and populate it with persons with the right skills is highlighted.
Many basic needs are covered, including repairing some care to function after an EMP, farming, weapons and security, travel on post-apocalyptic roads, community security and patrols, etc.
Lights Out has been posted on the net as a free eBook for several years. In my opinion, it is excellent and has my highest recommendation. While it offers less of a how-to approach than Patriots, the characters and dialogue are much more natural. The full Adobe file is just over 600 pages, and while the first 200 pages or so are slow, it’s a real page turner after that.
The first twenty chapters are currently available for download at Frugal Squirrels, but the author apparently has a movie deal in the works so the full version of the eBook is scarce. If you can’t find one, contact me and I’ll send you a link.
It is important to be clear on one point; whether or not the effects of an EMP attack on electronic devices are exaggerated or not is largely irrelevant – the consequences for the collapse of our society would still likely be the nearly same since it very likely would take down the networks needed for modern life in the U.S. We would have the benefit of power, communications, and transportation for a bit longer, but when supply chains disintegrate, so does the rest.
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