One Second After

an End-of-the-world Novel To Rank With the Stand And lucifer's Hammer publishers Weeklyin This Entertaining Apocalyptic Thriller From Forstchen (we Look Like Men Of War), A High-altitude Nuclear Bomb Of Uncertain Origin Explodes, Unleashing A Deadly Electromagnetic Pulse That Instantly Disables Almost Every Electrical Device In The U.s. And Elsewhere In The World. Airplanes, Most Cars, Cellphones, Refrigerators-all Are Fried As The Country Plunges Into Literal And Metaphoric Darkness. History Professor John Matherson, Who Lives With His Two Daughters In A Small North Carolina Town, Soon Figures Out What Has Happened. Aided By Local Officials, Matherson Begins To Deal With Such Long-term Effects Of The Disaster As Starvation, Disease And Roving Gangs Of Barbarians. While The Material Sometimes Threatens To Veer Into Jingoism, And Heartstrings Are Tugged A Little Too Vigorously, Fans Of Such Classics As alas, Babylon And on The Beach Will Have A Good Time As Forstchen Tackles The Obvious And Some Not-so-obvious Questions The Apocalypse Tends To Raise. Newt Gingrich Provides A Foreword. (mar.)copyright © Reed Business Information, A Division Of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.