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The Annoyed Man wrote: The novel actually postulates 3 or 4 such high altitude detonations, launched over the U.S. from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts, effectively blanketing the entire nation in an EMP effect. The launch platforms are old container ships. If I don't recall the national origin of the perpetrators except that they represented a rogue political force in the world which exists today — like the North Koreans, or the Iranians, etc.

Ah I see. So it's based off of the Congressional Report.

http://www.mountainx.com/files/EMP_from ... y_2008.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and http://www.mountainx.com/files/EMP_Commish_2004.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Obviously I haven't read "One Second After" but as I understand from the synopsis the plot is that an EMP wave caused by a single high altitude ICBM detonation takes out all of the electrical infrastructure in America.

Call me a young whippersnapper (that's got more than a few credits toward Electrical Engineering), but I simply do not believe that we can be THAT vulnerable. It most decidedly could wreak some serious havoc in a sensitive area like say the stock exchange in New York, but a nationwide black out.... I don't buy it. It would need to be dozens or more detonations, in which case you might as well launch a full-scale nuclear attack. Obviously I've done a little research before stating my piece but here are the known effects for similar high altitude explosions:

In 1962, the United States conducted a test called "Starfish," detonating a nuclear weapon about 250 miles above Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean. The resulting EMP reached all the way to the Hawaiian Islands, a little over 700 miles away. There, on the far edge of the EMP field, the explosion extinguished streetlights in Honolulu, tripped circuit breakers, triggered burglar alarms, and damaged a telecommunications relay facility.

The Soviet tests included a series of high altitude nuclear detonations over South Central Asia. EMP from these tests damaged overhead (and even underground) electrical cables at a range of 375 miles, causing surge arrestor burnout, blown fuses, and blackouts.

I don't know how high of an altitude you would need but 250 miles is a loooong way straight up. That only carried for an approximately range of 700 miles and was only strong enough to trip some breakers.

Now you've got the Reds doing some much more serious damage at 375 miles, but that's why the grid has several redundancies in place.

Point being, I find the prospect of a complete and utter extended financial collapse to be much much more feasible and terrifying.

I'm about 2/3rd of the way through the Kindle edition. I really like the scenarios that are laid out and it has got me thinking about a number of things I never would have otherwise. All-in-all though I found the character development a little shallow and the morality is a bit too black-and-white. I prefer to grey things up a little. I understand it's more of a survival manual in story form, but since it reads like a novel I can't help but want a little more from the plot/characters.