One Second After vs Lights Out by Halffast

Re: One Second After vs Lights Out

Oh, ok, I'm only about 60 pages into it. VERY slow start, but I've read more than a few books that started off very slow only to pick up the pace and end well.

 

Re: One Second After vs Lights Out

I'm afraid I have to agree with the assessment that the writer added a lot of gratuitous sex to spice it up. If you can get beyond that, then the basic story was good.

 

Re: One Second After vs Lights Out

Dut to some references and "personal" ties....
(pages: 579-580)
No further comments on about this one!

 

Re: One Second After vs Lights Out

I liked Lights Out better than One Second After.

I hated how he let Ginger the dog starve. Instead of feeding her the remains of his house intruder, or the remains of the attacking people, he starved her, then finally killed her to feed to his daughter.

Instead of eating the dead bodies directly, I think it would be better to cook them thoroughly, to limit infectious disease, then let flys breed on them. The maggots can then be harvested, cooked, and eaten.

 

Re: One Second After vs Lights Out

Lights Out vs. One Second After

I read lights out long ago and have re-read it several times. Obviously it's a good read or I wouldn't keep coming back.

One Second After is a new and important kind of survival fiction. It has no characters who are survivalists! (I think this is groundbreaking.) The book is far more approachable if the reader is a "civilian" - a typical city dweller, in other words. These are the most important readers, since they are the people we need to convert.

Give your typical city dweller "Lights Out" and their reaction would probably be "I could never fight like that, I don't have any guns, my boss won't give me thousands in cash and silver coins and hundreds of gallons of fuel when the shtf and I can't afford all the supplies. I'm hosed..."

Give that same reader "One Second After" and their reaction will be more like "gee, if they just had a few things on hand they'd have been so much better off. I could do that." THAT is why the absence of survivalist characters is so powerful.

Sure, Mark in Lights Out is a great character in many ways, but he's a pretty ideal guy to weather the storm. He has a black belt, a carry permit and a bunch of guns, a fantastic tough as nails wife, 5 acres with a well and generator, a boss who hands out 90% silver coins like candy and a best friend who fills in the gaps. How likely is that?

In One Second After there are no ideal characters - just a bunch of normal everyday people in a small town who are struggling with the collapse of civilization and the darker side of human nature. The professional editing don't hurt either. It's fiction, but it's plausible fiction.

For every one person who loves Lights Out, there are probably ten who would dismiss it as farfetched. Of the ten, I'd bet five or six would be sobered by One Second After and could see themselves in that survival situation.

I say, play the odds: If the reader is a shooter, hunter or survivalist then we should recommend Lights Out first. It's the most fun by far. If the reader is a city dweller who hasn't walked further than the mailbox in a decade and pays someone else to mow the lawn, One Second After is the book to share. Once you've reeled them in, give them Lights Out for icing on the cake!

 

Re: One Second After vs Lights Out

I have read both and I think Lights Out is way better!!

 

Re: One Second After vs Lights Out

I get "lost" sometimes when reading and I can't do 2 at a time as it gets weird! I need to take abreak now and then and take a refresher course in the absurdity of humanity.....
In other words:
I met and spoke with 4 people in 2 days about moving up to my place and was truly appalled.
I'm thinking of selling my place, as I found a nice cave nearby and may decide to move in it!
I can see the advantages of becoming a hermit, or perhaps a troll, but I'm too tall!
Lately I've been way too danged busy to read anything.....welding, and so on....Too much to get done and so little time to do any of it!

 

I agree pretty much 100% with fireplaceguy's post above. I've read both, OSA first and then LO. I really liked both, but OSA totally freaked me out for a good 2-3 days. As a shooter and hunter it still really opened my eyes A LOT. I kept thinking how I would handle my 1 year old son. I liked LO better though.The only issue I had was the whole time I was thinking "what if their boss didnt give them all that money to start out with?, how realistic is that?" They would have had quite a bit more trouble than they did. They had their problems, but the main stuff seemed to fall in to place pretty well. It did make me start paying more attention to people I know with old cars (my in-laws neighbor has a mint LTD from the early 70's in his garage), people I know who have well water instead of city water, etc.

As a side note, I read both of them on my barnes & noble nook e-reader which I assume would be fried if an EMP hit. I found that kinda funny.

 

Where can I find a copy of Lights Out? I have OSA and found it really scary. Great book. Tried to get family members to read it tdo, but so far, they want to keep their heads in the sand.

 

Click on search above, .... type in "lights out", .... then go to and read the thread about give away of signed copies of lights out.
.
Bottom line, the author has requested it be taken down where posted online. It is being published. Survival Monkey is having a drawing to give away 20 signed copies. And last but not least it should be available for purchase shortly.

 

To me, OSA was a series of calculated emotional hits, bent on upsetting and scaring me. It was also rather preachy. LO was more of a good story, leaving you with a feeling that good people can make it. It may take some luck as well as preps, but you can make it.

Yes, OSA is probably more real. Yes, LO was written by a survivalist for other survivalists. They are very different books. Still, if i could only read one, I'd read LO.

We all know people on daily meds will die if its really SHTF and old people and decorative pets will also die - do we really want to read accounts of this happening? For me the occasional thread on a survival forum is enough. I function and prep better if I dwell less on the worst cases of such situations and more on learning about gardenng, scratch cooking and such.

I also hope the writer of LO writes another book!

 

I just finishes One Second After yesterday, as it was recommended by a friend. I thought it was very good. When will Lights Out be published?

 

Melbo, thank you!

 

I downloaded Lights Out a few months ago and enjoyed it very much. I hope to read One Second After soon. Then I will be able to compare the two but I suspect they both have much "food for thought" to offer.

 

I found lights out about a year ago, after reading an article about EMP. I did a google and I believe it was in a forum, that there was a link to the book.

I have to honestly say, it was one of the best things I have ever read. It really got you to thinking about yourself and family, in this type situation. It took me twice as long to read, since I kept stopping to think..what would I do. It even had me ordering a crank radio..that, believe it or not, is stored the way it should be..just in case.

A few months later, I got the hard copy of one second after. I was very disappointed in it. Lights out made we WANT to read one second after, had I read it first..it wouldnt have made me want to read lights out. Lights out kept you at the edge of your seat...one second after was boring and I found myself reading with little interest.

I also agree with the person that feels everything just fell into place in Lights Out. The old car, the generator, the silver and cash given by the boss, etc. Chances are, none of us would be that lucky. But, what it did do was make you think and give you other information that could prove to be very valuable to you. It gave me a good idea on what would happen, if the lights really DID go out...which is something I never even thought of before.

If this book doesnt get published and isnt a best seller, there is something wrong, somewhere. I have been reading novels for almost 50 years. Most of them, I dont remember. I will never forget this book.

 

I liked reading both LO and OSA. Of course the characters in LO got about every break possible. The characters in OSA didn't get organized very quickly. Since the great depression notwithstanding, we have no real experience in living, surviving and operating in a collapsed society. These books, and others, serve to give us a running 'wargaming' exercise - what if this happened, what would I do? Or, 'hey, I never thought of that, need to prepare for that contingency as well'. I reviewed both books on my site, http://www.urbansurvivalskills.com and wrote about those lessons learned. Both authors did us all favors for using their skills to not only entertain us, but to make us all think.

I also think thats a main benefit of coming to these Survival forums, where we all learn or get promted to think from each thers comments.

UrbanMan

 

I liked Lights Out...Haven't "heard" OSA yet...Need listening time...

 

I have read and reread this. Quite accurate is some respects and totally wrong in others. Overall I found it a decent read.

 

Really want the book when it comes out.