Overall the book was well written and I would recommend anyone to read it, especially anyone in the military.
The subject of EMP (electromagnetic pulse) is an interesting one and important one to be discussed. Right now our lives are intertwined with electronics and having an EMP over the United States would knock her to her knees if such a thing would happen. Though no doubt that there would be a lot of death and destruction after one of these such attacks, I don't think that people would be as complacent as the characters in the book. What Mr. Forstchen didn't take into account are people's will to live. He assumed that people from a small rural town in North Carolina would just stay put in that town for over a year. What I think would happen in such a case would be that they would move out west to find the farm land in the Midwest. I also think that there would be more work at farming and bringing in food earlier than when they were starting. Also Mr. Forstchen just assumed that there was no one around who really knew how to survive without the technology, that they could do things like farm or manage livestock, hunt, or conserve. Another thing that I don't think that the author really took into account was, when people started to die off there would be more food for the surviving people. Also along with that they would have more food from the people leaving. Not that it would be all roses and there would have to be rationing but I don't think he addressed what the loss of people meant to the food supply very well.
What is true is the amount of people dying off due to illness, disease, and already weakened states where there is a need for medical equipment. In the novel the scene where the main character goes to find his elderly father-in-law who was at the nursing home was disturbing but imaginable in such as situation. I didn't realize how dependent a type 1 diabetic would be on technology either. The main character's youngest daughter was a diabetic. Her blood sugar reader was electronic and died. Then there were her insulin vials needed to be kept cold in order to maintain their potency, so when there is no electricity, they go bad.
