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Lightning Fall: A Novel of Disaster
"Bill Quick has authored a terrific thriller that is also an all too plausible warning. Highly recommended!" - Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit.com Three terrorist attacks are launched from freighters against the United States. Only one fully succeeds, but in the blink of an eye all of the country west of the Rocky Mountains is transformed into the technological equivalent of the 18th century - no electricity, no computers, no electronics of any kind, and none of the amenities of modern life that depend on them. This is the story of ordinary and extraordinary people, high and low, who struggle to survive in a mortally wounded nation, as America's enemies within and without circle for the kill. A Latino gang-banger becomes Mayor of a devastated Los Angeles; a gay survivalist fights for his life in San Francisco; an ordinary Indiana housewife and her three children struggle to keep their lives together in a crashing economy; a shrimp fisherman in Louisiana watches a mushroom cloud rise over New Orleans; the Admiral in charge of the military defense of the nation faces a storm of enemies from every corner of the compass; and the President of the United States and the Speaker of the House of Representatives battle for supremacy as the lives of sixty million Americans hang in the balance. LIGHTNING FALL tells a riveting story of terror, tragedy, and triumph you will never forget.
673 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 15, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 6, 2014
Audiobook Review
1 1/2 Stars
What a traumatic read! After listening to half the book, I stopped. Here's why:
It's September 11, 2019. Terrorists have nuked New Orleans, set off an EMP on the West Coast, and failed a nuclear strike on the East Coast. The Government is paralyzed in acting. The President is a terrible parody of Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton. They are more concerned with the political ramifications of loosing California's vote than the 60+ million affected citizens West of the Rockies. They don't pay much attention to New Orleans, because, well, they're nuked and what can you do for a city that's nuked? The President is portrayed as a Democratic incompetent political operative, and the Tea Party is there to save the day! Individuals across the nation who are survivalists with lots of guns and food are the ones who manage to survive (surprise).
This book manages to (inaccurately) portray the following with egregious prejudice: Power-grabbing Democrats, Survivalists, Tea Party groups, Mexican Gangs, Black Gangs, Towelheads, the Chinese, the Mormons, Gays, Powerful Men and Subservient Women, and a very few average intelligent survivors. The dialogue of the 'minorities' is so pathetic, I heard the 90's calling, asking for their ghetto-speak back. The author gave it up as a true 'cracker,' having done absolutely no research into the social structures or language of current-day gang speak. I also found it rather curious that no one managed to straggle out of the West's EMP zone and post egregious stories to Twitter that exposed the reality of the event. After all, the setting IS 2019. This felt like a post-apocalyptic book written in 1985, with no knowledge of current social structures or media.
If you are really into Tea Party politics, think that the world's coming to an end, and believe that building a bunker and stockpiling weapons is the solution, read on. Otherwise, Ctrl-Alt-Del.
1 1/2 Stars
What a traumatic read! After listening to half the book, I stopped. Here's why:
It's September 11, 2019. Terrorists have nuked New Orleans, set off an EMP on the West Coast, and failed a nuclear strike on the East Coast. The Government is paralyzed in acting. The President is a terrible parody of Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton. They are more concerned with the political ramifications of loosing California's vote than the 60+ million affected citizens West of the Rockies. They don't pay much attention to New Orleans, because, well, they're nuked and what can you do for a city that's nuked? The President is portrayed as a Democratic incompetent political operative, and the Tea Party is there to save the day! Individuals across the nation who are survivalists with lots of guns and food are the ones who manage to survive (surprise).
This book manages to (inaccurately) portray the following with egregious prejudice: Power-grabbing Democrats, Survivalists, Tea Party groups, Mexican Gangs, Black Gangs, Towelheads, the Chinese, the Mormons, Gays, Powerful Men and Subservient Women, and a very few average intelligent survivors. The dialogue of the 'minorities' is so pathetic, I heard the 90's calling, asking for their ghetto-speak back. The author gave it up as a true 'cracker,' having done absolutely no research into the social structures or language of current-day gang speak. I also found it rather curious that no one managed to straggle out of the West's EMP zone and post egregious stories to Twitter that exposed the reality of the event. After all, the setting IS 2019. This felt like a post-apocalyptic book written in 1985, with no knowledge of current social structures or media.
If you are really into Tea Party politics, think that the world's coming to an end, and believe that building a bunker and stockpiling weapons is the solution, read on. Otherwise, Ctrl-Alt-Del.
April 10, 2014
Full disclosure: I've met the author. We share a rather large circle of acquaintances.
Bill Quick describes a possible (overwhelmingly probable, in my opinion) outcome should the continental United States be attacked by a nuclear-armed enemy. In his scenario, two container ships armed with nuclear-tipped missiles sit off our East and West coasts, and a third ship with just a warhead enters the port of New Orleans. In a coordinated strike, the ships off the coasts launch their missiles (the East coast ship being slightly delayed due to bad weather) and the nuke in New Orleans is detonated.
The result: a massive electromagnetic pulse wipes out the entire electrical/electronic infrastructure of California and pretty much everything West of the Rockies from Canada to Baja Mexico. The blast and the resulting plutonium-polluted fog from the New Orleans bomb renders the city and port facilities of New Orleans uninhabitable for decades. The East coast missile, aimed at Washington, D.C. is knocked down.
And the U.S. begins to die.
It's a pretty frightening scenario, and entirely too plausible to ignore.
I think I need to order some Mountain House freeze-dried food...
Bill Quick describes a possible (overwhelmingly probable, in my opinion) outcome should the continental United States be attacked by a nuclear-armed enemy. In his scenario, two container ships armed with nuclear-tipped missiles sit off our East and West coasts, and a third ship with just a warhead enters the port of New Orleans. In a coordinated strike, the ships off the coasts launch their missiles (the East coast ship being slightly delayed due to bad weather) and the nuke in New Orleans is detonated.
The result: a massive electromagnetic pulse wipes out the entire electrical/electronic infrastructure of California and pretty much everything West of the Rockies from Canada to Baja Mexico. The blast and the resulting plutonium-polluted fog from the New Orleans bomb renders the city and port facilities of New Orleans uninhabitable for decades. The East coast missile, aimed at Washington, D.C. is knocked down.
And the U.S. begins to die.
It's a pretty frightening scenario, and entirely too plausible to ignore.
I think I need to order some Mountain House freeze-dried food...
April 8, 2014
If you like your catastrophe/survivalist novels with a big heaping dose of slimy, treasonous Democrats and heroic America-First Republicans then you will like this novel. I suspected things were going awry when the author uses the real name of the two previous presidents but gives the current president (set in 2019) and her husband, a former president (guess who here), a different name. And boy, does he do everything to trash this pair! What? The husband goes by BJ. Too obvious you say; not for Bill Quick! As for any positive ethnic portrayals, forget about it. And women stay home while the men handle the issue. I mean, with a political plot that could have been ripped from the pages of an Allen Drury novel (and, of course, the president's chief of staff is named Allen Drury) can you hit any more conservative/libertarian talking points: Islamic extremists – check, the brown menace from below the border – check, the manipulative Chinese – check, liberal clueless media – check, conspiratorial existential threat to the future of America – check, urban ethnic warfare – check, power hungry treasonous Democratic Presidents – check, and the list goes on. What is sad is that this is not poorly written and the danger of EMP attacks are pretty well thought out, but really, is it necessary to employ every boogeyman of the conservative movement to tell your story. You hammer a theme too long, it begins to look like a caricature.
August 9, 2016
Lightning Fall isn't the first novel to speculate about the probable effects of an electromagnetic pulse attack on the United States. The two earlier ones that I have read, One Second After and Lights Out, tell stories of smallish communities trying to survive in the aftermath. Bill Quick is more ambitious. He tries to tell a wider story by following individuals at various points around the country as the United States begins to die.
It isn't a pretty story. It is a story of death and despair, a story of destruction, and a story of venal politicians looking after their own interests at all costs. But it is also a story of courage in the face of violence and downright evil. Though tens of millions have died by the end of the book there is some hope.
It is a big story. I expect a sequel.
It isn't a pretty story. It is a story of death and despair, a story of destruction, and a story of venal politicians looking after their own interests at all costs. But it is also a story of courage in the face of violence and downright evil. Though tens of millions have died by the end of the book there is some hope.
It is a big story. I expect a sequel.
May 14, 2020
Lightning Fall features remarkably talented writing for what appears, on its face, to be a simply another post-apocalyptic genre novel. In contrast, the most famous and closely-comparable book in the genre, One Second After, has such atrociously bad writing that the editor who let it pass (Robert Gleason) deserves as much shame as the author, notwithstanding its commercial success. Life is unfair.
Lightning Fall is strong in many literary dimensions. The plotting is very well done. Although this book sets up a sequel, both the main plot and multiple sub-plots are well thought out and acceptably, if not completely, resolved by the conclusion. There are some good plot twists. I thought I saw one coming, only to find that I had been “head-faked” by a double twist. Well done! The author isn’t afraid to have some sympathetic characters die, as opposed to obvious “red shirts”, so you can’t take that for granted, as in many novels. The action writing and settings are also quite good.
The book employs a sizable and diverse ensemble cast of characters spread across America. The author is notably good at writing almost all of these characters and their dialogue. Regrettably, there is a single minor character, Malcolm Osama Shabazz, who is a cartoonish stereotype voiced in tin-eared ghetto slang. This flaw really shouldn’t overshadow all the other well-written characters, but critics focus on it, which is fair enough in the one instance, but grossly unfair overall. On the other hand, it is like listening to a band with one member out of tune and out of tempo - it is unduly disruptive. It looks to me like there were some other people “contributing” minor characters to the book’s writing. If the Malcolm character was entirely the author’s own creation, he needs to stop writing characters about whom he is clueless. If someone else “contributed” the Malcolm character, they should be regarded like Yoko Ono and her “contribution” to The Beatles.
On the whole, it is a pleasant surprise and quite unusual to find such versatile writing, with a combination of good plotting, characters, dialogue, settings and action.
So, why does this book have a mediocre 3.x rating on goodreads? There is little doubt that it is because the arch-villain is a thinly-veiled Hillary Clinton, set in an alternate, dystopian universe in which she disastrously became President. The half of America who voted for her are infuriated by this depiction and are down-rating the book. The half of America who voted against her and are eternally grateful that she will never be President will generally love this book.
Objectively, this is a 4-star book for anyone whose opinion of Hillary is anywhere between neutral and “burn in hell”. I am adding one star to my rating because so many delusional Hillary fans are unfairly down-rating it.
A sequel, “After the Fall: American Caesar” was originally promised for Spring 2015 in the afterword. The author subsequently blogged on 6/16/2017 that he had decided to write it, but I have seen nothing since then. Please write the sequel, Mr. Quick! You are an unusually talented writer and have already created a marvelous “Lightning Fall” literary universe. Can we get a Patreon funding program going? I am ready to contribute and pre-order!
Lightning Fall is strong in many literary dimensions. The plotting is very well done. Although this book sets up a sequel, both the main plot and multiple sub-plots are well thought out and acceptably, if not completely, resolved by the conclusion. There are some good plot twists. I thought I saw one coming, only to find that I had been “head-faked” by a double twist. Well done! The author isn’t afraid to have some sympathetic characters die, as opposed to obvious “red shirts”, so you can’t take that for granted, as in many novels. The action writing and settings are also quite good.
The book employs a sizable and diverse ensemble cast of characters spread across America. The author is notably good at writing almost all of these characters and their dialogue. Regrettably, there is a single minor character, Malcolm Osama Shabazz, who is a cartoonish stereotype voiced in tin-eared ghetto slang. This flaw really shouldn’t overshadow all the other well-written characters, but critics focus on it, which is fair enough in the one instance, but grossly unfair overall. On the other hand, it is like listening to a band with one member out of tune and out of tempo - it is unduly disruptive. It looks to me like there were some other people “contributing” minor characters to the book’s writing. If the Malcolm character was entirely the author’s own creation, he needs to stop writing characters about whom he is clueless. If someone else “contributed” the Malcolm character, they should be regarded like Yoko Ono and her “contribution” to The Beatles.
On the whole, it is a pleasant surprise and quite unusual to find such versatile writing, with a combination of good plotting, characters, dialogue, settings and action.
So, why does this book have a mediocre 3.x rating on goodreads? There is little doubt that it is because the arch-villain is a thinly-veiled Hillary Clinton, set in an alternate, dystopian universe in which she disastrously became President. The half of America who voted for her are infuriated by this depiction and are down-rating the book. The half of America who voted against her and are eternally grateful that she will never be President will generally love this book.
Objectively, this is a 4-star book for anyone whose opinion of Hillary is anywhere between neutral and “burn in hell”. I am adding one star to my rating because so many delusional Hillary fans are unfairly down-rating it.
A sequel, “After the Fall: American Caesar” was originally promised for Spring 2015 in the afterword. The author subsequently blogged on 6/16/2017 that he had decided to write it, but I have seen nothing since then. Please write the sequel, Mr. Quick! You are an unusually talented writer and have already created a marvelous “Lightning Fall” literary universe. Can we get a Patreon funding program going? I am ready to contribute and pre-order!
October 13, 2018
Prepper Justification Porn
When I read the description of this book, I thought "hmm a gay guy and a housewife might be a new spin on post-apocalypse" but how wrong was I? This libertarian white-mansplaining is 19 repetitive hours of characters learning why you should prep like a paranoid psychotic for a potential EMP/Nuclear holocaust. That housewife learned from her absurdly insightful 17 year old son how the world really worked, and the answer is GUNS! If you don't have a gun, your liberal idealism will get you killed. Also liberals are stupid and they pay protesters to riot! If you prep hard enough to survive the onslaught of evil black thugs and Mexican invading army, then the US military will promote you to a top tier when they get to your apartment. This Hillary Clinton stand-in president is certainly a crazy woman who will learn her lesson about all the mistakes she made when the man takes over later.
Still surprisingly not the most sexist piece of garbage I read all year. Two stars for at least pointing out the tenuous relationships of society's interdependence and the fact that money is only valuable because we believe it is.
When I read the description of this book, I thought "hmm a gay guy and a housewife might be a new spin on post-apocalypse" but how wrong was I? This libertarian white-mansplaining is 19 repetitive hours of characters learning why you should prep like a paranoid psychotic for a potential EMP/Nuclear holocaust. That housewife learned from her absurdly insightful 17 year old son how the world really worked, and the answer is GUNS! If you don't have a gun, your liberal idealism will get you killed. Also liberals are stupid and they pay protesters to riot! If you prep hard enough to survive the onslaught of evil black thugs and Mexican invading army, then the US military will promote you to a top tier when they get to your apartment. This Hillary Clinton stand-in president is certainly a crazy woman who will learn her lesson about all the mistakes she made when the man takes over later.
Still surprisingly not the most sexist piece of garbage I read all year. Two stars for at least pointing out the tenuous relationships of society's interdependence and the fact that money is only valuable because we believe it is.
November 9, 2021
Bought this book in 2014, but only now got around to reading it.
And now we can see it doesn't take an EMP attack, just a Chinese lab leak to destroy the US Constitution.
And now we can see it doesn't take an EMP attack, just a Chinese lab leak to destroy the US Constitution.
August 13, 2014
So much fiction presents scenarios in which everything we take for granted in this world is lost. Offhand, I can remember reading novels in which the Earth stops spinning, is hit by a comet, or suffers some apocalypse that is never explained. Then there are the stories in which the disaster is self-inflicted. Lightning Fall is more or less in the latter group. The calamity here is precipitated by foreign aggression, but it's especially devastating because nobody in authority ever gave thought to preparing for an entirely credible threat. It becomes even worse because America's leaders (notably very recognizable stand-ins for President Hillary Clinton and First Husband BJ) are concerned only with capitalizing on events for their own political benefit.
The narrative switches between the experiences of numerous people in different locations around the country, among them a gay couple in San Francisco, a shrimp fishing family on the Gulf Coast, a widow in Indiana, a middle-aged guy in suburban Pennsylvania, a traveling TV news crew, an Hispanic criminal in Los Angeles, and a genius living in a small town near Reno. In most subplots there's one competent individual on whom the others must depend for their survival. But as the story moves along, the focus increasingly shifts to the capital, which (unfortunately, it turns out) suffered no direct effects of the attack and therefore becomes an obstacle to recovery.
I found it odd that there was almost no reference to other nations during the aftermath of the calamity. Mexico and China turn out to be no friends of the U.S., but I thought it odd that nobody--not even Canada--lifts a finger to help. Nor, apparently, does anyone even think of asking.
The story is more readable than some survivalist fiction I could name. The main characters are reasonably well fleshed out and their thinking is easy to follow. Also, like An Imperfect Lens , it nudged me to consider some practical changes in my personal habits. Given that the government cannot and will not protect us in the event of a true disaster, it's reckless and foolish not to be at least somewhat prepared.
I heard about this book from blogger Glenn Reynolds, with whose politics I often agree (although his literary judgments have sometimes disappointed me). Given that he plugged it in USA Today, I rather expected a product that would at least be free of typos and other errors. Unfortunately, it's not. I haven't seen such an absence of copyediting outside of the most amateurish self-published books, of which I don't think this is one. If I'm gonna ding books like that (and I do), I definitely have to complain about this one as well. Let's hope the problem is soon corrected.
Then of course there's going to be a sequel, in which smart people put the country back together, perhaps better than before (aside from the fact that the population will have been drastically reduced). That's probably going to be an exercise in sketching out a structurally improved system. I might get around to reading it...
The narrative switches between the experiences of numerous people in different locations around the country, among them a gay couple in San Francisco, a shrimp fishing family on the Gulf Coast, a widow in Indiana, a middle-aged guy in suburban Pennsylvania, a traveling TV news crew, an Hispanic criminal in Los Angeles, and a genius living in a small town near Reno. In most subplots there's one competent individual on whom the others must depend for their survival. But as the story moves along, the focus increasingly shifts to the capital, which (unfortunately, it turns out) suffered no direct effects of the attack and therefore becomes an obstacle to recovery.
I found it odd that there was almost no reference to other nations during the aftermath of the calamity. Mexico and China turn out to be no friends of the U.S., but I thought it odd that nobody--not even Canada--lifts a finger to help. Nor, apparently, does anyone even think of asking.
The story is more readable than some survivalist fiction I could name. The main characters are reasonably well fleshed out and their thinking is easy to follow. Also, like An Imperfect Lens , it nudged me to consider some practical changes in my personal habits. Given that the government cannot and will not protect us in the event of a true disaster, it's reckless and foolish not to be at least somewhat prepared.
I heard about this book from blogger Glenn Reynolds, with whose politics I often agree (although his literary judgments have sometimes disappointed me). Given that he plugged it in USA Today, I rather expected a product that would at least be free of typos and other errors. Unfortunately, it's not. I haven't seen such an absence of copyediting outside of the most amateurish self-published books, of which I don't think this is one. If I'm gonna ding books like that (and I do), I definitely have to complain about this one as well. Let's hope the problem is soon corrected.
Then of course there's going to be a sequel, in which smart people put the country back together, perhaps better than before (aside from the fact that the population will have been drastically reduced). That's probably going to be an exercise in sketching out a structurally improved system. I might get around to reading it...
May 4, 2014
Survivalists will find this book right up their alley. It describes events that take place after an EMP attack and the effect it has on those who are prepared and those who are not.
There is an awful lot of politics towards the end of the book that, for me, became rather boring. Also the ending was somewhat unsatisfying, but apparently there will be a sequel in 2015 (a lot time to wait).
This was one of the first books I've read related to a potential apocalypse and it definitely made me think. The likelihood of something like this happening is all too real and I would venture to say that few of us are truly prepared.
P.S. The reason I didn't give it 5 stars is the editing is atrocious! If the story hadn't been so intriguing, I would probably never have finished it. Please, Mr. Quick, hire an editor for your next book!
There is an awful lot of politics towards the end of the book that, for me, became rather boring. Also the ending was somewhat unsatisfying, but apparently there will be a sequel in 2015 (a lot time to wait).
This was one of the first books I've read related to a potential apocalypse and it definitely made me think. The likelihood of something like this happening is all too real and I would venture to say that few of us are truly prepared.
P.S. The reason I didn't give it 5 stars is the editing is atrocious! If the story hadn't been so intriguing, I would probably never have finished it. Please, Mr. Quick, hire an editor for your next book!
January 9, 2015
A fast-paced, readable and interesting load of nonsense. The author, a prepper who clearly has an issue with democrats in general and the Clinton's in particular, has created a US that has been damaged by an EMP explosion on the west coast. The plot is involved - perhaps too involved - and the dystopian outcome of the EMP attack is over the top. (A Chinese-Mexican invasion of Southern California... really?!) But I found it fun to read when I wasn't shaking my head at the author's clear political agenda.
The book had a ridiculous number of types, which I thought this was especially problematic given that the author has an agent and an editor and other supporters who should have spotted this stuff! Also, it is clearly first in a series so several plot lines were just left hanging out there for resolution in the next book.
The book had a ridiculous number of types, which I thought this was especially problematic given that the author has an agent and an editor and other supporters who should have spotted this stuff! Also, it is clearly first in a series so several plot lines were just left hanging out there for resolution in the next book.
April 1, 2014
Story of survival after a near-future terrorist attack that succeeds in nuking New Orleans and EMP-ing the US west of the Rockies. This was very absorbing, although it was obviously more action than character driven. It features a lot of (3rd person tight) viewpoint characters, some only once, but pulls this off without diverting the plot. Could have had 4 stars but lost a star for ridiculous politics (ACORN oh please), praising John Ringo--and boy do this author and Ringo hate, hate, hate the Clintons...but this author is far less supercilious and condescending in tone than Ringo so I kept with it until the end. There is going to be a sequel and I need to read that.
May 1, 2015
A wonderfully long (18+hours) story detailing the impact of an EMP strike on our nation. The narrative covers the effects on both the well-to-do and the average, the housewife and the politician. Regarding politics; the author displays his prejudice against "the Carters" by showcasing Hilary in the Oval Office and Bill as her staunch supporter and defender. I see by the reviews a lot of people disliked it, but I thought it was quite amusing ala tongue-in-cheek. Not a "prepper" or survival novel by any means, not sure how I would categorize this work. Political satire? Ha! An interesting and/or fun read if you can get through it. Three.point.five for the effort.
Read
July 21, 2014I really don't even know where to start on this one. A serviceable EMP/Social Breakdown novel muddied up by a strange blend of Tea Party/Libertarian message fiction and poorly drawn political parodies that were unintentionally funny. The narration was good at least, especially Heller's Bill Clinton.
January 2, 2015
I listened to the audio version of this book.
While there scenario is plausible, and scary as hell. I had a hard time getting around the direct references of former Democrats. And really it was hard not to notice that the author's political leanings. And I felt it muddied the story and he could have done without the heavy handedness. Its an ok story that would have been so very much more.
While there scenario is plausible, and scary as hell. I had a hard time getting around the direct references of former Democrats. And really it was hard not to notice that the author's political leanings. And I felt it muddied the story and he could have done without the heavy handedness. Its an ok story that would have been so very much more.
November 30, 2016
I found this book fascinating, informational, and worth every page
I found this book page turning and every page worth the long read and a very long word it Parages, it'll let you knows so much more about our government and what would really happen if any MP happened, basically no matter what kind of disaster we are still on our own
I found this book page turning and every page worth the long read and a very long word it Parages, it'll let you knows so much more about our government and what would really happen if any MP happened, basically no matter what kind of disaster we are still on our own
May 4, 2014
This could have used a more thorough editing - quite a few more typoes and misspellings than you'd expect in a published work - and the politics were a little heavy handed at times, but ultimately an enjoyable read. I'll probably pick up the sequel.
April 14, 2014
Well written, reminded me of Survivors, but much better than it's sequels. Looking forward to part 2.
July 4, 2016
Despite some interesting plot movement in the novel, I'm really bothered by the implicit anti-black stance and unnecessary anti-Muslim rhetoric.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews