48 Hours

by William R. Forstchen

From the New York Times bestselling author of the smash hit One Second After series comes 48 Hours, a nail-biting and prescient thriller about a solar storm with the power to destroy the world's electrical infrastructure

In 48 hours, the Earth will be hit by a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) from the Sun, a "Carrington Event" that has the power to shut down and possibly destroy the world's electrical infrastructure. To try and prevent permanent damage, everything goes dark prior to the hit: global communications are shut down; hospital emergency generators are disconnected; the entire internet, media broadcasting, and cell phone systems are turned off.

Will the world's population successfully defend itself in the wake of the CME, or will mass panic lead to the breakdown of society as we know it?

William R. Forstchen is at his best in 48 Hours, a tale of the resilience of American citizens when faced with a crisis.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Post Apocalyptic, Thriller, Apocalyptic, Dystopia

336 pages, Hardcover

First published May 27, 2013

About the author

William R. Forstchen (born 1950) is an American author who began publishing in 1983 with the novel Ice Prophet. He is a Professor of History and Faculty Fellow at Montreat College, in Montreat, North Carolina. He received his doctorate from Purdue University with specializations in Military History, the American Civil War and the History of Technology.

Forstchen is the author of more than forty books, including the award winning We Look Like Men of War, a young adult novel about an African-American regiment that fought at the Battle of the Crater, which is based upon his doctoral dissertation, The 28th USCTs: Indiana’s African-Americans go to War, 1863-1865 and the "Lost Regiment" series which has been optioned by both Tom Cruise and M. Night Shyamalan.

Forstchen’s writing efforts have, in recent years, shifted towards historical fiction and non fiction. In 2002 he started the “Gettysburg” trilogy with Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich; the trilogy consists of Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War, Grant Comes East, and Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant - The Final Victory. More recently, they have have published two works on the events leading up to Pearl Harbor and immediately after that attack Pearl Harbor, and Days of Infamy.

In March 2009, Forstchen’s latest work, One Second After, (Forge/St. Martin’s books) was released. Based upon several years of intensive research and interviews, it examines what might happen in a “typical” American town in the wake of an attack on the United States with “electro-magnetic pulse” (EMP) weapons. Similar in plotting to books such as On the Beach and Alas Babylon, One Second After, is set in a small college town in western North Carolina and is a cautionary tale of the collapse of social order in the wake of an EMP strike. The book has been optioned by Warner Bros. and currently is in development as a feature film. The book was cited on the floor of Congress and before the House Armed Services Committee by Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R.-MD), chair of the House Committee tasked to evaluate EMP weapons, as a realistical portrayal of the potential damage rendered by an EMP attack on the continental United States.

Forstchen resides near Asheville, North Carolina with his daughter Meghan. His other interests include archaeology, and he has participated in several expeditions to Mongolia and Russia. He is a pilot and co owns an original 1943 Aeronca L-3B recon plane used in World War II.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/willia...

Reviews

[James Mason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a solar physicist working in that lab at NASA Goddard. I wish the author would have had one of us (or the numerous others around the world) take a read of the preprint and suggest some corrections. None of it would’ve affected the plot or characters. In that way, the book could’ve been accurate as well as tell the good story already here. I am happy with the way it ended and the diverse responses of people around the country. That was really well written. Making the solar physicist a descendant of Carrington was gratuitous, I thought, but whatever.
As for the inaccuracies:
1. The sun's gravity is not what contains its eruptions. It’s the magnetic field.
2. Solar flares are light, usually UV, X-ray, and radio. In the big ones, you also get gamma rays. In the truly exceptional ones (like the Carrington event) you also get visible light.
3. CMEs are charged particles (ions (mostly of hydrogen which means they are just protons) and electrons). There are no gamma rays caught up in the cloud of the CME because gamma rays are photons (light).
4. Solar energetic particles (SEPs) are the type of eruption that he mixed up as a flare and what he randomly renamed them to: “coronal proton event”. These are a relative few (compared to a CME) charged particles that get accelerated to near the speed of light in a relatively focused beam.
5. It’s not gamma rays that interact with the earth's magnetosphere, it’s the charged particles that comprise the CME. Those are also what end up streaming along the earth's magnetic field lines and slamming into the atmosphere to produce the aurora and the impacts on power grids and the like.
6. Sunspots aren’t how we gauge energy build up. We look at the magnetic field on the solar “surface” and UV/X-ray light from the corona.
7. Only simple sunspots would look like an eye. That would be an indicator that in fact there’s not much energy stored there. The more complex they are, the more energy.
8. SEPs follow the Parker spiral, so if one erupted while the active region (sunspot) was directly facing earth, it would miss us. Instead it would need to be facing a few tens of degrees to the side.
9. Where the heck were the HELIOS satellites? He said it took 9 minutes for their comms to reach earth which would put them further than the sun, which makes no sense.
10. We have a lot more than just the three fictional HELIOS satellites. We actually have so many instruments monitoring the sun and its sphere of influence that we have coined an acronym for it: the Heliophysics System Observatory (https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/...) and even that graphic is woefully incomplete -- missing at least a dozen missions I can think of off the top of my head. In such a crisis, you can be be sure that we at the Goddard solar physics lab, the teams at SWPC, and similar facilities around the country and globe would be looking at data from all of these.. not just a single satellite. However, I can accept that this be left out for the sake of making the novel a tight story.

There should have been at least a casual mention of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA; the weather people) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) in Boulder, Colorado. This whole place is dedicated precisely to predicting solar eruptions and their impact on Earth. Of course, we at NASA also get involved but we tend to be mostly (admittedly not exclusively) focused on research while SWPC focuses on what we call "operations", i.e., the routine and robust forecasting.

I didn’t find “Mr. Science’s” demo very realistic. There’s no way they would use a gun shooting at people to illustrate CMEs, even if in the end it turned out not to be loaded.

Despite how many inaccuracies I listed above, I'm not dinging it too much for my rating. The overall premise was still correct: if such a solar eruptive event did occur and impact the earth, the consequences would be in line with those described in the book. A good story and moderately interesting characters brings my rating of the book overall to a 3.

[Misty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ll be honest. The writing in this novel leaves a lot to be desired. Sentences structures are clunky and awkward, the rules of grammar poorly executed or ignored. Add to these affronts shallow characters and an over-dependence on themes of religion (a huge turn-off for me), and this novel should technically be a train wreck, right? So why, then, am I wide awake at 2 am, having raced through the pages, holding my breath and rooting for humanity?

48 Hours is an apocalyptic novel that is set against the backdrop of a solar flare that threatens a global “extinction level event”. Forstchen’s work often plays in this genre sandbox, where I’ve encountered several of his other books and subsequently developed an appreciation for many aspects of his style. Though his writing is not a showcase of eloquence and sophistication, he knows how to build suspense—and does so masterfully. He is able to climb almost imperceptibly to a climax and then refuses to hit the brakes until the sometimes bitter end. Additionally, I am consistently impressed with his ability to set his sights on a single goal and then steadfastly refuse to deviate from it. This tunnel vision serves him well and is reflected in an avoidance of unnecessary blather—a refusal to develop subplots that don’t fuel the major storyline (an author indulgence I find to be inexcusable in many pieces of contemporary fiction). Finally, Forstchen engages the reader by appealing to commonalities we share relevant to the human condition (including an innate fear of dying) and then asks us to consider what our own reactions would be given the direst of circumstances. In short, he makes it personal.

This is not the typical “prepper-hides-in-the-mountains-‘til-it’s-over” story so common to the genre. Although heavy-handed on the religious overtones and overt quoting of scripture by the characters, this book shines a light on human nature in adversity that transcends the ethics of organized religion and focuses on “the better angels of our nature”.

[John (JC) · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Forstchen has written many excellent books in the past. This book is no exception. This is a heart wrenching story of personal sacrifice and selflessness.
The earth is facing an Extinction Level Event when the combination of a coronal mass ejection(CME) of incredible magnitude is joined by a coronal proton ejection(CPE) and is due to hit Earth in a few days. The magnetosphere which protects the Earth from CPE will be disabled by the prior strike of the CME, therefore exposing the population to an unsurvivable dose of radiation.
There are underground facilities to allow the government to move forward. This group would not only include the politicians, but people they deem necessary. The sad part is the term necessary includes prominent people, campaign contributors, mistresses and a garden variety of people that are there due to favors owed.
But all is not lost. There are those that believe the populace of the underground bunkers should be made up of mainly children, teachers of great reputation, medical personnel willing to sacrifice and other essential people who are selfless. Thus … the conflict begins.
This read is a nail biter with sleepless hours accompanying due to the eagerness to turn the next page. Many emotions will be experienced during the absorption of this material. Many questions will arise while perusing the next paragraph. Would you lay down your life for your fellow man?

[Charles Haywood · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read all of William Fortschen’s books. They’re among the best of apocalypse fiction, a genre dominated by potboilers, so naturally, I preordered this book. My big question was if the author could write something new, especially since at first glance it appears the apocalypse in "48 Hours" is very similar to the EMP found in Fortschen’s most famous book, "One Second After." Without giving the story away, I can tell you this book is quite original. And to me, the most interesting matter that Fortschen covers, indeed the plot driver of the entire book, relates to a long-running apocalypse concern of mine. Namely, that the government, at any level, is not our friend, and would be our enemy in any real crisis where someone has to lose.

It’s entirely obvious, upon a moment’s reflection, that in any crisis today, whether a pandemic that requires medicine, a nuclear attack that requires shelter, a famine that requires food, or an alien attack where the aliens demand human flesh to eat, that our rulers would save themselves and their cronies first, along with, to the extent possible, their own property, and certainly, as much as possible, their own power. I think this is mostly a new thing, the result of the rot of our ruling classes, including the disappearance of duty, virtue, and noblesse oblige. George Washington wouldn’t save himself first, but I am certain that both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton would (the latter more certainly than the former). Oh, sure, they’d make noises about how important it was that there be “continuity of government,” and that it was all for the future greater good, but the reality is that they’d make sure they got theirs, and so would their friends.

And it’s not just the President. For no reason I can comprehend, other than naked self-interest, Congress strongly believes that saving Congress is regarded as important, so they, their families, their staffers, and their hangers-on would get to the front of the line. Bureaucrats of all stripes, the poisonous fruit of the grasping administrative state, would also get served first. After all, how could we live without a fully staffed EEOC? And it’s not just the federal government: as Fortschen paints a vivid picture, it would be state governments as well. Not to mention that local governments would also get in on the act. Municipal governments mostly wouldn’t have bunkers or stockpiled food (although I bet New York and Chicago do, hidden and reserved for Bill de Blasio and Rahm Emanuel, along with their toadies). But I’m pretty certain, for example, that if the food in the stores ran out, in most municipalities the city government, allied with the police, would use the military equipment that the federal government has stupidly handed out, to go around to homes collecting it “for equitable distribution.” Which is one reason I occasionally run the thought experiment of how to deal with the armored personnel carrier my local police department operates. Did you know that modern APC’s can be easily pierced by standard .50 caliber rounds? I didn’t.

It’s unfortunate that today government is not to be trusted. Perhaps it never could have been trusted, but the difference today is that the government has enormously more power. Power to know what’s coming, power to build to protect the people who control it, power to defend what it builds. But that’s where we are, and at least the view of government as the enemy in a zero-sum crisis is something that people all across the political spectrum can get behind, although conservatives and libertarians are probably more inclined to this realization. That is, it might take liberals more time to realize that when government workers and their families go to the front of the line, that there won’t be a back of the line, whatever promises are being made. And those promises would be made—and perhaps even believed, because history shows that average people will swallow almost any story if accepting it makes them able to put off the choice to fight. A strange inertia seems to overcome most people. Rather than shooting their way to the front of the line when the fat EPA clerk waddles, along with his family and cousins, back into the “Government Workers Only” food line for seconds, then thirds, they’ll more likely wait for the promised crumbs to be dribbled to them through the barbed-wire-topped fence. That’s stupid. Shoot first.

I suppose you can’t really blame government workers for putting themselves at the front. It’s a natural human response, after all. Self-sacrifice to benefit others is largely, or exclusively, a Western concept derived from Christianity, and an aspirational one at that. For example, during famines in China, including those caused by Mao, it was common for parents to kill and eat their children (although often by swapping their children with others’, so they didn’t have to do it themselves), something essentially inconceivable in the West, though perhaps not any longer in these post-Christian days. The same thing happens in North Korea today, and I suspect would be true of any culture that is not Christian (or Jewish or Muslim, who have a similar self-sacrificing ethos, though without the applicable-to-everyone demand of the Golden Rule). Why is it inconceivable to us, though, given that sacrificing others makes utilitarian sense? It’s because of our superior culture, where parents would rather die that contemplate such an action, and everyone knows his duty is to take one for the team. But I don’t think this principle extends, at least today, to limit governmental self-dealing in a crisis where someone has to lose—and that’s what this book illustrates with dramatic impact.

I don’t think that this is necessarily an argument for a minimalist state. True, certainly, the state we have now is terrible, and a minimalist state would solve the problem of self-dealing by our ruling class in a crisis. But I am not a libertarian; the governmental structure I would prefer is not one that necessarily maximizes personal liberty, certainly not in the way of modern “liberal democracy,” but a strong state based on principles of practicality and virtue—strong, that is, in those few areas that matter, and either non-existent in most areas of life, or based around rigorous principles of subsidiarity in any matters not essential to the central government. Albert Jay Nock would hate my vision of government, but he would entirely agree with my point about modern governmental self-protection in crises.

Still, even my Augustan-type state would be susceptible to this problem, of the human beings who make up government acting purely in their own self-interest. Our governmental heroes, or those who used to be our governmental heroes, like George Washington, were exceptional men. In more recent times, I suppose, there are examples of leaders in government who refused to exempt themselves from risks faced by the common people, such as Churchill and King George VI staying in London during the Blitz, or even Stalin refusing to leave Moscow in 1941 (though he kept his fast train ready). But you can’t get exceptional men, reliably at least, without a virtuous society to generate them, and so getting that society is the key to solving the problem. I can’t think of any self-sacrificing or risk taking by any member of a Western government in many decades, but I can remember the entire United States government scurrying like rats to protect themselves on 9/11, and then turning Washington, and every federal building in the universe, into a fortress, at the cost of hundreds of billions, while grabbing massive amounts of fresh power for themselves. Maybe I’d be surprised by how our government reacted in a crisis. But I doubt it.

You won’t feel good when you’ve finished this book. But you’ll have learned something that may be very useful to you someday, that those who should protect us will do nothing of the sort, so it’s probably worth doing.

[Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have liked Forstchen’s Matherson series novels so this one did not disappoint. Vary good tight straightforward writing. I do like great literature, but do not have much tolerance for popular novels that pretend to be literature. Forstchen does not do that. His books entertain with an intelligent message and sometimes that’s exactly what I want. All in all this is an excellent pre-apocalyptic novel.

[Jeremy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not finish this book.

The author explains the situation, and then he explains the situation again, often using more words AND the same words as he used to explained it the first time, and then he explains the situation AGAIN!

Its like reading the authors rough draft of the same scene over and over.

In that same vein, the author explains lots of things that don't need to be explained at all. When someone says, "Find out what's going on." I don't need the character who heard that, thoughts, explaining to me, "When she says, 'Find out what's going on,' she means ask questions, and poke around, and see if I can find it what's going on."

I understand what, "Find out what's going on," means!

AND while the author pontificates, a lot, he doesn't explain character motivations... And not in some mysterious way, where we're going to see or figure it out later... No, it's in the way that characters seem to have little to no real motivations at all, except to do "shocking" and "exciting" things to (try) and entertain the reader. (The main characters motivations are fairly clear, if difficult to relate to. I mean, mainly the supporting characters.)

This book is a train wreck. The emporer has no clothes! Don't keep reading it because it got great reviews, and then give it four stars because you finished it, while trying to figure out why everyone else gave it great reviews!

The story idea is neat, but I think I'll wait for the movie adaptation.

[Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing exciting in 48 Hours. What a shame, I was really looking forward to it. I skimmed listening (if that make sense) the last 20%.

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nicely done end-of-the-Earth story. Interesting twist to the view point of the main characters. Very Recommended

[~ Ina · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF.
the increasing amount of religion became unsettling

[JamesH · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the type of book you select when you just finished a heady tome and you need something where you can set your brain on autopilot. Quick, entertaining, not deep but still thought provoking in a shallow way. Like a Dan Brown novel. Enjoyable but nothing you need to keep with you. Was the book predictable? 100% Have you seen 2012, Day After Tomorrow, and Deep Impact? Boom. You’ve read this book.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This nerve-wracking sci-fi thriller set in the not-too-distant future begins three weeks after a big solar storm - a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) - hit the earth. The damage was immense: some 25,000 had died from exposure, lack of medicine, and lack of clean water. But it turned out to be only the beginning.

At the Goddard Space Flight Center, scientists were monitoring the sun closely. The sun had thrown off another CME which was due to arrive soon and which would again peel back the Earth’s magnetosphere. The magnetosphere generally protects the Earth from solar emissions. Some 48 hours after the next CME, however, an additional and even more dangerous solar event was expected to erupt: a Coronal Proton Ejection, or CPE. (Scientists also call this a Solar Proton Event or SPE.) If this high-energy, lethal burst of radiation hit the earth without the protection of the magnetosphere, it could create what scientists call an Extinction Level Event, or ELE.

[Unfortunately, all of these events are actual scientific phenomena, not just fictional creations. Usually a CME and CPE do not occur in the sequence happening in this novel, however. If a CPE hit without a CME or before a CME, the Earth would still have protection. But given the cycles of solar events and the rotation of both the Earth and the Sun, it is not impossible for the sequence to happen in reverse, and in fact scientists think such a "perfect storm" might have happened earlier in the history of the Earth.]

The rest of the book is devoted to considerations of what to do about it, and specifically, who will get admitted into the shelters deep in the earth that have been prepared for government officials in the event of catastrophes.

[Again, this premise in the book is not made up. In fact, both the federal and state governments have what are called “continuity of government” (CG) plans involving secret bunkers stocked with supplies. They began to be built during the Cold War in the late 1940s, and received renewed effort and enthusiasm after the 9/11 attacks. For example, in the book Raven Rock: The Story Of The U.S. Government's Secret Plan To Save Itself - While The Rest Of Us Die by Garrett Graff, you can read about a facility not far from Camp David in Pennsylvania called the Raven Rock Bunker. It is a massive hollowed-out mountain stocked with food, medical facilities, and other necessities that can hold as many as 5,000 people in the event of an emergency.]

So who gets access to these survival facilities? In the novel, one of the characters explains the protocol [again, similar to that in place in real life] to two of the main protagonists, Darren and Darla Brooks:

“Come on, you two, wake up! Anyone who has pull, a friend, a connection gets in to the deep shelters. Big donors to the right party, political friends, friends of their friends, mistresses, lots and lots of self-important bureaucrats, we all know the type. They get in, then the doors get closed. Do you read me on that?”

Darren asks what will happen to the rest of the population. His information source says:

“Fuck ‘em. . . . Darren, did you hear me? Extinction-level event. The select have already been selected. If this thing is as bad as I’m being told, those with the right tickets will scramble in and then lock the doors. . . . This ain’t some Titanic fantasy of lifeboats for women and children first. This is captain and crew and their families first, then afterward tell everyone else the ship is sinking. The rationale, the balm on their souls? Why, it’s all about continuity of government and ‘Gee, sorry, folks, no more room down here; just head to your basements, or dig a hole, or sit back on the surface and have lots of 100 SPF sunblock.”

[Of course, neither basements nor sunblock would help protect life on earth from solar radiation without the magnetosphere to blunt the effects. Under those circumstances, when a CPE hits, everyone on the surface of the Earth would die within minutes.]

Those with knowledge of the coming events, including the President of the United States, grapple with deciding on the best course of action. There is always a chance that the timing of the solar explosions would differ from projections, and that most of the energy from the sun would not hit the Earth. As they discuss options among themselves and pray, they are reminded of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. In that chapter of the Bible, Abraham argued with God:

"What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? . . . What if only ten can be found there?' [God] answered, 'For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it."

How do they reconcile a possible destruction of the Earth with their faith? Are there not even ten righteous people [above ground at any rate] to save? And what about the fact that those who do get in the shelters are not necessarily the "righteous"? As everyone struggles to handle the news, the tension in this thriller accelerates tremendously. And as one character commented, “In the hours ahead, we are all going to see the best and the worst of what we are as a species.”

Evaluation: This is a frightening cautionary tale, but also a gripping, exciting read that gives you plenty to think about. What would you do if you believed you had only some two days yet to live?

[Charles van Buren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to follow. ELE happens. The sun is the culprit.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished reading “48 Hours” and was a bit disappointed. I was part of the same group as James Mason who recently reported his scientific critique to the book (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...). I am trained in astrophysics, specifically gamma ray astronomy, but also work with heliophysicists. James Mason covered a lot of the problem issues, but perhaps the most scientifically infuriating statement I found was on page 47 of my ebook when Richard Carrington V is explaining to the group at GSFC:

“which is damn hard to conceptualize—accelerating up from the core of the sun, similar to a volcanic eruption here on Earth. The CPE reaches escape velocity from solar gravity, then…”

This description reads like something that might have been written by scientists in the early 1900s, when we first learned the Sun had a magnetic field and still didn’t understand sunspots. The only particles that can easily stream through the bulk of solar material are neutrinos. Everything else (photons, nuclei and electrons) interacts way too strongly with the surrounding matter to make such a direct route from the solar core to the photosphere.

What made some of these errors even more disappointing was that I had also read Forstchen’s previous book, “Pillar to the Sky”Pillar to the Sky. For that book, Forstchen had consulted with an engineer at Goddard Space Flight Center. I think that made a significant contribution to the accuracy of the science and engineering presented in that book, presenting such a space elevator as a realistic possibility.

Reading the Afterword of "48 Hours", Forstchen apparently did not consult with any solar physicists or space weather experts. There are often plenty of these professionals willing to assist authors and screenwriters to make their stories more scientifically accurate. There are even terabytes of publicly available imagery and computer models which can aid in accurate descriptions of the phenomena. His primary reference seems to have been “The Sun Kings”The Sun Kings: The Unexpected Tragedy of Richard Carrington and the Tale of How Modern Astronomy Began, a popular-level book which covered a lot about the history of our understanding of the Sun (I know of it, but have not read it). Perhaps that explains why some of author’s explanations of solar storms seem archaic, he locked onto some of these historical ideas presented in that book, not realizing they have been ruled out by modern observations?

Incorporating some accurate solar science would have required very little change in the descriptions of the electromagnetic and radiation environment once it reached Earth. Nor would it have required significant changes in the human drama presented in the book which I thought was very good. Naturally you need a few devils to challenge “the better angels of our nature”.

[Jessica Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a fan of the One Second After books, so when I stumbled across a new Forstchen novel I didn't know was out, I immediately picked it up. Unfortunately, this was a big a letdown. 1.5 stars rounding up to 2 because I still have high hopes for the author's future work.

⭐️⭐️

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading through The John Matherson Series: (One Second After, One Year After, The Final Day), and so was looking forward to this book. Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed.

I am not an expert in .... well, anything, really .... but even as a casual enthusiast of astronomy, I could tell that at least some of the science in this book is off. A couple of actual heliophysicists have commented on the book (one review can be found here), and their reviews are extremely enlightening. It is clear that William R. Forstchen didn't bother to run his concepts past an expert or two. That lack of polish takes one star off my rating.

If you read this right after the Matherson books, you will quickly notice that there is a standard stable of Forstchen plot points:

- A protagonist who is former military
- A protagonist whose wife has died from cancer
= Guns and military armaments/vehicles are described and re-described in painstaking, endless detail. I get that Forstchen studies such things for a living, and that you should write about what you know, but for those of us who don't have a background in such things, it just becomes repetitive and off-putting.
- K-cups
- The government is full of evil, self-serving bureaucrats. Except for the military. Most characters who are military eventually do what Forstchen tells us is the 'right thing', even and especially when the government is telling them to do the exact opposite.
- A character named Kevin Malady.

I took one star off my rating for recycled content.

The entire Darren and Darla plot needs to either be torn out of the book entirely and Richard made our sole POV character, or the plot massively retooled. Why? Because the characterizations are flimsy and their actions are stupid. Daren worked at the underground bunker. He didn't own the thing. He and Darla had no right to commandeer it and screw up the COG plans of the lawfully elected government of the state of Missouri. The children that they saved are going to walk out of that bunker eventually, and find a world full of charred corpses, and then with no infrastructure will all die slowly. Because they are children, and don't know how to build and repair things. Darren and Darla were stupid, their plan was stupid, the fact that the military went along with them was stupid, and all of their co-conspirators are stupid. And while we are at it, why did the President decide to tell the country the truth about the impending apocalypse? Either the solar flare misses them, and they are okay, or it hits them and there is nothing anybody can do about it. All telling the public did was cause a breakdown of the social order. One star taken off for stupidity.

All that being said, there are some things that this book got right, to be sure. When facing their imminent demise (as in an Extinction Level Event), a lot of people are going to go feral and make the world burn. A few might be standing around singing 'Nearer My God to Thee', but a lot are just going to go on a rampage. Forstchen knows how to depict this well. He is both sentimental, and cynical at the same time, which strikes me as an odd combination.

The character of Richard was actually fairly well fleshed-out, likable, and relatable. The President in this book is smarter than I give most politicians credit for, but is ultimately an interesting character, as well.

This book isn't bad per se. It just commits more sins than it atones for.

[Jeremy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. Post apocalyptic fiction is my favorite genre but this book is not good. The whole premise of the main plot revolves around an underground limestone mine that has been converted into a giant warehouse, basically. Within this underground bunker there is a oscar meyer food distribution center that covers 3 states (despite there only being one road in and out which makes no sense if your are trucking food to different places.) There is also office space (because who needs windows or natural light when you can save money on your heating and cooling bills!) as well as fast food restaurants to feed these office workers. And this is where the government has decided to put one of their top secret retreat bunkers, in a side tunnel of this major hub of activity. I find it far fetched, to say the least.

Then in between the chapters that follow the main plot we have chapters that talk about the "science" behind the sun phenomena that's causing all these problems. These chapters are long and boring. I might be able to forgive that a little if the science was accurate but as other reviewers have noted, its not.

Its very rare that I give up on a book, especially one from my favorite genre, but this one has too many red flags already and I'm afraid for me this is a DNF

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

V e r y slight book that seems to be written as an afterthought. About 50 pages of mind-numbing scientific data that poses are story narrative are sprinkled throughout the book, which means there is even less story than you may think.

Instead of reading this one, go read the AFTER series, which is compulsively compelling, and scary beyond belief.

[Akif Zaman · Rating 1 out of 5]

The most terrible book I have read. Reading this book makes me want to support the ban on people owning guns.

[Tapasya · Rating 3 out of 5]

A major solar flare is going to erupt in approximately forty-eight hours.

“Sir, it is my conculsion that we are facing a potential ELE. An extinction-level event”

“Sir, it will be beyond anything witnessed in recorded history and could every well mean the end of civilization as we know it.”

In forty-eight hours, the earth will be hit first by a CME, a coronal mass ejection. That will peel back the magnetosphere of the earth, which acts as a protective blanket to us. Several hours later, the Sauron’s Eye will explode, the high-energy radiation from that explosion will hit Earth’s surface, and without the protective layer of the magnetosphere, the result will be a highly lethal burst of radiation that could very well bathe the surface of our earth for hours and perhaps even days. Enough radiation to kill you within minutes.

Across the country, continuity-of-government plans are kicking in. Continuity of government is survival of government in the event of nuclear war or bubonic plague. And for such major events the government has constructed vast underground shelters. They have built a deep vault; inside it are stashed seeds by the billions, DNA samples of thousands of species, data storage of damn near everything from all our recorded histories and such. Like in the story of Noah’s arc where eight people survived on a boat—Noah, his wife, their sons and wives, along with all giraffes, pigeons, and lions and other.

At least several hundred thousand people—military and federal, state, and local government types—will be moving into these shelters. Anyone who has pull, a friend, a connection also gets in to the deep shelters. Big donors to the right party, political friends, friends of their friends, mistresses, lots and lots of self-important bureaucrats, they all get in, then the doors get closed.

The main characters in this book are Darren and Darla, a middle aged couple, then Richard Harrison one of the astronomers of NASA, the president and some other interesting characters.

Darren is an head of security of one of these underground facility. Until now, he didn’t knew about the hidden agenda of these shelters. He obviously gets angry when he comes to know about the plan. He and his wife then goes on a suicide mission to sent children instead of these government people.

So the book is all about these 48 hours. It was interesting reading about it. Strangely I loved the technical details. But then it involves astronomy and so I know I was going to like it.
What I didn’t like was the emotional content. There were talks about emotions, which I found quite boring. But then it’s just me.

This is a treat for apocalypse book lovers. Another thing was that this book has a middle aged couple as main leads, which is something I have never read. I usually read books about young characters. So it was nice reading about the them.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad - basically "Deep Impact, the book," if you remember the 1998 movie starring Frodo Baggins and Gus McCray. Similar story, just swaps out a solar eruption for a meteor.

The story goes back and forth between politicians/scientists in the White House, and people on the ground at one of the proposed underground shelters in Missouri, so a nice contrast. I also liked the few chapters that stepped back and showed what was happening to society as a whole in various situations and locations - couple of nicely thought out (if totally depressing) interludes.

So overall, an okay read IF you think you can stomach even more end-of-the-world stuff, considering what's really going on out there right now - still ignored climate change, a too-ignored pandemic, and a refuses-to-be-ignored idiot who might actually get re-elected.

NOTE: I started with the audiobook, but to my horror discovered that it was narrated by Bronson Pinchot, who did such over-the-top ACTing! on The Boy Who Drew Monsters. And sure enough, I could barely get through the first disc before I moved to the physical book in disgust. But then it was fine, except for the too-many typos in the last third of the story, as if they were rushing to print - extra words, period instead of a question mark kind of thing. Niggly, I know, but the difference between a publisher like Forge and Harper Collins.

[Mark Monsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I have read by William R. Forstchen and it will not be the last. '48 Hours' is an apocalyptic tale with deep moral undertones. It is an edge of the seat page turner; an epic read. While this is a work of fiction, it is based on real scientific facts. I found the most powerful part of this novel is not fiction at all. It is a small section of approximately seven pages in the middle of the story. While it contains a bit of fiction from the story, it launches into a diatribe of moral questions that is so powerful. And because of that power, it is written in italics. This could be my favourite apocalyptic story ever.

★Note: I received this book as a giveaway from the publisher via Goodreads.

★Note; I received a copy that is not available in stores. If the publisher/author is reading this review, fire your editor. I found at least two dozen typos/spelling errors.

[Soo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mini-Review:

4.5 Stars for Narration by Bronson Pinchot
4 Stars for Concepts/Science
3 Stars for Plot & Progression

If you are looking for an action packed mayhem, this is not it. This book was written more like a series of connected short stories. Some fun science, standard sociology/behaviors and a lot of great moments that dig into culture, a character's viewpoint or a big event.

This book would make a great movie. I thought the book was a great intro into a world that would not be really explored within the pages. If it was turned into a series or focused on a main thread, I feel there would be more depth & flow to the overall plot & setting.

[Cameron · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is genuinely the worst and laziest writing I've ever seen.

I was surprised (and a little embarrassed) to really enjoy One Second After; a guilty pleasure in a well-enough executed story.
I almost can't explain how terrible this is by comparison... But obviously I'm going to try:

First, and this isn't unforgivable, there is an astonishing number of typos and bizarrely worded sentences. I was constantly wondering if it had ever been edited, or even read through before going to print. It felt like a quickly written rough draft.
At one point the author literally lost track of a minor character, introducing him into the action twice. I've never seen that happen before. Incidentally, this happened during a painfully expository scene with... "Mr. Science". No I'm not joking, yes it is just Bill Nye.

Second, the characters are the most brutal clichés imaginable. Again, not insurmountable, we all know what we signed up for: A cop, likely ex-military, whose tortured past, prepper stereotypes, and arsenal of gun porn are the righteous blueprint for apocalyptic success. The heroes are shallow, insufferable beacons of morality that somehow move mountains with embarrassingly uninspired speeches. Add to that a blanket hatred of government, the casual suspicion of climate change (what?!), and the nauseating fetish of over-detailing how every SINGLE character holds their weapon, and you've got the more unbearable motifs of Forstchen's writing that you just have to accept.

Unfortunately, the third point can't be overlooked. This is by far the most painfully benal story I've ever read. It takes place in only two locations (fine), and consists entirely of people incessantly repeating the same feelings and information over and over for 20+ chapters with no meaningful changes.
Imagine watching Armageddon, but the plot stalls at the turning point of discovery. Nobody flies to the asteroid, there is zero action, and they just keep meeting in the same room to muse boringly over the impending event. This is the bewildering lifelessness that is 48 Hours:
A scientist gives countless briefings of the same information to the same people in various conference rooms. Each is preceded by his detailed journey through hallways and down elevators, until we ultimately learn that nothing has changed and the projections are the same as the other seven chapters this happened in. The scientist finally acknowledges that he's given the same briefing so many times that it has become pointless, as nothing has changed since the first one. To be clear, the character is bored of the story.

The alternating hero storyline is a series of stubborn characters yelling at each other while debating logistical decisions and making checklists.

I'm upset and frustrated that this book exists, pushed through on the promise of reliable sales from past successes. It's the worst of an over-saturated genre, down to its predictable cover art.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed his EMP series better.

[Mityl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Starts off well, but then starts dragging.

[Sherri · Rating 2 out of 5]

An apocalyptic thriller based on a solar flare that destroys the earth. There are much more scientific terms but you get the pictures...

Darren and Darla Brooks try to house children in an underground bunker but don't think of the supplies, man power, or infrastructure to run it.

Richard Carrington is the descendant of the the 1859 Dr. Carrington who the last mass destructive solar flare is named after. He is called to advise the U.S. President on the situation.

The humanity behind the storylines comes to light. The last 25% of the novel was the most interesting.

[Elizabeth Lapp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great idea, but it was kind of boring.

[Linda Munro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!

If you have never thought about preparing yourself for an extinction level event occurring on earth; this book gives you adequate details to consider your actions.

I have never considered such as event; but after reading this book, I would hope that I would consider what would occur in the long run if a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) was headed towards earth.

Forstchen has the unique ability of determine what people would act like in a crises and portrays the inevitable in a fashion that allows humans to understand how inhumane we can all be.

He has also allowed the book to close with the ability to either choose to end the story or continue the story if he wishes. Either way, none of his readers will be disappointed.

Thumbs up for this book!

[MacGal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Truly Disappointing

When I read this author’s “One Second After” it was, by far, the most frightening book I had ever read; predominantly because of how REAL it was. Plus the forward and afterward only added to the threat level. That novel sent me down a road of devouring dystopian literature and preparing for a potentially disastrous future. In fact, that book fueled a whole new genre of fictional literature that I continue reading years later.

All that said, I have no clue what happened with this book. The characters are flat and lifeless, the descriptive writing uninspired, and the author does nothing but reiterate the same underlying “science” over and over again just to fill pages. By the thirtieth retelling of the exact same explanations I was ready to smash my kindle against the nearest wall just to make it end. The editor failed the author miserably on this one, plus to make matters worse, the proofreader went to sleep at the computer terminal. The constant typos became so annoying I had to check to see if this was a self-published volume. Sadly the author should start looking for a new publisher because they made him look like a new inexperienced author not worth their time and energies.

If you haven’t read this author’s EMP series, I highly recommend that you do so, even if the subject matter keeps you up nights. This one however should be skipped because it is just terrible on all levels.

[Therese Brink · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. If the world's land life was going to end in 48 hours, how would you handle it. In such an event is continuity of government important? Who lives (underground in this case) and who dies?

This is an interesting tale. I did not regret reading it. While the writing wasn't that great the premise was interesting and original - solar flare due to kill all life above ground in 48 hours.