Lights Out

EMP and Societal Collapse

Lights Out
By David Crawford

          When an Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) attack destroys the power grid, this intriguing novel begins.  Mark Turner is at work in the San Antonio area when the Burst, as it is called in the novel, sends the nation into chaos.  Telephones and most radios go silent, late model cars die, planes fall from the sky.  Government struggles to maintain order and provide relief, but in the cities, society quickly breaks down.  The novel follows Mark, his friend Jim Davis and a growing community of family and friends as they work feverishly to protect themselves and their families while civilization unravels around them.

          Lights Out has been downloaded from the internet in PDF format over three million times.  It is now available in a 600-page paperback edition and on Amazon.com in Kindle format where it is selling well.

          The author, David Crawford, states in his bio that he resides in San Antonio and is “an avid outdoorsman who likes to hunt, fish, hike, off-road, and shoot,” and that he is a black belt in Karate.  There is definitely something of David Crawford in the character of Mark Turner.

          Most reviews that are critical of the book fault the writing and that is what compelled me to give it four stars.  However, the EMP threat is so real and compelling I can forgive some bad editing (that will hopefully be corrected in latter editions) and the expository telling, instead of showing, through much of the story.  Others, who see the novel as simply as an action novel might be quicker to fault technique.

          The novel is a warning.  In the embedded interview you will hear Crawford state that he wrote the book, “to try to get people to prepare.”  The novel does stir thinking and discussion.  Could it happen?  What would we do?  Are we ready?    

          My wife and I read Lights Out at the same time.  I thought the book compared favorably to One Second After (also reviewed on RuminationsBlog).  Lights Out had the better story, but One Second After had the better writing.  My wife felt Lights Out was the better novel on both counts.  We agree that Lights Out is a realistic, thought-provoking post-apocalyptic novel.  

          At the close of my review of One Second After I said, “The threat is real.  Read the book.”  The threat has not diminished, read both.