Shutdown and Restart

A Post-EMP Struggle

De: J. Harper Stone

Narrado por: Doug Haynie

A nuclear bomb detonated at a high altitude above America would be devastating. Bizarre, thrilling, and occasionally informative fiction is available about the aftermath of an EMP; however, what would that be like for the average person?

Bereft of basic necessities - clean water, food, healthcare, and the rule of law - this tale of resilience tests the limits of human tenacity against a backdrop of societal decay. Hanley, a retired physician with a foresight for preparation, helps lead his kin in a transformative quest, confronting a reality harsher than that faced by the pioneering forebears of the American West. Unlike their predecessors, they must learn lost self-sufficiency skills and forge new ones to adapt to a world devoid of technological crutches.

Can an extended family and friends with origins as city-dwellers, ill-equipped for managing in the wild, use their academic acumen and limited supplies to develop the necessary skills and successfully apply them for survival? Can people who no longer understand the basis for how things work start over and rethink, almost from scratch, how to obtain their basic needs? An extended family and friends take on that challenge, a move from a complicated system of interdependency to relative isolation and self-sufficiency.

"Shutdown and Restart" examines the potential for America's rebirth, for modern-day pioneers to survive and, in the process, pave the way for a national resurgence. Will violence, chaos, famine, and desperation claim the remnants of a fractured nation?

While not a survival manual, this story may inspire a deeper comprehension of the formidable challenges and ingenuity required to survive - and thrive - in a world turned upside down.

©2024 J. Harper Stone (P)2025 J. Harper Stone

Meh... could have been better

Author spends a lifetime at the beginning waxing poetic about his genius in using AI to research for the book. I'm not bothered by the research.

The first 2-3 chapters are everyone having "bad feelings." Not joking.

The story is boring but it doesn't have to be. The information could be passed on in a far more interesting plot. The narrator isn't helping. The thing is that I actually like stories that are more about what they're trying to do to survive than the ridiculous violence-fest writing of most apocalyptic fiction. But this, it's boring and stiffly narrated. The weird obsession with his characters being able to deescalate by intense reason that he refers to as "verbal judo" is awful and sounds like it was written by AI.