THE FINAL DAY - ART OR LIFE OR BOTH

     Finally got around to reading the book I have waited for. First came One Second After, the story of America and the world and one small area of America which starved and froze and fought and became a cohesive unit but always watchful and alert and always losing members of the community as there was a lack of food and medicine. what happened? There was an EMP - an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down basically all things run by chips - cars and computers and machines and clocks and smartphones and on and on. No electric. No water other than what one can carry - maybe. No rules. Cannibals. Armed groups. One minute there was life and the next......
  a world of the 21st century knocked back to the 1700's or worse with no skills for it.
     Why did this happen? Because the world was riven by fights, particularly amongst the smaller nations and the dangerous rift between India and Pakistan finally exploded with atomic bombs and the world followed with China and Russia delivering their little gifts to their erstwhile enemy the USA and China moving in to most of the continent.
     The next book, One Year After, showed the progress and the losses, the hopes and dreams, the rebuilt and rediscovered lives, the changes that came about and still the despair at the losses and what would be. Most of all one admired the resilience of the survivors but it never became a feel good story as characters were died or killed, refugees turned away for survival's sake and a lack of food, shelter and the ability to take care of anyone else other than themselves and even that was limited. The reader wonders how did all this happen? How did we let this take place? Is this life and a prophecy or art and a warning - or a combination of both?
     I am now finished with the third and final book, The Final Day, and it is a tad discouraging to see that the fighting never stops and there are always those out there who need to maintain power and control, no matter the circumstances. Thus instead of powerful and positive moves, there are frightening wars amongst the survivors and the worst thing - well, find out for yourselves. It is both frightening and uplifting. you decide and the take a minute or five minutes to think and realize how close we are to such a world, even as they moved the clock even closer to apocalyptic midnight. And we all bear responsibility for this and for allowing those who want this, who think they will prosper in a world such as this to push us this way. Read the books. Think. Imagine and compare.