Boston Darkens is a
semi-post-apocalyptic story of practical survival after the
detonation (by whom, it is never said) of an electromagnetic pulse
(EMP) nuclear weapon. The protagonist is Ben Randal, a middle-aged
man who lives in a comfortable suburban neighborhood. When the EMP
strike occurs, everyone is rendered helpless, and he goes full
alpha-male and takes it upon himself to organize everyone. Someone
has to do it, right?
The EMP has taken anything that contains
electronics offline, which includes most cars. Handily enough, he has
access to a classic car that his son has been restoring, a 1956 Buick
Riviera. This car's systems aren't controlled by electronics, and so
it has been unaffected by the pulse. Faced with a dwindling supply of
water, Ben decides to make a run to a water source in Connecticut,
taking along his teenage daughter and her best friend, a harrowing
trip that will only be the first of the book.
This is a quest story, perhaps modeled
after a book like The Stand, but that is where the comparison
stops. Kravitz's writing is not in itself bad, but his
characterizations are extraordinarily off-putting. There is a
disturbing passage in which Ben “jokingly” indulges in some
grade-A xenophobia, including thinly-veiled Islamophobia. Many female
characters aren't even named, just reduced to judgmental nicknames
like “the divorcee” and “the angry bitch”. His own wife is
portrayed as irrational and difficult, even though the disrespectful
way that he treats her isn't acknowledged as such; we just hear his
internal whining about her behavior, as though he had naught to do
with it. And at one point, he contemplates “giving” his son a
woman, as though women were utilitarian objects for use in sexual
training.
This rather barbaric outlook isn't
terribly surprising and is consistent with his ultra-conservative,
he-man character. Unfortunately, we're supposed to like the main
character of a story enough to care what happens to them, and I can't
tamp down my annoyance with this dude enough. The two girls are
pretty cool, but in Kravitz's hands, they aren't fully-realized
characters so much as props; the Black best friend, for example, is
given a storyline in which she is the child of a single mom who wants
her daughter to, and I quote, “get out of the ghetto life”, so
it's pretty clear that she exists so that Ben can play White savior.
If the friend, Vivian, had simply been a classmate of equal
socioeconomic status and hadn't been cast as such a stereotype, it
would have been nice to see the representation. As it is, it seems
her presence is simply there to beatify the main character.
The idea of an EMP nuke and how people
would be challenged to deal with the aftermath of not being able to
rely on computers and other electronics is interesting, though, and
it could really launch an entire series of books dealing with how
society would have to be reformed and reinvented. However, I would
prefer that series not feature such judgmental, self-righteous, and
misogynistic characters, unless they are the villains, not the
heroes, of the story.
I found this concept intriguing enough
to do a little research on EMP nukes, because I wondered exactly what
is an EMP nuke—is that a thing that is possible? What would
actually happen? I found a very informative entry on Wikipedia, here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse
Electromagnetic pulses have been
associated with nuclear explosions since the beginning. The first
nuclear tests shielded the electronics because Enrico Fermi predicted
that they could be damaged by the EMP. Indeed, after the war, as
testing continued, the power of a nuclear EMP was demonstrated in the
Starfish Prime test. From Wikipedia:
In
July 1962, the US carried out the Starfish
Prime test,
exploding a 1.44 Mt (6.0 PJ)
bomb 400 kilometres (250 mi; 1,300,000 ft) above the
mid-Pacific Ocean. This demonstrated that the effects of
a high-altitude
nuclear explosion were
much larger than had been previously calculated. Starfish Prime made
those effects known to the public by causing electrical damage
in Hawaii,
about 1,445 kilometres (898 mi) away from the detonation point,
knocking out about 300 streetlights, setting off numerous burglar
alarms and damaging a microwave link.[8]
Weapons designers sought to exploit and enhance the EMP, which had
really just been incidental to the explosion itself, originally. But
now that missile guidance systems, communications, and warfare in
general is so dependent upon electronics, the ability of an EMP to
disable an opponent's weapons systems would make for a short war,
indeed:
Also
known as an "Enhanced-EMP", a super-electromagnetic pulse
is a relatively new type of warfare in which a nuclear
weapon is
equipped with a far greater electromagnetic
pulse in
comparison to standard nuclear weapons
of mass destruction.[40] These
weapons capitalize on the E1 pulse component of a detonation
involving gamma
rays,
creating an EMP yield of up to 200,000 volts per meter.[41] For
decades, numerous countries have experimented with the creation of
such weapons, most notably China and Russia.
According
to a statement made in writing by the Chinese military, the country
has super-EMPs and has discussed their use in attacking Taiwan.
Such an attack would debilitate information systems in the nation,
allowing China to move in and attack it directly using soldiers. The
Taiwanese military has subsequently confirmed Chinese possession of
super-EMPs and their possible destruction to power
grids.[42]
In
addition to Taiwan, the possible implications of attacking the United
States with
these weapons was examined by China. While the United States also
possess nuclear weapons, the country has not experimented with
super-EMPs and is highly vulnerable to any future attacks by nations.
This is due to the countries reliance on computers to control much of
the government and economy.[41] Abroad,
U.S. aircraft carriers stationed within a reasonable range of an
exploding bomb are subject to complete destruction of missiles
on-board, as well as telecommunication
systems that
would allow them to communicate with nearby vessels and controllers
on land.[42]
Now
that we know more about what an EMP is, let's look at whether it is
capable of actually doing what it did in the book:
An
energetic EMP can temporarily upset or permanently damage electronic
equipment by generating high voltage and high current surges;
semiconductor components are particularly at risk. The effects of
damage can range from imperceptible to the eye, to devices literally
blowing apart. Cables, even if short, can act as antennas to transmit
pulse energy to equipment.
An
EMP would probably not affect most cars, despite modern cars' heavy
use of electronics, because cars' electronic circuits and cabling are
likely too short to be affected. In addition, cars' metallic frames
provide some protection. However, even a small percentage of cars
breaking down due to an electronic malfunction would cause temporary
traffic jams.[44]
An
EMP has a smaller effect the shorter the length of an electrical
conductor; though other factors affect the vulnerability of
electronics as well, so no cutoff length determines whether some
piece of equipment will survive. However, small electronic devices,
such as wristwatches and cell phones, would most likely withstand an
EMP.[44]
So in actuality, most cars probably
wouldn't be affected, and cellphones, as well, are likely to make it.
However, since it's still somewhat within the realm of possibility,
and since in science fiction, we can certainly expect to have a
suspension of disbelief for the sake of a good story, I'd be willing
to roll with it.
Now, all we need is a good story.
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