A Review of Boston Darkens by Michael Kravitz

 

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.