Magnetic: a small Texas town - Book Review

Speculative fiction and a survival story, "Magnetic: A Small Texas Town," by David Lisenby, is a compilation of end-time trials and tribulations of the survivors of a powerful electromagnetic pulse caused by solar flares. The novel’s setting is several identifiable Southeast Texas towns. This is book two of the EMP Trilogy, and it immerses readers into the struggle of these Southeast Texans from their loss of all thing electronic. The difficulty faced by them after all of the comforts of modernity have been extinguished, plays itself throughout the book. The difficulties of primitive life for those who grew up with more are poignantly described. The struggles to beat off those who would take even what little you have away, make the story even more gruesome and realistic.
Imagine an existence with no electric power, no communications of any kind whether it’s a landline, mobile or internet. Imagine the difficulties that hospitals would have with no power of any kind — main or emergency. The safety of the water supply would rapidly deteriorate. There would be little to no access to money. ATM’s wouldn’t function, and banks would close out of security concerns. How long could you survive in an environment that lacked power, food, and water – oh and access to Amazon?

The pain of loss plays out as the story unfolds and adds pathos to the developing characters. Just as you learn to enjoy their company, tragedy strikes. Pain and suffering are part and parcel of survival under these hostile conditions, and author David Lisenby pulls no punches. 

 With no electricity, cell phones, refrigeration, and running water, homes become unbearable places to live in. Unworking gas pumps leave motorists stranded, stores are looted and the population panics.

There are a few saviors for a handful of Southeast Texans and one of them is a man named Harold. He and his immediate and extended family have prepared for this eventuality. He is portrayed as an honest, caring, hardworking head of his family. Harold had constructed an underground bunker and supplied it with survival equipment and supplies. He and his farm are a magnet that draws others to converge on his place for respite and safety.

The multi-layered story revolves around a variety of characters and their reactions to the disintegrating life that they once knew and enjoyed. Couples and single people from all walks of life in small rural towns abandon what they cannot save. They migrate as best they can toward their only hope; Harold’s farm. Through trials and tribulation, they attempt to build a future without relied-on modern conveniences.

The author’s use of colloquial dialect enables the reader to connect with the individual characters’ personality. Although there are many characters, each is distinctive. Each has their own back story, and response to the catastrophe caused by the power outage.

Some forms of communication are established, and citizens are surprised to discover that efforts are being made by the federal government to provide assistance to the millions of people living this nightmare. FEMA is given the onerous job to provide assistance of food and water to citizens. But another latent aftermath of the pulse is recognized that adds to the dilemma and threatens the lives of millions; without electricity, the nuclear reactors at various nuclear power plants had begun struggling with the likelihood of a meltdown because they depend on a constant access to electricity to cool and manage them.

How would our nation rebuild itself if an electromagnetic pulse wiped out all electricity and plunged it into darkness, starvation, and terror? The American spirit lives on in Lisenby’s novel; there is hope that we would carry on - carry on as though we lived in the mid-1800s however, but carry on as Americans nonetheless. This is the second book in the author’s series of three. The EMP Trilogy is an amazing series, and Magnetic: A Small Texas Town truly wraps you up and holds you in the moment. The reader will be anxious to follow this survival story to the next level.