After America

After America is an alternate history novel by Australian novelist John Birmingham and released in Australia in July 2010. It was released in the United States on 17 August 2010. It is the middle book of a three-part series, being preceded by Without Warning in 2007 and followed up by Angels of Vengeance in 2012. The overall group is known as the Without Warning trilogy and is the author's second such multi-part work. Plot In 2007, four years after the "Wave" killed most of North America's population, former Seattle City Council member James Kipper is now the President of the United States. The U.S. federal government and the U.S. capital have been relocated to Seattle, and it is later revealed that roughly 15 to 20 million Americans survived the Wave and are now back in the United States. Jed Culver is now Kipper's Chief of Staff and is also a close friend. After a meeting with foreign dignitaries in Seattle, Kipper and Culver head to New York City, where salvage crews are working to clear the streets of debris, the Wave having made its victims disappear, so crew-less vehicles and aircraft crashed as a result. Due to the lack of people to maintain New York City as well as cities all over the contiguous United States, fires burned unchecked and New York City is now flooded in some areas. The U.S. military has also had to step in alongside the New York Militia to fight droves of pirates, looters, terrorists and organized gangs who have moved into the U.S. East Coast from South America, Africa, and Eastern Europe.