Reprise Review: Isolation by M.P. McDonald

 

Genre: Thriller/Post-Apocalyptic

Description:

“Cole Evans thought he'd found a safe haven for his family and a growing band of survivors of the most lethal virus the world has ever known. But he finds continued survival is far from guaranteed as they battle hostile encounters with other survivors, nature, and devastating accidents. Are they prepared to survive their first brutal Wisconsin winter after the rest of the world has perished?”

Author:

“M.P. McDonald makes a living from taking your breath away... then giving it back via a tube or two. She lives in a frozen land full of ice, snow, and abominable snowmen. On the days that she's not taking her car ice-skating, she sits huddled over a chilly computer, tapping out the story of a camera that can see the future. She hopes it can see summer approaching, too.”

Appraisal:

The premise of this series is a virus that wiped out many, maybe most, of the world’s population. This band of survivors believe they’ve outlasted the virus although they still take precautions in many situations. In this second volume of the series they’ve survived the initial problems and are trying to figure out the long term.

I found the world they’re living in, the premise, and the things they have to work out an interesting mind exercise to go through with them. Of course, there is much more than planning involved as accidents happen, plus other survivors pop up from time to time and it isn’t clear who is friend and who foe. Not to mention the issues involved in a Wisconsin winter. I’m looking forward to the next in the series to see where things go from here.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

While the second book in the series, this can be read as a standalone and still understood. (I haven’t read the first in the series and it was not a problem.)

Original review published June 5, 2017

Format/Typo Issues:

The review is based on a pre-release beta copy of the book, so I can’t judge the final product in this area.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 90-95,000 words

Review: The Blissful Plague by Brady Koch

Genre: Post Apocalyptic

Description:

“Twelve-year-old Maggie, her mother, and their loyal dog, Penny, traverse desolate cities, guided by a well-worn travel book. A chance encounter with a solitary boy, entangles them in the perils of Plantation Oaks, a seemingly safe haven.

As secrets unravel, revealing the reasons behind their endless voyage, Maggie and her mother grapple with their complex past. This poignant tale speaks to survival, resilience, and the unbreakable bond between a mother and daughter, emphasizing the strength it takes to navigate a shattered world.”

Author:

Prior to this series Brady Koch had authored three collections of short fiction. This is the fourth and final book in the “All Our Forgotten Futures” series.

For more about Brady Koch visit his blog.

Appraisal:

I’ve loved all the books in this series and this final book is no exception. In it Maggie, a mature beyond her years twelve-year-old, and her mother grapple with some difficult decisions as her mother tries to help Maggie understand their pasts and prepare her for a future that no one on this planet has experienced before. This was an intense and thought-provoking series, made even more so given the world’s recent experience with the Covid pandemic. My only regret about the series is that it has come to an end.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

A small amount of adult language.

The novelettes in this series are written to stand alone. You could read this book without having read the others in the series and understand what is going on.

Format/Typo Issues:

This review is based on an advance reviewer copy of the book so I can’t gauge the final product in this area.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 40-45,000 words

Review: Time of the Lioness: Internet Apocalypse by S. B Redstone

 Genre: Post-Apocalyptic/Science Fiction/Thriller

Description:

“You’re at work, in school, at home, out shopping, trapped in an elevator, or sky-high on an amusement park ride when the power and lights suddenly go out. For a moment, you’re just annoyed, expecting only a momentary problem. Doesn’t happen! Along with the power outage, all means of communication have been severed. The Internet is down and a terrorist’s face gloats. Fear now creeps into your optimism. Hours later, with a world overly dependent on cyberspace, global economies begin to crumble from this irrevocable cyberattack. Totally freaked out, you’ve now become a prisoner of inertia—clueless about how to deal with anarchy, cruelty, and violence.

Just for you, S. B. Redstone, the Eclectic Author, researched a multitude of destructive computer viruses, thinking he would create one through science fiction for this novel. To his heart-throbbing amazement, his imagined lethal virus had already been developed by international hackers. He was now convinced, along with almost every security expert, an Internet Apocalypse is inevitable. Are you believing our government will save you?

Annie Oakley Frye is a Cyber Warfare Specialist accepted cyberspace had become a cesspool of evil based on the multitude of daily cyberattacks. Annie does not live in a dystopian, fantasy world like Katniss Everdeen, Beatrice Prior, and Lara Croft—she lives among us. Once she discovers this invisible menace is lurking in a million networks, and it can’t be stopped from obliterating world economies, she sheds her mild-mannered personality and becomes the lioness of her youth to survive. Out of kindness she warns her friends about this approaching cyber nightmare, but they scoff at her insider information and doomsday scenario, believing the government won't let it happen. Once the cyber nightmare launches a surprise arrives at her door!

Time Of The Lioness: Internet Apocalypse is Book 1 is an action-packed thriller, with its characters on an emotional rollercoaster. Each chapter will have you wondering how you would cope with this probable post-apocalyptic world as Annie must do.”

Author:

“S. B. Redstone views himself as the ‘Eclectic Author’. He does not write stories based on genre, but rather on wherever his imagination and passion take him. His genres so far have been Horror, Suspense Thrillers, Senior Romance, Fantasy, Comedy, Science Fiction, and Young Adult in a post-apocalyptic world. Between working days and most evenings as a School Psychologist and Licensed Clinical Social Worker in private practice, and living a full life on Long Island, always golf and tennis, he put his vivid imagination on paper.”

Appraisal:

Imagine a situation where all the world’s computers stop working. All the data the computers have stored disappears or is corrupted. (Any backup of that data turns out to be corrupted too.) Anything that requires computers to work stops working. No electricity. No internet. Can’t call anyone about anything because phones aren’t working. Driving anywhere is an issue because stoplights are no longer functioning. How long would this have to go on before you’d no longer have food to eat (food processors are dead in the water and even getting the food to your local grocery store is problematic in this environment). Paying for things is a problem with debit and credit cards not working, ATM machines down, and no way for a business to cash your check. Unless you’re more prepared than the average person, this situation wouldn’t be pretty and it wouldn’t be a picnic even for those who are ready for such an apocalypse.

I’m sure most reading this are thinking “but that’s never going to happen.” The author makes a good case for the possibility that it could. I won’t go into any details so as to not have a spoiler in my review, but the logic the author uses to imagine this happening isn’t that far out there and imagines just a couple tweaks to be made to things already happening on a regular basis in today’s world.

The premise of this story is that the protagonist, Annie, figures out what is going to happen in advance. She knows it is going to happen and when, but can do nothing to prevent it. So, she attempts to prepare as best as she can to be able to survive what she knows is coming as well as get some of her friends to join her. The difficulties she has, both in preparing and in convincing others makes for quite a story. Since this is a series, you can guess she must ultimately have some success and I’m now wondering what happens to her next.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

This is the first book in a series.

Format/Typo Issues:

A small number of formatting and typo issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 85-90,000 words

Reprise Review: Armageddon Girls (The Juniper Wars Book 1) by Aaron Michael Ritchey

 

Genre: Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic/Adventure/Young Adult

Description:

“It is the year 2058. The Sino-American War has decimated several generations of men, and the Sterility Epidemic has made 90% of the surviving males sterile.

Electricity does not function in five western states. Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana are territories once again. Collectively, they are known as the Juniper. It is the most dangerous place on Earth.

On a desperate post-apocalyptic cattle drive to save their family ranch, Cavatica Weller and her two gun slinging sisters stumble across a rare boy. Sharlotte wants to send him away, Wren wants to sell him… and Cavatica falls in love with him.

Little do they know that an inhuman army is searching for the boy and will stop at nothing to find him.”

Author:

“Aaron Michael Ritchey was born with Colorado thunderstorms in his soul. He's sought shelter as a world traveler, an endurance athlete, a story addict, and even gave serious thought to becoming a Roman Catholic priest. After too brief a time in Paris, he moved back to the American West and lives semi-comfortably with three forces of nature: a little, blonde hurricane, an artistic tornado, and a beautiful, beautiful blizzard.”

Mr. Ritchey’s Long Live the Suicide King was a nominee in BigAl’s Books and Pals 2015 Readers’ Choice Awards under the YA category. For more information about Aaron Michael Ritchey please visit his website.

Appraisal:

I generally don’t read dystopian stories, but the premise of this one grabbed my attention. The characters are all well-developed, quite unique, and interesting. This is going to be an epic coming-of-age saga contrasting two disparate worlds existing side by side. Aaron Michael Ritchey has done an outstanding job setting up his world and has kept it as realistic as fantasy can get while still pushing the limits of reality with the elements he employed.

The story is told through Cavatica Weller’s eyes. She is the youngest of three living sisters who has been pulled out of school, The Sally Browne Burke Academy for the Moral and Literate in Cleveland, Ohio, to assist in a cattle drive to save the family ranch in the Juniper. Each sister has her own strengths. Cavatica is strong-willed, opinionated, naïve, and ruled by her emotions. A persevering theme throughout the story is the New Morality Movement. There were several times I wanted to slap the s**t out of Cavatica. Her views are so extremely colored by this New Morality that she can’t see straight. I found it frustrating and kept having to remind myself of her young age. I hope she will eventually find a balance that will serve her better in coming sequels. The mysterious young man they rescue from a raid adds a complicated element to the storyline, especially when the oldest and youngest sisters set their sights on him.

The character-driven plot is fast-moving with several surprising twists thrown into the mix, which continually causes adaptions to be made to the Weller sisters plans. I have found myself invested in this family’s quest to get their cattle to a fair market with their family, friends, and employees intact. The surprise at the end left my jaw on the floor. Mr. Ritchey has woven a tangled web and I am not sure what to expect next. I do know that I will be anxiously awaiting the next addition of this story.

Buy now from:    Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Armageddon Girls is the first book in The Juniper Wars series.

Original review posted April 8, 2016.

Format/Typo Issues:

I read and reviewed from an advanced readers copy, so can’t really comment on editing.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words

Reprise Review: Ice Diaries by Lexi Revellian

 

Genre: Romantic Thriller/Post-Apocalyptic

Description:

In 2018, the world’s population has been decimated by a virulent virus, and as if that’s not tough enough, a rapid freeze has covered England under snow and ice. London, where the story takes place, is buried by twenty meters of snow.

Author:

When she’s not writing fiction, Ms. Revellian designs and makes jewellery under her real name, Lexi Dick. She’s made pieces for Margaret Thatcher, 10 Downing Street, and Her Majesty the Queen.

Ice Diaries is her fifth novel. You can learn more about her at her website.

Appraisal:

In her Amazon author profile, Ms Revellian boasts that she has sold 60,000 self-published books. After reading Ice Diaries, my only question would be, “Why so few?”

I had a terrific time sharing a snow-swamped London with the characters in Ice Diaries. The author’s writing style is about as easy on the eye as any I can remember--like listening to a compelling after-dinner story told by a fascinating guest.

I particularly enjoyed the makeshift communities I spent time in with Tori, the twenty-three year-old protagonist. Her engaging nature and irreverent wit had me smiling, a lot. Tori hangs out with a small group of liberal-types. They have dug tunnels below the snow and live off the contents of the buried stores. This small group of survivors squat in apartments still above the snow level, furnish themselves with necessities from Argos (for Americans, think Sears), and live in hope that someone in the warmer south will send a helicopter to rescue them.

Along with Tori, I enjoyed her group of characters and the naive structure they force on themselves to retain a level of civility. They establish foraging rules and game nights and dinner parties—very British, in an eccentric but nice way.

Along comes Morgan, a rough, brooding, and dangerous cage fighter. He turns Tori’s head, forcing her to look outside the quaint but unrealistic life she has fallen into. When Morgan’s ex-gang members come looking for him, the pleasant balance of Tori’s community is turned upside down. Drawing on an inner strength that surprises everyone including Morgan, in the end she finds a way out of their difficulties, and in the process changes all their lives.

Buy now from:    Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Added for Reprise Review: Ice Diaries by Lexi Revellianwas a nominee in the Thriller category for B&P 2014 Readers' Choice Awards. Original review ran October 24, 2013.

Format/Typo Issues:

English (UK) spelling.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: Pete Barber

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words

Among the Dead by Stephen A. Kennedy

 

Genre: Post-Apocalyptic

Description:

“A pandemic sweeps across the globe. Everything shuts down. Airports, businesses, schools. Cell phone service and electricity soon follow. The virus turns people insane, causing them to attack anything that moves. Armed forces are quickly overrun, and every citizen is in a fight for their life.

Samantha survives the initial onslaught of infected. But now she decides to venture out from upstate New York to find her husband, who was stranded in Los Angeles. Determined to be reunited with her love, she sets out through the hell that the United States has become.

Along the way, she meets Jason, another survivor, who was separated from his wife in Flagstaff, Arizona. They decide to travel together, helping each other reach their spouses. They soon find they’ll have to make difficult decisions in order to survive.

But how long can someone cling to their values and morals in a world that has abandoned such things?”

Author:

A native of Kansas, Stephen A. Kennedy has been writing for several years. This appears to be his first book of a planned trilogy. For more, checkout his Facebook page.

Appraisal:

I think it would be fair to say that my thoughts and feelings about this book are contradictory and all over the place. It felt like it had a lot of proofing issues, but when I reviewed my notes it hadn’t gone over the limit I’ve set where I’ll start deducting stars from the ranking for that reason, although it came very close to that line. I found that I liked the characters, enjoyed getting to know them, and was pulling for them, curious as to where the story was going to go.

The pandemic at the heart of the story hit close to home, as it might with most potential readers, and yet is enough different from the reality that it isn’t hitting too close. Yet that aspect helped draw me in more than that kind of thing has when I’ve read post-apocalyptic books involving a pandemic in the past.

I hadn’t registered that this was intended to be the first of a trilogy, but didn’t expect the story to come to a clean end for the characters, only a clean ending for this phase of the overall story, which it did. I can’t explain my thinking or any of the details without it being a spoiler, but I can say that the ending of this book hit me wrong. It made it feel like what I thought I knew about one character was a lie. The reaction of the other main character, especially in light of some other significant recent events, seemed illogical. Instead of leaving me wondering what was going to happen in book two I was left wondering if I really wanted to know or still cared enough about the characters to find out.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

Borderline with lots of proofing issues, but not quite enough to impact the rating.

Rating: *** Three Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words

Review: Red Hail by Jamie Killen

Genre: Science Fiction/Post-Apocalyptic

Description:

“Professor Colin Ayres has spent years researching the strange story of Galina, Arizona, a sleepy border town ripped apart by violence and paranoia after the outbreak of a mysterious illness in 1960. Colin is certain the Galina Incident was simply a case of mass hysteria. But when his partner, Alonzo, starts exhibiting strange symptoms, Colin is shocked to realize they are the same as those that emerged in Galina decades ago.

As Alonzo’s condition worsens, Colin scrambles to piece together what really happened during that terrible summer in the past. He uncovers a story of murder, corruption, and fanaticism. The deeper he digs, the more he becomes convinced that what happened in Galina wasn’t mass hysteria after all.

When others start to develop the same eerie symptoms, Colin must confront the possibility that someone—or something—is driving the plague. Guided by rumors of a person who found a way to stop the plague in the sixties, Colin races to find answers before the disease destroys Alonzo and everyone else it touches.”

Author:

Jaimie Killen is a writer of sci-fi, dark fantasy, and horror who lives in Texas. For more check out her web site and follow her on Twitter.

Appraisal:

I’ve read several books over the last few years that have had, as a big part of their storyline, a pandemic or plague or the like. Sometimes the issue was one in the past, like in this book, and other times it is more contemporary, imagining something now or at some point in the future. When these books work for me it is typically for several reasons, not only the intensity of the story, and me as a reader being pulled in and rooting for the characters, but also because it gets me thinking and asking questions. Could something like this really happen? How would I react, would it be the same as the characters in the story or differently?

Given current happenings in the world, my reactions and thoughts to such a book remain all of the above with a bit more immediacy. The “sure, this is fun to think about, but nothing like this is really going to happen” thoughts don’t have the same credibility as usual. I suspect some people would stay away from such a story right now. In my case, I’ve found these books help me cope to some degree with the real world. That the plague in Red Hail is imagined to have been (at least mostly) in the past and geographically limited might help as well.

As for the story under discussion today, I loved it. The various characters (both heroes and villains) were well done, keeping me rooting for the good guys, both past and present, and on the edge of my seat to see how it would all end.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 100-105,000 words

Review: Past This Point by Nicole Mabry

Genre: Post-Apocalyptic

Description:

“Karis Hylen has been through the New York City dating wringer. After years of failed relationships, she abandons her social life and whittles her days down to work and spending time with her dog, Zeke. Her self-imposed exile ends up saving her life when an untreatable virus sweeps the east coast, killing millions.”

Author:

“Nicole Mabry spends her days at NBCUniversal as the Senior Manager of Photography Post Production. Her nights are reserved for writing novels. At the age of seven, she read The Boxcar Children, sparking a passion for reading and writing early on. Nicole grew up in the Bay Area in Northern California and went to college at UCLA for Art History. During a vacation, she fell in love with New York City and has lived in Queens for the past seventeen years. On weekends you can find her with a camera in hand and her dog, Jackson, by her side. Nicole is an animal lover and horror movie junkie.”

Appraisal:

I’m not sure that it is indicative of anything, but Nicole Mabry, the author of this book, Karis (the protagonist of the story), and I all look to the children’s book The Boxcar Children as one of the more significant reads of our life. While my memories of the plot details of that tale of four orphaned siblings who end up living in an abandoned boxcar are skimpy for me more than a half-century after my Mom read it to my siblings and I, I can’t help but compare that book to this one. Sure, the stories are completely different genres and you’ve got one adult who is largely on her own for much of the book as opposed to four kids. But in both they find themselves in an unprecedented situation and are forced to figure things out on their own. Determining how to provide themselves with the most basic things like food, water, and shelter are a challenge.

Of course, Past this Point has some major differences from The Boxcar Children too. The big one is with Karis being on her own and needing to be careful how and with whom she interacts. Can another person be trusted? Are they safe or are they infected with the virus sweeping the Eastern US? These kind of challenges and how a character figures things out and deals with them are a big part of a good post-apocalyptic story and are well done in this book. I found it to be intense, entertaining, and at times thought-provoking. An excellent read.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 115-120,000 words

Review: How the World Ends (Book Three) by Rudolf Kerkhoven

Genre: Post-Apocalyptic/Science Fiction

Description:

“Beginning five years after the events of Book Two, the conclusion to How the World Ends follows Caleb as he wrestles not only with his past, but with this new world, its changing climate, and the few survivors that remain.   Humanity once believed that it was made in God's image, but those who persevered are left to scavenge like insects.  Yet there might still be hope for Caleb--and if there is hope for Caleb, then there is hope for us all.”

Author:

The author of several novels, plus the co-author with Daniel Pitts of several choose-your-own-adventure books, Rudolf Kerkhoven lives in the Vancouver, British Columbia area.

For more, visit his website.

Appraisal:

At the beginning of the first book in this series something happens (you’ll have to read the first book for the whole story) and the vast majority of the people in the world end up dead. The story of the series revolves around the survivors figuring out how the new, changed world is different and what they need to do to survive, at least in the short term. This book picks up where the last one ended, focusing mostly on Caleb, who was only a kid when the world (more or less) ended and is now maturing. He’s presented with some issues that force him to consider his and the world’s long-term prognosis. As Caleb struggles with expectations of others that he isn’t sure he agrees with, he is forced to consider some deep philosophical questions. (The reader should find him or herself pondering along with Caleb.)

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language and mild adult themes.

The third book in a series. While it could be read as a standalone, understanding what came before adds to the reader’s understanding.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 65-70,000 words

Reprise Review: Flaming Dove by Daniel Arenson

Genre: Fantasy/Post Armageddon

Description:

Since Armageddon, Heaven and Hell had beaten each other into a bloody, uneasy stalemate. It’s been twenty seven years and neither Heaven nor Hell is the clear winner in the war between good and evil. Set with the backdrop of post Armageddon earth, Daniel Arenson tells us the story of Laila, an Uzi and grenade carrying half-breed, fighting for a home or just a place to survive. Her mother was an angel, her father an arch-demon, Lucifer. Unable to survive in Heaven or Hell she was raised on earth. Born with claws, fangs, and bat-like wings, she is an outcast on earth as well.

Author:

Born in Israel in 1980, Daniel Arenson lived in Manitoba and New Jersey before settling in Toronto, Ontario. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and enjoys painting in his spare time.

He sold his first short story in 1998. Since then, dozens of his stories and poems have appeared in various magazines, among them Flesh & Blood, Chizine and Orson Scott Card’s Strong Verse.

In 2007, Daniel sold his first novel, Firefly Island, to Five Star Publishing. He's been writing fantasy novels since, including several standalones and two fantasy series: The darker Song of Dragons and the lighter Misfit Heroes. You can read more at his website.

Appraisal:

The first character we are introduced to is Nathaniel. He is a jaded and gritty angel who had lost his wings and an eye fighting an arch-demon during the battle of Armageddon. He was my favorite angel and he drew me in. This story though is about Laila, both forces of Heaven and Hell think having Laila on their team will finally turn the tide in their favor.

When Laila returns to Jerusalem and finally chooses a side, she has her own agenda and refuses to follow orders. She will not let her fate be decided for her. Her only friends are Volkfair, a very large black wolf, who fights by her side, and Bat El, her innocent and pious angel sister, who has only been on earth a few months and serves as a captain in Michaels’ army. We learn of their relationship through flashbacks that are easy to follow. Humans are a rarity now and seldom mentioned. It was easy to feel the angst and exhaustion of the characters. God seems nonexistent, except to Raphael, who seems to be in the story only to remind us that God exists in all things.

The characters are complex, fully developed, and well-drawn; the plot is unique and flowed well. I enjoyed the tongue in cheek dialogue that served to lighten some scenes. The battle scenes were epic with tens of thousands of angels and demons, narrated with descriptive prose. The settings were vivid around Jerusalem, Caesarea, Masada and the Sea of Galilee. The ending was a bit surprising with a twist to leave us something to ponder and open enough for perhaps a sequel.

Arenson did get a bit repetitive in a few places describing angel wings and demon wings, but not enough to remove a star or lessen my enjoyment of the whole story. This story may cause you to rethink or reevaluate your concepts of good and evil.

Buy now from:    Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

If you cannot handle spitting, cursing, hard edged angels, or devils who have a heart and react with some humanity this book may not be for you.

Added for Reprise Review: Flaming Dove by Daniel Arenson was a nominee in the Speculative Fiction category for B&P 2013 Readers' Choice Awards. Original review ran June 28, 2012.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Approximate word count: 85-90,000 words

Review: How the World Ends (Book Two) by Rudolf Kerkhoven

Genre: Science Fiction/Post-Apocalyptic

Description:

“The world has already come to an end. Now Hayden and four others—who might very well be the last souls on Earth—must contend with the notion that it may not be possible to know what happened on the 14th of August, 2007. Regardless of reasons, and against astronomical odds, they survived. But can survival be a means unto itself? Because if not, the cruelest fate might just be their perseverance.”

Author:

The author of several novels, plus the co-author with Daniel Pitts of several choose-your-own-adventure books, Rudolf Kerkhoven lives in the Vancouver, British Columbia area.

For more, visit his website.

Appraisal:

Those who read book one in this series will remember that it mainly dealt with the world (or at least the people in the world) mostly coming to an end. The small band of survivors were mainly focused on short term survival. In this volume, they’ve settled in, and the focus changes. For example, what worked to get food before (scavenging from stores and abandoned houses) isn’t going to work forever. Now that the immediate scare is over we’ve also got conflict and unresolved issues between the characters that are coming to the forefront. And then there is that mountain off in the distance that wasn’t there before. What’s going on here?

I find books like this to be a vicarious adventure, trying to figure out the solution to the problems they encounter along with the book’s characters. This series is built on a unique premise which has made figuring things out that much more challenging.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language and mild adult themes.

This is the second book in a series. While I think it could be read as a standalone, ideally a reader would read the first book first to fully understand what had happened to get the characters to this point.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 50-55,000 words

Review: The Will to Survive by Various

Genre: Short Story Anthology/Post-apocalyptic

Description:

“When normal life collapses, peril waits around every corner, and one small slip could mean certain death. In The Will to Survive, twenty-two unique and brilliant voices bring to life stories of post-apocalyptic danger sure to make the heart race, the flesh creep.

It’s the end of the world. Do you have the will to survive?

NOTE: The Will to Survive is a collective effort by a great group of authors, born from the desire to help their fellow citizens suffering the devastating effects of multiple hurricanes. 100% of proceeds are being donated to two charities, One America Appeal and Global Giving Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund.

Twenty-two stories of tragedy, hope, and survival in one volume.”

Author:

Authors contributing stories to the collection are:

Steven Bird

Nick DeWolf

Patrick D’Orazio

D.J. Goodman

Shane Gregory

Joshua Guess

Josh Hilden

Kelly Hudson

Timothy Johnson

M.L. Katz

Jamie Mason

M.P. McDonald

Brad Munson

A.J. Norris

Stephen North

Chris Pike

Clabe Polk

C.A. Rudolph

Sean Schubert

Mike Sheridan

Sean T. Smith

Jonathan Yanez

Appraisal:

What a collection of stories. I kept waiting for a clunker. I kept expecting that with a collection this long, all mostly post-apocalyptic, they would start to feel samey. My expectations were shattered. Even though a lot of the stories explored the same territory, they vary drastically. Some, like Rusty’s Run, which is a story told from the point of view of the family dog, I’d have never seen coming, but even those that fit what I’d expect to see from the genre were unique, creative, and entertaining. If this is a genre you like, definitely give it a read. You might even find some new authors to follow. Not to mention the good reads here and having some of your money go to a good cause.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 140-145,000 words