I’ve been reading a lot of post-apocatlyptic stories lately. While looking through a list offering review copy audiobooks, I saw this title. I received a free review copy, at my request, and am now writing a voluntary opinion.
This post-EMP book presents a few problems for me (I give a few examples that might be considered as spoilers.):
The author writes the story primarily through ‘telling’ rather that ‘showing’.
There is a lot of repetition. Sometimes things get unnecessarily repeated within a few paragraphs.
The dialogue is not well-written. In almost every conversation, I thought to myself that people don’t talk to each other this way. There is no natural flow to the words. A lot of it is cliche and cheesy. Also, the author has some of the characters do ‘info-dumps’ of technical facts that are very awkwardly written.
Characterization is completely muddled. Most of the characters would, i think, consider themselves good people, but their actions tell a different story. For example, the main character, Ben, iterates multiple times how his being an emergency medical services (EMS) worker makes him a caring person. But, in fact, he shows himself to be a selfish person by not ever, even once, doing anything that an EMS person would do if they saw injured or in-trouble people around. I don’t know if the author intended to make most of the characters self-centered, unlikable jerks or not, but that’s how they come across to me.
POV is all over the place too. There are a few instances where the POV changes during the same scene, making it confusing to know whose perspective it’s from. There are also a couple of times that the POV character knows something when there is no way for them to know it.
At the end of the story, there is no character growth or accomplishment made. I know it’s only been a few days in the book, but maybe the author should have made it longer to show these things by the end. Literally, the main character ends the book back in the same place he was when the EMP happened. Again, I don’t know if this is intentional, but it serves as a great metaphor for zero character growth.
That brings me to how unrealistic this book is. Ben thinks he’s going to make it from north-west Ohio to western Virginia in one day, after the EMP has struck and he acquires a working vehicle. I wish him luck getting through Charleston, WV in particular, with any number of cars stalled on the elevated interstate. Back roads won’t be any easier to navigate, I fear. Winter in the mountains, no snow plows working, the human factor; I don’t see it happening, even in weeks.
I bring these examples up because had the author gotten a good editor, this could be a different review. I like this kind of story, but just slapping some words on a screen won’t make me not find fault with it. It needs a clearer destination in both story and characterization. I don’t hate it, but it did cause some eye rolling and screams of “Really?”.
On the whole, the author doesn’t bring me into this story. There is no emotional anchor for me. I don’t feel moved by any of the characters’ plights.
I like the narration by Andrew B Wehrlen. He attempts to add drama and emotion into this flat story.