I was voluntarily provided this review copy audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator.
This was a nice change of pace for an End of the World (EotW) type book. It was interesting to have it start on New Year’s Eve in Time’s Square and having four people that don’t know each other thrown together and working together to try and get out of the chaos of the Square and try to make it home. It helped to give them each a bit of backstory before throwing them into the action but I wish I could’ve found out how/why they were thrown into the paddywagon together, what brought them to that point?
One thing I’ve found in EotW stories though is that either the main character or one of the characters constantly explains that it was an EMP that did the damage and what an EMP is. We get it, you only have to mention it once or twice and then stop. I believe most people nowadays know what an EMP is or a solar flare or whatever excuse is given for the power to be gone. We don’t need to hear every character finding out about that. Please stop, authors.
At least this one has a good reason for the four characters to stay together, travel together. Two of them are going in the same direction, one of them can’t return home and the fourth goes along because he wants to keep the lone female safe in case the other two are as sketchy as they seem (which they’re not, not really). They have the usual amount of trouble getting to Lake Placid and the action is well written and you do worry that they’re going to make it there in time to save the secondary characters they’re headed for. I’m not sure if I agree that people would devolve so quickly but I get that you have to have that to keep the story moving forward.
One thing I didn’t quite understand though was why Trent and Austin were so adamant about breaking into the bunker. Yes, they wanted to silence Ranya because she’d seen their faces but there was nothing to make her think that they had done anything wrong, other than a bad feeling. Getting into the bunker was a lot of work yet they could’ve gotten supplies so much easier in any of the abandoned houses or even killing any homeowners still left in their houses as they did the old man. It just seemed convenient that they were nearly obsessed with getting in and it cost them big time.
I liked Mr. Pierce’s narration, he does pretty well on the voices but it would’ve been nicer if he could’ve made each character a little more unique. Other than that, he does a good job of keeping the action going at a good pace and also giving the reader/listener a chance to catch their breathes when things are slower.
Overall, it was a good story and one of the few that don’t end in a cliffhanger to make you want to read/listen to the next book. I’m not sure if I’ll continue the series but I hope that some questions are answered more in the later book(s) such as what really happened, was it a solar flare or a foreign government that caused it, how did the group end up in the paddywagon. If you like your EotW stories a bit more realistic, give this one a shot.