I LOVE this world, and I’m always happy to dive back into it. This collection of journal entries is fascinating. Giving us some more insight into the mind and actions of Marcus Battle right as the Scourge hits the United States and the World.
It opens with the burial of his wife and child, goes into the first person he had to kill, and just sets the scene for what would become the Traveler series. A series that I absolutely loved and one I can’t believe I get to jump back into.
I started this on a work flight to NYC, and it’s crazy to me just how quickly Abrahams was able to suck me right back into the world of Marcus Battle. The other thing I caught was how often I’d end up pausing this book to highlight lines from it. Abrahams (and Battle) have so many quotable or memorable lines that I had to use Kindle Unlimited to borrow them just to save them for future reference.
Here’s just one example: “Though my guess is, you found this long after I am gone, because there is no way you got here by going through me.” – I mean, chills. Battle is one of those formidable characters that you can genuinely imagine saying something like this. Also, Abrahams cracks a few jokes about audiobooks, narrators, and “how much Battle sounds like the narrator Kevin Pierce”. I know those were little hat tips to us audiobook readers and to Kevin for narrating the entire series. But the respect shown there will not be forgotten.
Basically, every time I read a book by Abrahams, my reviews go long, but there is so much to love. He’s able to create these incredible characters, situations, and storylines that I feel I need to respect him by writing a long-winded review.
That being said, I’m going to finish here since this review could be summarized as “holy crap, I loved this” because I did from beginning to end.