First of all, I read the description wrong on this book. I thought the book was a series of vignettes that explored different apocalyptic scenarios. It’s a book SERIES that does so – each book covers a different scenario. But I was intrigued about the idea for the series. Take the same cast of characters in each book and put them in different scenarios. Their outcomes could differ.
For Abrahams’ first book in this series I was really impressed – and he starts it with a bang. This book follows three main groups; a group of college students, an ex-con, and a surfer dude with his dog; right after Los Angeles gets nuked. The author does a good job of moving the story along. Sometimes, during this genre type, authors tend to plod along or get tied up in existential crisis too much. Obviously, those themes need to be addressed but the book doesn’t wane in moving characters forward. Honestly, the biggest thing that made me happy when reading this book is when a character finds shelter and immediately fills up the tub and sinks with water. I’ve read so many post-apocalypse books that this small, intelligent action wins me over quite a bit.
The book does a good job of giving each group of characters their arc and doesn’t delve into unnecessary sci-fi like mutants or monsters that seems to be a genre staple. I would say that the college students are sometimes hard to differentiate from and their character build kind of takes place later in the book. However, this book is a lot of fun and does a good job at the primary goal the characters have – to survive. I will definitely check out the other books in Abrahams’ series as they are release. Final Grade – A