Well, if it isn’t one thing it’s another. Choose your poison— except you can’t. Our protagonist Rick tells us early in this first-person tale that he is an absolute loner (which I totally get because, well, I am one too). But nothing is really absolute, as we soon learn. Our protagonist, Rick, is also a writer who actually makes enough money from his Amazon sales to, well, to survive. I really liked this idea, so serious points were scored there. Rick believes in self-sufficiency, and although I am a closet prepper at best, I am onboard with this idea. So in a word, Rick does not sleep on ANYTHING. He’s not perfect, but he is alert. He remains aware (not paranoid) of the infinite number of ways life as we know it is under constant cataclysmic threat, and how to live a relatively normal life, regardless.
For Rick, one threat comes from the nation’s racial unrest; another comes from within his very own “Garden of Eden”— the newly found haven where he sought shelter from potential madness, and where assumed he would be safe; and yet another comes in the form of a natural disaster, all of which proves one has no idea from whence trouble will come so best-be-PREPPED.
This loner is lucky in at least one way. Despite his aversion to most social situations, he chances upon excellent companionship in the form of a tight squeeze. She is packaged with a “fuzzy buddy”— a German Shepard named Opus who practically steals the show!
This was an enjoyable listen— as intelligent, educational, and entertaining as Hoyt’s “Devil Dog” installments. “Opus” also has constant movement. Be warned though, this story does not tons of action per se.
As demonstrated in Hoyt’s “Devil Dog” series and Franklin Horton’s ”Borrowed World,” series, Kevin Pierce’s narration is a total win. He nails Rick and the other characters, male and feel, and with cadence and pitch and that certain intangible “something,” he depicts the moods without off-putting over-dramatizations or related missteps. The only thing I note is, for particular story (“One Man’s Opus”) Pierce’s voice sounds a bit older than the age of our main character, Rick,