Instant Darkness is a great start to Post Apocalyptic survival series. They are already on solid ground because they got the great Kevin Pierce, possibly the King of Post Apocalyptic story narrators. I have listened to a lot of the books he has narrated and have enjoyed them all probably much more than I would of with a different narrator. The book starts off with vague news stories of Solar flares that the government and news are down playing as nothing serious. Abram Patterson(a prepper) knows different though and has contacts in the scientific community and online that let him know that this is going to be very serious, life changing for the East coast as it will take out the power grid possibly for years. He packs up his family in their 76 Land Cruiser and heads up to his ‘bug out compound’ in Vermont. His family consists of his daughter Emma, his wife Shelly and her sister Maggie and they are going to meet his best friend Gary(another prepper) at the compound.
Abram’s neighbor Nick Caulfield sees Abram and his family leave early on a Sunday with the Land Cruiser packed to the brim and thinks it’s odd but doesn’t give it much thought. Nick is a single father, his wife having died of cancer 5 years previously and is taking care of his two kids, his son Corey and his young sister. Corey and Emma have been best friends since they were little and she couldn’t leave without him so she had snuck Corey a letter telling him of the impending disaster and a map to their compound in Vermont. Once Corey sees the letter he tries to convince his father to take the family up there. It is a tough sell but finally Nick relents and packs his family up. By this point a lot of other people have started to figure things out and things are getting pretty crazy out there. Nick isn’t even sure he will be welcomed by Abram once he gets there as they don’t necessarily get along that well but at this point he is desperate and decides it is what he has to do.
This is good PA novel that is full of tension between characters and situations that are very morally challenging. It is very interesting to see how characters and groups deal with each other and how some people choose to react when things get really tough. This is a good first installment in the series and am eager to read more to see what happens and if Kevin Pierce is narrating those I am sure they will be entertaining as well.
“Please note I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.”