I enjoyed the first entry (Ash), but wasn’t a huge fan of the second (Lit). The third seems to address some of the issues I had with the series, and begins moving forward.
So, as you probably know, this series is about plopping different folks into apocalyptic situations and seeing how they cope. By the second book, I began to realize that the author’s boilerplate intro (about people loving to read about folks surviving the apocalypse) didn’t apply to me. After making my way through a book that was more 12-hour natural disaster than apocalypse (Lit), I realized that, personally, I need a bit more meat with my potatoes. I don’t really want to hear about life or death situations for hours and end up with a group of survivors reminiscing. I need more. There needs to be a deeper story.
Thankfully, after teasing it a bit in Lit, Torrent finally begins to tie the books together. We begin to see that there may be more linking these stories than an author’s desire to repeatedly punish a group of characters. I won’t ruin it, but for me, it’s what is going to keep me going forward with the series.
Aside from that, the book is very much like the first two: we follow groups of characters as they cope with an apocalyptic event (although, like Lit, this is more localized catastrophe than apocalypse). There are some new characters, and old (so far Dub’s crew and Danny have consistently been in all 3 — as has the trophy wife).Though Tom Abrahams loves the blow-by-blows, I find that I tend to tune out a lot of the hum drum of the “action” scenes. They don’t really move me. I just want the story to progress.
Like the previous 2 books, I was disappointed to once again reach the end of the book with characters that had been through, and survived hell, only to have a seemingly random and pointless death. I’m hoping there’s a reason for this that Abrahams is working up to with the overall arc. Otherwise, it puts a damper on events that were already sort of hum drum.
That said, there’s one character that Abrahams kills off for the third time. I don’t know if they remind him of someone he doesn’t like, but it’s been a highlight for me in all 3 entries. Keep it up 🙂
As usual, Kevin Pierce did a great job on the narration.
I was provided this audiobook free of charge in exchange for my review. It’s certainly worth a listen, and the preview for the 4th entry has me kinda jazzed.