We read prepper books, not just for the story, but for what we can learn. Good prepper genre writers include examples that teach good/useful skills, in addition to examples that show what happens if you’re not prepared.
Tom, apparently, has very little skills or knowledge to share, especially about firearms and first aid. I don’t need an expert, but much of the stuff was just silly or misrepresented. The final straw was when Doug got down into a PRONE position in the thick ash covering the ground (that’s mentioned over and over and over) to shoot a warning shot (after they were worried about shooting a shot at all because it’d attract attention). Then, shortly after, Dub fired one shot into the hindered of the mountain lion and killed it instantly. Then Ritz chose to stop the neck bleeding by stapling the skin together, after “irrigating” by dumping water on it.
There’s so much superfluous, theatrical descriptions that it just becomes annoying and bogs down the story. I found myself ignoring them, hoping he’d just get back to what’s going on instead of showing us the many, many ways to describe everything around them, again.
I was excited about the series, I liked the concept of dealing with many different type of “apocalyptic” events specifically. But this one was a disappointment and I won’t read any more of the series. It felt like just another novelist, trying to write in the prepper genre, but ultimately just being trite and cliched.
I loved Kevin Pierce’s reading though, that’s why I finished the book.