The Collapse is book two in the 299 Days series. The story continues from the first book: The Preparation.
In The Collapse we see the main character (Grant) as he watches the continues to witness the collapse of society around him. We also get snippets of local goings on from others' as we see some of the action in their third person points of view from a couple of Grant's acquaintances, including an individual who turns out to be quite disturbing. Towards the end of the book we get some action that causes our hero to flee to his BOL (Bug Out Location). He has to make a tough choice to do this, which I will not spoil for you. Grant's connections through the gun shop and shooting range prove most helpful during this time of escape.
The premise and the writing style remain the same as I wrote about in the initial book review; simple and plain but engrossing. This book, however, has less of the prepper instruction and more story building than the last.
And, again, the author's web page: 299 Days where you can again find a bonus chapter. I have been printing the bonus chapters and using them as book marks, that way I can pass them on with the books when I finish and they land on a friend's bookshelf.
This review will be short as I don't want to give too much of the story away; but I do want to continue the reviews as I am still happy with the story. At this point I am a couple chapters into book 3.
Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Monday, January 14, 2013
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Book Review: 299 Days:The Preparation by Glen Tate
The first in a ten book series being released two at a time every few months. As I write this, the first four are out there. The story's website: 299days.com has more detailed information about the author and how he came to write the story.
I have only read The Preparation so far. It is 257 pages (not including the bonus chapter (see the website for details of those gems)). The Preparation is the scene setup for the actions to come. It focuses on the political, economic, and social circumstances that exist in these United States and the author's neighborhoods. These circumstances lead to a partial collapse of the government and society in general.
The author touts his story as different because in his story there is only a "partial" collapse and not a "total" collapse as most of the other novels in this genre portray. Like the Deep Winter series, this first book is a "how to" on prepping for disaster. Time is spent explaining how to obtain and store food, how to open the "prepping/survivalist" conversation with others, how to find a group of like minded individuals, where to find information you might need, as well as other topics on the subject. It's not bad, it's just that the real-life instructions are awkwardly placed. The author pauses his story to tuck in valuable information for the reader.
The Preparation is written in third person style, but is clearly otherwise in autobiographical style with a stop at the author's childhood memories, a brief stop during his 20's, then the extended stay at current events. The writing style is quite plain; the author doesn't have or didn't use the eloquence displayed by professional authors like King or Koonts. (Not that I have that ability, either. It's just an observation.)
The Preparation doesn't contain much in the way of action, but you can tell that there will be plenty in the upcoming books. The author admits to making this first piece the back-story to the rest of the upcoming parts. Despite this, it's setting up a good enough story I think I'm in for the long haul. I see myself going all ten rounds. The message contained within is as plain as the writing style: keep an eye and ear open to what is happening, listen to that inner voice we all have, hope for the best but prep for the worst, and don't waste time... it's coming.
I have only read The Preparation so far. It is 257 pages (not including the bonus chapter (see the website for details of those gems)). The Preparation is the scene setup for the actions to come. It focuses on the political, economic, and social circumstances that exist in these United States and the author's neighborhoods. These circumstances lead to a partial collapse of the government and society in general.
The author touts his story as different because in his story there is only a "partial" collapse and not a "total" collapse as most of the other novels in this genre portray. Like the Deep Winter series, this first book is a "how to" on prepping for disaster. Time is spent explaining how to obtain and store food, how to open the "prepping/survivalist" conversation with others, how to find a group of like minded individuals, where to find information you might need, as well as other topics on the subject. It's not bad, it's just that the real-life instructions are awkwardly placed. The author pauses his story to tuck in valuable information for the reader.
The Preparation is written in third person style, but is clearly otherwise in autobiographical style with a stop at the author's childhood memories, a brief stop during his 20's, then the extended stay at current events. The writing style is quite plain; the author doesn't have or didn't use the eloquence displayed by professional authors like King or Koonts. (Not that I have that ability, either. It's just an observation.)
The Preparation doesn't contain much in the way of action, but you can tell that there will be plenty in the upcoming books. The author admits to making this first piece the back-story to the rest of the upcoming parts. Despite this, it's setting up a good enough story I think I'm in for the long haul. I see myself going all ten rounds. The message contained within is as plain as the writing style: keep an eye and ear open to what is happening, listen to that inner voice we all have, hope for the best but prep for the worst, and don't waste time... it's coming.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Book(s) Review: Deep Winter by Thomas Sherry
For a while now I have been on a reading kick of dystopian or post-apocalyptic novels. I thought it might be a good idea to review a few of them focusing on the ones that contain useful information for survival situations.
Since I just finished reading the trio, I thought it a good idea to start with Deep Winter. Let me preface my review by saying I enjoyed the story quite a bit. I have several criticisms of the books, but overall I was drawn in and found myself reading the book even a few pages at a time when I had only a few minutes.
Thomas Sherry wrote a trilogy of books titled Deep Winter; the first- Deep Winter, the second- Shatter, the third- Remnant. The books deal with a family in a disaster scenario and how they survive. The series moves progressively through a family and its neighborhood surviving, to rebuilding a devastated county, then into some country-wide structuring. During the course of the story the protagonist and his family are put through a devastating earthquake, global pandemic, volcanic eruption, roving bands of criminals, economic collapse, rogue local and national politicians, global war, global nuclear war, and civil war. All of that and I may have missed a calamity, I'm not sure.
Some previous reviewers have found tedium in the minutia presented by the author, especially in the first book. Deep Winter is a book of survival instructions thinly veiled as a story. The author walks us through how to live during hard times mainly by focusing on the "things" needed to get along in life. He also presents some tactics for safety and defense as you try to go about your daily life without the standard infrastructure we have all become accustomed to. The main character relies on his family, his faith, his knowledge, and his vast array of "stuff" stored on his property to get him and his neighborhood and friends through the situations.
Shatter takes place after the majority of the disasters have befallen the United States. The main character helps the larger community drag themselves out of the situations presented. In this book there are fewer technical details of individual survival and more of the broader "community organization" and how to get an area back on its feet. Lots more politics dwell within as the focus in on the county more than the immediate neighborhood. Also presented are some of the longer term possibilities without infrastructure (medical and manufacturing shortcomings as examples).
Remnant follows Shatter by seeing our hero (having moved from community survivalist into county restructuring) jump to military leader. Most of the book focuses on a military unit as it moves across the country trying to help communities rebuild themselves in the face of civil war. The very end is reminiscent of the "reflecting" scene from Lights Out if you have read that.
Over all, I was happy to read the books. The author is obviously from the Spokane, Washington area and someone from that area will probably get more out of the book as the characters interact in the climate, neighborhoods, culture and landmarks of Spokane and the surrounding communities. There is a lot of good information to be gleaned as Mr Sherry takes the main characters through many "WWYD" type situations.
What review would be complete without a link to the author's blog: Deep Winter Blog.
Since I just finished reading the trio, I thought it a good idea to start with Deep Winter. Let me preface my review by saying I enjoyed the story quite a bit. I have several criticisms of the books, but overall I was drawn in and found myself reading the book even a few pages at a time when I had only a few minutes.
Thomas Sherry wrote a trilogy of books titled Deep Winter; the first- Deep Winter, the second- Shatter, the third- Remnant. The books deal with a family in a disaster scenario and how they survive. The series moves progressively through a family and its neighborhood surviving, to rebuilding a devastated county, then into some country-wide structuring. During the course of the story the protagonist and his family are put through a devastating earthquake, global pandemic, volcanic eruption, roving bands of criminals, economic collapse, rogue local and national politicians, global war, global nuclear war, and civil war. All of that and I may have missed a calamity, I'm not sure.
Some previous reviewers have found tedium in the minutia presented by the author, especially in the first book. Deep Winter is a book of survival instructions thinly veiled as a story. The author walks us through how to live during hard times mainly by focusing on the "things" needed to get along in life. He also presents some tactics for safety and defense as you try to go about your daily life without the standard infrastructure we have all become accustomed to. The main character relies on his family, his faith, his knowledge, and his vast array of "stuff" stored on his property to get him and his neighborhood and friends through the situations.
Shatter takes place after the majority of the disasters have befallen the United States. The main character helps the larger community drag themselves out of the situations presented. In this book there are fewer technical details of individual survival and more of the broader "community organization" and how to get an area back on its feet. Lots more politics dwell within as the focus in on the county more than the immediate neighborhood. Also presented are some of the longer term possibilities without infrastructure (medical and manufacturing shortcomings as examples).
Remnant follows Shatter by seeing our hero (having moved from community survivalist into county restructuring) jump to military leader. Most of the book focuses on a military unit as it moves across the country trying to help communities rebuild themselves in the face of civil war. The very end is reminiscent of the "reflecting" scene from Lights Out if you have read that.
Over all, I was happy to read the books. The author is obviously from the Spokane, Washington area and someone from that area will probably get more out of the book as the characters interact in the climate, neighborhoods, culture and landmarks of Spokane and the surrounding communities. There is a lot of good information to be gleaned as Mr Sherry takes the main characters through many "WWYD" type situations.
What review would be complete without a link to the author's blog: Deep Winter Blog.
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