It's been a while since I read any post-apocalyptic fiction, and this is superficially pretty typical of the genre: World-ending event (EMP/super virus/meteor/economic collapse/whatever) happens, and our heroes gather at the rendezvous and use their smarts and guns, lots of guns, to overcome the (zombies/mutant biker barbarians) and establish (libertopia/God-fearin' 'Murrica).
The twist here is that our heroes are based around the crew that can be found at Alliance Police Training, and the rendezvous site around which our heroes are attempting to defend & rebuild civilization is the entire town of Alliance, Ohio. If you've ever spent any time there, it's fun to try and pick out the characters you recognize. (Some are more obvious than others.)
The book has the usual slight lack of polish you'd expect from a self-pubbed work of post-apocalyptica, but the dialogue is readable and the action is clearly exposited. At no point did I have to go back and re-read to figure out who it was who had just done or said something, which is not something one takes for granted in the self-pubbed Kindle market.
There's a definite atmosphere of gear-queerness; you'll never be left wondering the brand of a character's carbine or grain weight of a bullet, but that's also to be expected of the genre.
The refreshing part is that the author has a pretty solid working knowledge of both the environment in which the novel is set, and the action that goes on in it. You're not going to be disappointed by inappropriate equipment, implausible tactics, or the local government being a hand-waved cardboard cutout the way it often is in post-apocalypse settings.
The action starts off quickly and stays pretty evenly paced all the way to the cliffhanger ending, and the bad guys are not faceless mannequins there only to be mowed over by our unstoppable heroes. The outcome is always in doubt.
It was an enjoyable and quick read, the literary equivalent of a popcorn shoot-'em-up at the theater, and I'm anxiously awaiting the sequel.
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| Picture included because the internet likes pictures. Especially of guns. Or cats. |
