I am titling this post “What Were They Thinking”, because
that was the reaction when I read these books.
A big pet peeve of mine is an author who has not done his homework on
the area he is writing about, or tries to be so imaginative that he comes up with
something either silly or completely impossible. Of course, when you read a bad book you
really come to appreciate the good ones.
Even those filled with grammatical and spelling errors are readable if
the story is interesting enough. After
all, those errors can be fixed with a good proofreader and editor. Consider Deep Winter by Thomas Sherry (to be
reviewed at a later date). The story
ultimately overrides the problems with grammar, spelling and dialogue. Each of the books reviewed below have their
own problems, although one is still a “keeper”.
____________________________________________________________
Review
Title:
Rohan Nation
Author: Drew
Miller
Copyright: 2007
ISBN #978-0-9843709-0-0
The beginning of Rohan Nation is a promising mix
of current action mixed with the history of how the group highlighted in the
novel was formed. After a series of
nuclear attacks, fighting and three waves of viral pandemics, the world’s
population is left decimated. In order
to survive, people from the cities and towns made their way into the country
side, there to either be killed by marauding gangs, starvation, radiation
sickness or exposure to remnants of the ever mutating viruses. The few who do survive do so by banding
together and working to restart civilization.
The leaders in the group we follow devise a philosophy
and way of life centered on responsibility, using their “Maxims for Young Men
and Women” to form the foundation of the code of conduct for the group. Because they depended so heavily on horses
for transportation, defense and other uses, one member, who happened to be a
Lord of the Rings fan, suggested the name “Rohan”, meaning Land of the Horses
in J. R. R. Tolkien’s fictional language.
The name stuck and the group, which had settled in the Sangre de Christo
Mountains in Colorado, became known as the “Sangre de Christo Rohan”.
In the story, the protagonist is Ace, a seventeen
year old girl as she goes about her duties as sentry, and later, trainer to the
new arrival she helped bring in, a teenage boy about the same age. Of
course, teenage hormones fly, and soon the two teenagers are an item. But fate intervenes in the lives of the two
love birds.
War is declared when remnants of China’s army
invades the American shores. And that is
where the trouble for me started. As we
follow the troops that the Rohan assign to the battle, they move down into
Texas. Their mission is to defend the
oil refineries in Baytown, Texas, from the invading Chinese. And in a description of a battle briefing,
the author reveals that he has not done his research, because the briefing
takes place in a basement. In Baytown,
Texas.
Now, for those of you who have never lived on the
Gulf Coast, let me explain that we do not have basements. This is due to the fact that the ground water
level is too high to allow a residential basement (at least in a normally priced
home) In fact, I do not know of any
residential basements and I have lived in the Gulf Coast area most of my life. Try to dig a basement in the Baytown area and
you end up with a muddy swimming pool – just from the seepage of the ground
water. This mistake was so big that it
completely broke the suspension of disbelief that is required when reading
fiction. Sure, authors make mistakes –
Stephen King did in The Stand, when he describes a desert one hundred miles
outside of Houston, Texas. Of course,
the desert doesn’t start until you hit the other side of San Antonio, more than
two hundred miles away. But Stephen King
is a good enough writer that I forgot this mistake in less than a chapter. Mr. Miller makes references to basements in
Baytown several times, and this just re-enforced my disbelief in the
story. And let’s face it, few people are
as good a writer as Stephen King.
As I continued to (try) to read this book, I kept
finding myself wondering what other mistakes Mr. Miller had made. Ultimately, I could not finish the book – I
just didn’t believe the world the author had built. And that is a shame, because up until then I
was enjoying the ride (no pun intended).
So, I have to ask, what the heck was Mr. Miller
thinking when he described an area of the country he obviously had no knowledge
of, and didn’t bother to research.
What I liked about the book was the way the author
was able to mix current and historical facts, the society of the Rohan world
and the frank admittance of how important horses will be to any post-technological
world.
What I didn’t like about the book was the author’s
obvious lack of knowledge of the real world that his fictional world was built
on.
This book was written for the adult fiction
market, but could be read by anyone.
However, knowing the glaring mistake in the
storyline, I cannot recommend this book.
If I can’t finish it, how can I suggest someone else waste their money
on it?
Invasion of the US, Horses, War, Fiction
_______________________________________________________________________________
Review
Title:
Obliterated – Would You Know How to Survive?
Author: C.
J. Hall
Copyright:
2009
ISBN #None Listed
I love stories that center around a mysterious
disaster, and Obliterated offered just that.
We meet our heroes as the strange explosive sounds
that are destroying the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, begin. What the explosions are, are unknown, but
appear to be caused by some kind of a craft – described as a “steely black
horizontal dash”. Our protagonists, Kim
and her lover, Ray, take the path of caution and race out of the settled areas
and to a secluded camping area they know.
They manage to contact friends, Greg and Sharon, and together they set
up a camp in a cave they know.
Across the country in Miami, Florida, Ray’s
daughter Eva and her boyfriend Jason also flee the city. They head west to try to join up with her
father. Now the book is in two parts,
Ray and Kim’s adventures and Eva and Jason’s, but the author manages to do this
seamlessly, with none of the jarring jumps you sometimes find with multiple
storylines. And I enjoyed the viewpoint
of the disaster from the two different age groups – Ray’s parental, older viewpoint
and Eva’s younger, college age viewpoint.
The way the groups approach their survival needs
is informative and interesting. Some of
the ideas they use could be used in an actual disaster.
So, I’m reading along, enjoying myself with a good
book, getting close to the end and anticipating finding out what the heck the
aliens were doing. And then the author
jumped the shark.
The explanation the author gives for the alien’s
attack is that they have been observing Earth for centuries. Their technology has found that Earth’s
internal stresses had increased to the point that the tectonic plates would
begin shifting and cause enormous natural disasters – massive earthquakes,
tsunamis, forest fires, etch – would result.
The survivors, competing for dwindling resources, would focus on aggression
and revenge instead of surviving. Due to
the shifting of the tectonic plates and the subsequent eruption of the
Yellowstone super volcano, a new ice age would begin. The aliens decided it would be kinder to
pre-emptively remove the majority of the population in order to prevent their
suffering in the coming disasters the reshaping of our planet result in. So they kill us by removing all water from
our bodies, effectively dehydrating us.
Really?
This was the best the author could come up with? This is what my daughter and I call an “Oh,
man” ending. You know, when you get to
the great reveal and it’s so bad you just shake you had and say “Oh, man, that
was stupid”.
What I liked about this book was many things and
far outweighed the bad. This is one of
the best written self-published books I have read. There are very little grammatical or spelling
errors and the dialogue flows naturally.
The survival ideas put forth are useable and thought provoking. I liked the characters and wanted them to
succeed. And I really liked the idea
that the person who put everything into action and was the lead in a lot of the
survival planning was a woman – not the stereotypical macho male with a huge
rifle, two handguns, five knives and a bow and arrow strapped to his body.
What I didn’t like about the book is obvious – the
reason for the alien’s massacre of the human race and the method of destruction
just did not make sense. Maybe I’m
pickier than I was when I was a teenager reading science fiction books about
alien attacks - but dehydration?
This book was written for the adult fiction market
but can be read by anyone.
So, would I recommend this book? Yes.
Because the writing is so good, the survival strategies believable, the
characters likeable, and except for the ending, the story was well put
together. I’m actually keeping an eye
out to see if there is a sequel. I would
like to know how the world turns out in this scenario.
Alien Attack, Survival, Fiction
________________________________________________________________________________
Review
Title: The
Pulse
Author:
Scott B. Williams
Copyright:
2012
ISBN #978-1-612-43090-4
The Pulse is a story about what would happen if a major
solar flare hit the Earth. And while
interesting and shows an honest portrayal of how people would react, all in all
it was rather unsatisfying.
The story follows two parties, a father, Artie
Drager, who is in the middle of the Caribbean Ocean, and his daughter, Casey,
living in an apartment in New Orleans, Louisiana, and attending Tulane
University.
The storyline jumps back and forth between the two
with Artie struggling to make his way from the Island of St. Thomas to New
Orleans to rescue his daughter and the story of Casey, who is making her way to
a secluded cabin with her friends, Jessica and Grant. Grant’s family owns the cabin, and he insists
that they need to get out of the city ASAP.
So far, so good.
Artie is lucky in that he was with his brother, Larry, who makes living
delivering sailing yachts to rich owners in distant locations. This voyage was to deliver a yacht to St.
Thomas, but during the passage Artie witnesses a display of lights across the
night sky during his turn at watch. The
lightshow only lasts a few seconds, but when they stop, he finds he has a
couple of problems – the XM radio he was listening to is now emitting only
static and worse, the GPS system is flashing a “searching for satellite” error
message. The electronics are working,
just not picking up the needed satellite signals. The next morning, all electronics stop
working, with the exception of simple battery powered items. Upon their arrival at St. Thomas, they find
the island is completely without power and other boat owners tell the same
story as theirs – all electronics have stopped working. That is enough for Artie, and he and Larry
decided to sail to New Orleans to find Casey.
Casey, on the other hand, is pedaling a bicycle
down I10, crossing the Causeway to get out of New Orleans. She, Grant and Jessica left the city after
the violence Grant had warned them about actually invaded their quiet
residential area. Grant estimates it
will take 3 days for them to get to the cabin, but once there, they will be safe. And there is the added bonus that his parents
keep the cabin stocked with food in case of an emergency evacuation due to a
hurricane. Of course, there are
obstacles and adventures along the way, with Casey getting kidnapped by a
survival type sociopath.
My biggest problem with this book is the ending,
which is so statistically high that it borders on impossible. I have a greater chance of winning the power
ball lottery than this ending happening.
So, this rates up there as an “Oh, man” book.
What I liked about this book was an honest look at
what life in a city would be like, with law and order breaking down quickly
once the gang members and other criminal elements realize law enforcement is
basically helpless with no way to communicate.
And the portrayal of the regular inhabitants sitting around waiting for
“those in charge” to help them. Of
course, no help will ever come from FEMA or any other governmental agency.
What I didn’t like about the book were three
things. First, Casey’s kidnapping. Who in their right mind would leave
concealment to go take a NAKED bath in freezing river water in March during a
major disaster, while they are supposed to be watching their food supplies and
only means of transportation? And then
go exploring? And to portray the
kidnapper as an insane survivalist is (no pun intended) crazy. Is the author trying to insult the very group
he says he himself is part of? And
finally, the ending. You have to read it
to believe it. I guarantee you will
then know the meaning of “Oh, man”.
This book was written for the adult fiction
market, but can be read by anyone who desires to.
I can’t wholeheartedly recommend this book. There just was not enough good to overcome
the bad. And, at $10.91 it was an expensive
read. If you can get it for $.99, go for
it, but otherwise, I would think twice.
EMP, Survival, Fiction
