Review: OK, but not as good as Tackett's similar "A Distant Eden" series
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 10, 2013
More like a 3.5.I've now read through all five volumes in TJ Reeder's "Long Lonely Road" series and read through, as well, all of the volumes of Lloyd Tackitt's very similar TEOTWAWKI series that began with "A Distant Eden," and I find Tackitt's series to be superior--his characters are becoming somewhat more true to life, his plot seems somewhat more likely, and Tackitt's spelling, grammar, word choice, and punctuation are much, much better. I was hoping that the error-filled writing of Reeder's protagonist, Johnny Long Walker, was at least partially Reeder's deliberate attempt to create a particular character, but now I'm thinking that all those errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and word choice are not part of the character but, are those of the author. Moreover, it seemed to me that Tackitt's protagonist Adrian was evolving and becoming more three dimensional, whereas TJ's protagonist Johnny Long Walker has stayed the semi-educated and semi-literate, almost caricature of a grumpy "old man" and former Marine that he initially was.If Reeder were to hire an editor to go though the series--word by word, line by line--and make corrections, this would lead to a major improvement in quality and would likely bring in more readers.Fundamental to and, I suspect, motivating both these series as well as the recent proliferation of other similar TEOTWAWKI series, is the intuition, the message that more than half a century of steadily increasing and heretofore unimaginable bounty, many decades of relentless Leftist ideological attack and subversion, and the resulting, ever increasing decadence have combined to pretty thoroughly undermine the foundation and all of the major institutions and values of traditional society as we have known it, and that the fundamental and catastrophic collapse of our Republican form of government, our economy, our social structure, law and order, and our highly interdependent and vulnerable, energy dependent technological society--be it due to man-made or to natural causes--becomes more likely by the day.These author's all warning us that, if we want to have a chance of surviving this "fundamental transformation" we had better heighten our "situational awareness," face up to this very unpalatable possibility--one becoming less "unthinkable" by the day--and to make what preparations we can against the threat on the horizon that is heading towards us.