Review: Post apocalyptic fun and games
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 3, 2013
"After: The Shock" presents an interesting take on The End of the World, with massive and inexplicable solar flares frying the brains of most of the worlds population.As required for a post-apocalyptic novel, a small percentage of people are immune and Nicholson picks a number of these and threads the story around them as they avoid the physically aggressive Zaphead's whilst trying to adjust to the collapse of everything - and everyone - around them.Nicholson gives us a pot-pourri of character types so the plot is not bogged down by a single point of view. That view is very much USA-centric, so while there are a few times where thought is given to other countries, we are not privy to what's happening anywhere else. That's a pity because it might have injected some counterpoint and tension into the proceedings. And while it quickly becomes apparent that the characters paths will converge, part of the fun is predicting how that is going to play out.For the most part the protagonists are shattered and shell shocked, which is what you would expect, but fortunately Nicholson does not let allow the novel to sink into the mire of passive characters not doing much more than shambling along. In fact, there is quite a lot of action, especially when a bunch of gung-ho ex-military types enter the frame. These guys are led by a loon, basically, and in normal times they'd be locked up for their antics, but these are definitely not normal times and so their shenanigans go unchecked.One problem I had is that for the most part the characters are normal people...and normal people just aren't that interesting! No offence intended of course, I consider myself normal and thus equally uninteresting, but this type of story really needs the quorum of archetypes to spice it up. Nicholson gives us a few of them, but they are emotionally muted and therefore don't raise "After: The Shock" above the pack.So it's an OK effort - and disappointingly this is not a standalone novel, so do not expect resolution in the final pages - but I am a bit ho hum about hunting out the sequel(s). One interesting aspect that is a gravity point for the sequels is the behaviour of the Zaphead's. I can't say anything without inserting a spoiler, but clearly Nicholson has some kind of evolution in mind for them that might be worth following up on. Still, if you are looking for End of the World stories I'd recommend "Ex-Heroes" or even "Pines" as being more interesting reads.