Review: A Satisfying Read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 17, 2013
Jeremy's Run is 95% conversation, 5% action, but don't let that throw you--the conversation is highly informative and the action, when it happens, is necessary, logical, and highly satisfying (to his credit, the author doesn't "invent" situations just to stage a fight).Set in West Los Angeles in the "near future", this story explores the fate of five Angelinos who suddenly find themselves facing the unthinkable--the end of civilization as they know it. We've seen many books and movies on similar subjects, but most are vehicles for high-octane kick-ass and (in the case of film) mind-boggling CGI. Jeremy's Run rises above the pack in that it takes the subject seriously. Each of the characters (even the dog) brings something unique to the situation, and through extensive dialogue between the friends, the reader can learn a great deal about how to survive such a catastrophe.[SPOILER ALERT]There are some flaws, however: In view of what transpires, I expected more carnage and devastation than was described; e.g., the story takes place a few miles from LAX (Los Angeles International Airport), but we only hear one jetliner go down. In real life, they should be falling like leaves. LAX lands a plane every two minutes (last time I checked--maybe more today), and with fried electronics there should be twenty or thirty planes spiraling down within minutes of the disaster. (I could be wrong about that--since I first posted this review, I learned that there is some uncertainty about just how vulnerable the average jetliner is to a hostile EMP attack; in view of this, the greater danger might be mid-air collisions when there is no longer a control tower to direct traffic above a busy airport.)But that's a minor issue that only a nit like me would pick at. It takes nothing from the story.For an independent, self-published book, the writing here is stellar, the punctuation perfect. There are a few textual errors, five or six that I caught, but no spelling or grammatical errors. In that respect alone, this book is far above average. The Generation Y dialogue is fluid and natural, the characters nicely developed, and the author's knowledge of everything from camping equipment to big-city infrastructure is impressive. His logic in how such a situation might play out is well reasoned, and the options left to the characters are sobering.All in all, Jeremy's Run is a satisfying read; at 40,000 words, you can do it in one or two sittings, and the Addendum states that this is only the first of three or four parts, the rest of which are yet to come. The price is right, too.Good stuff, highly recommended.