Review: Not remotely as good as his previous book
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 28, 2013
I really liked this author's first book "Against The Grain" but this book fell short of that one.  The spelling errors were pretty bad (my favorite was "co-axle cable") but that wasn't the big problem.  The story was kind of disjointed and the author lapsed into long mental political diatribes - telling us instead of showing us.  This book is a prequel to Against The Grain.  It takes place just as things are falling apart, just as people are turning into mobs.  But it wasn't convincing.  All of a sudden little old ladies are out in the streets rampaging, looting and shooting.  Like something just snapped in everyone.  I didn't buy it.  Granted a certain percentage of the populations (including all male fourteen year olds - grin) would be salivating to get out there and rampage.  But most people wouldn't suddenly snap and become rampaging loonies.Then there are long dreary bouts of the protagonist (whose name we never learn) feeling sorry for himself.  And the juvenile or at least trite gimmick that the only female blames him for being such an animal when that's all that's keeping them alive - it's too shallow and obvious.  Nobody would believe the female had any brains, so there's no tension created.  Shallow female ranting at shallow hero.  Or, alternately, the protagonist is concerned about how gleefully his best friend is killing people.  We don't believe that either because the story doesn't make it believable.  The best friend grins after killing people.  That could be stress or adrenaline or post-battle euphoria.  We aren't really convinced the best friend is unhinged.  All those arcs could have worked, but they didn't.I think this author could make a go of it.  The book just wasn't thought out or polished enough.  It needed a little more work before it was released to the public.  I can forgive that.  I don't know if I would buy another book by this author.  Probably not.