Review: No Little Green Men, No Zombies, No New Plague
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 27, 2013
"Memories of the Coastal Event" by A.G. Kimbrough is an entertaining, worse-case scenario apocalyptic tale in which Sea Level rises 300', earthquakes of 9.0 or better occur all over the world for several days, major and significant volcanic activity plunges the planet into semi-darkness, a major meteor shower strikes the Earth with hundreds of large meteorites, and a massive global storm of Biblical proportions pounds the planet with non-stop rain and winds of 120 mph for more than a month... simultaneously.A handful of survivors manage to find each other and set some mutually agreeable rules of conduct for their fledgling society. But to further complicate matters, a contingent of the former Government has survived underground in a dozen deeply buried survival shelters, intending to "restore" civilization by force, once they decide it's safe to come out of hiding after a couple years.This story considers only the devastation in California and the Government's hiding hole near Reno, Nevada. The author paints a terrifyingly realistic picture of what might be the outcome of such a scenario. Will civilization survive? Will the government help or hinder in its efforts to facilitate survival? Is this the end of the human race, or just the end of life as we know it?This really was a fascinating tale, because although unlikely, every single catastrophe that occurs is, in fact, a legitimate and natural possibility. There are no reanimated dinosaurs, no little green men from Mars, and no super-bug viral plagues to sweep across the planet. Just plain old natural events, happening in concert, prove to be enough to apparently kill over 80% of the Earth's inhabitants. The rising sea level alone is enough to cause mortality on that scale.The author has a superb grasp of the new reality under the conditions he has laid out for us. He has also given us characters to love, as well as characters to hate. The only fault I could find anywhere with this book lies in the fact that there were so many characters I had a bit of trouble keeping track of who was who, but that is likely more a problem of my diminishing brain cells rather than any fault on the part of the author.Kimbrough presents a whole new apocalyptic alternative for us to consider, and one which is much more likely than any "zombie" takeover. Read this book for the pleasure of enjoying it, but keep in mind preparations the survivors made; you just might need to do the same yourself someday. Any of these natural disasters could happen; all of them HAVE happened during the history of the planet.