Review: The Living will Envy the Dead
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 20, 2012
The Living Will Envy the Dead tells the story of survival of a small West Virginia town from the standpoint of its Sheriff, Edward Stalker.There has been a nuclear war, termed the Final War, which involved all of the World - think WWIII.  Ed, a retired veteran who is now the Sheriff of Ingalls, WV, a very small town set in a valley, has taken upon himself to protect the town and its people after the bombs have gone off.  In doing so, he must make very difficult decisions including what to do to secure the town, determine what to do with the prisoners of the maximum security prison that is set outside of the town, and provide for the needs of the residents, all while keeping them safe from the refugees from the larger cities and towns that were destroyed by the blasts.These decisions are not always popular nor what you may think of as humanitarian toward our fellow man.  After all, in the case of the prison, you have over a thousand of the worst dredges of society sitting in your town and limited supplies in which to support them.  What do you do with them?  And then there are the refugees... you don't have crops or supplies to feed them all, some have radioactive "dust" on them, some have no skills that are applicable in the "new world" - do you let them into your town and potentially starve your own people or send them on their way?And.. this part was not the most comfortable to read - what about the future population?  Most of the people have either been killed in the initial blasts or will die of disease, hunger, accidents, etc during the first year.  There will be a need to add more members to the human race so now we need "breeders".  How do you balance that need to reproduce with the rights of the women themselves?  The author did a great job of discussing the philosophical results of different societies and how they treat their women and the results of their behaviors (think Taliban or strict Muslim societies) versus making sure that the remaining women are safe yet can protect themselves if needed.  And, he does it so you learn without being lectured to - darn him for making you think while you are enjoying yourself reading the story!And, of course, no book would be complete without the crazy people.  I won't go into details because that would be a spoiler but don't you just wish sometimes that the nuts would be the first to go?What I really enjoyed:  The background information that set the story: I found the scenario that the author developed concerning how this all came about and who shot what at whom EXTREMELY interesting.  The detailed descriptions and background made it so much more than the normal "we saw a bright light and then nothing worked again" kind of set up that you normally get in these types of books; the details about radiation poisoning - I don't know if it is all true but I liked the author's take on the chances of survival because now I feel that we will actually have a chance if you aren't in the targeted areas!  The realism of the hard decisions that would have to be made - both regarding the refugees and the safety and future of the community.  The characters were developed and their interaction with each other stayed true to the personalities that the author had given them.  Conversations flowed nicely.What I wasn't as enthused about:  The author is not from America thus did not use American spelling.  This is not normally a big deal for me because you don't notice as much organize being spelled organise but defense was used frequently and was spelled defence and I just wanted to hit spell check even though I know it is a correct spelling!  It actually took me out of the story which I disliked.  There was also a few comments about racism that I thought were stereotyping but again, not enough to make me want to stop reading.All in all, a very good book that I would recommend to a variety of audiences - End of the World junkies, military battle enthusiasts, and anyone looking for a well written novel to spend the afternoon emersing yourself in.  For the book itself and they type that I like to read, I would give it a FOUR STARS but when you add in the details of the writing and background building, I give it a FIVE STARS.