Review: Not as good as the first, and too many stereotype memes
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 04 18, 2014
Gorham's first book is a great standalone novel about an EMP event, although it begs the question (also never resolved in the second book) about why a main character who works for a power company never tries to do anything to bring power back to his small town (hydroelectric and other kinds of power generation exist without sophisticated integrated circuits).This second book, Daunting Days of Winter, feels very much like "ooh, the first book sold well, guess I'll do a second." It tends to skirt too close to romance novel territory and then plays to all sorts of stereotypes - the Army went to Hell when the gays got their rights, the first thing men want to do when the SHTF is rape women, women get the vapors and fall apart because their man isn't around, the "Indians" (yep, he has Native American characters calling themselves Indians, not their tribe name) are having a hard time now that the alcohol has run out, and the Polish immigrant has a TV sitcom accent and calls himself a Polack a dozen times. None of these memes actually advance the story, and they invoke a right-wing creepiness that wasn't apparent in the first book.No need to read any further books in the series; I'll wish Kyle and his family well and continue to wonder why a guy who works for a power company can't figure out ways to get at least some power restored.