Review: Well Worth Reading
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 9, 2012
I enjoy reading 'fall of civilization' novels, as some of them are not far-fetched. Up to now, those novels have dealt with EMP or zombies (ok, not realistic). Fifty Fallen Stars is different, as it deals with the collapse of civilization in a believable way due to the corresponding collapse of our tenuous economic system. The premise is highly believable and could actually happen in the near future, and the author did a good job of showing how it might occur and the repercussions.The characters are well fleshed out, and act as real people would given the circumstances they find themselves in. And unlike one reviewer here, I didn't find their speech unrealistic or offensive; it blended well with the story.I have only three relatively minor gripes about the story, so I hope the author reads this:1. Spellcheckers don't catch misspelled words that form other words, and there are *a lot* of misspelled words of this nature in the the book. Have someone unfamiliar with the story proofread and circle the misspellings. I also found one or two words missing from the text.2. It was confusing keeping track of the groups and would have liked to have their their locations listed at the top of each chapter.3. Writers who talk about things they know nothing about, shouldn't. The author apparently knows nothing about firearms and should learn how to operate and fire the weapons he described. Hint: Semi-automatic firearms don't "click" when empty. Their slides lock back and they don't do anything else.It should be relatively simple to correct these three problems and re-issue the book in a second edition. The premise is too believable and the story otherwise too well-written for the author to not improve it. The book could be a close second to the outstanding, apocalyptic novel, One Second Later (by William R. Forstchen).