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I knew the laptop was bad, but wow!

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 12-04-21

While I’m a close watcher of politics and always trying to ‘read between the lines’ for the full truth of news stories, I’m simply astounded that the Biden’s/DNC/or whoever, was able to gaslight so many Americans. Miranda stating that Joe wanted to build a dynasty like the Kennedy’s is spot on. He just needed money. I don’t even know what to say about Hunter. While I can see where his childhood, position in society, money and powerful family set him up to fall, it doesn’t change the fact he seems to be a garbage human being and I don’t say that about people often.
There weren’t any new revelations in the book I haven’t seen in the media already, but it was nice to get all of it in one sitting and having it pieced together.
Definitely recommend the listen.

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53 people found this helpful

Really disappointed in the first story

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
2 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-11-21

This review is for the first story of this set. There is so very much wrong with this story.

First, I’m wondering if the writer knows much about horses at all. It seems every horse is a stallion, all of them are bombproof and there is apparently a horse in every garage in Colorado. Within a couple of days after the EMP attack, horses (and guns since everybody has one) are plentiful and every single person not only has acquired one, but knows how to ride. Also, every single horse is completely tolerant of people firing guns off their backs. The very first appropriate horse reaction just happened in the book and I'm a solid 3/4s of the way through it and there’s been at least 5 gun battles already. I’m fully aware there are horses trained to tolerate that, but your average horse absolutely will not. Also, at one point a character fills a container with their canteen for her horse and the ‘horse drinks it’s fill’. Ummmmm nope. A canteen full of water would barely be more than a mouthful for a horse.

Let’s talk about the action. Even though there isn’t clear definition of days passing I think I’m only at about day 3 or 4 at the most. So far there are at least 2 gang armies that have been training together and planning their overthrow of the entire county with a group they just put together. I know society will fall quickly, but this is beyond realistic. The author wants us to believe that society will fall, understand what is happening and the main villain will put together an 80 man army within 2-3 days after an EMP. Oh, and even though these armies have been training (albeit for about a day) oooo-we! They can’t manage to hit a damn thing with a gun. Of course our hero’s can’t miss. They’re all crack shots. (Insert eye roll)

As for the gun battles, the children (12 year old boy and I believe 17 year old girl) shot and killed several people in the morning of day 2. No reaction. The girl was flirting with her boyfriend in a matter of hours after. Again, not realistic. The parents didn’t seem even remotely concerned their children had to kill several people while they were away from the ranch either. Speaking of the 17 year old girl, a stranger is taken in on day 2 and it appears a romance is brewing between them already. Based on his telling of his experiences I’m guessing he is close to 10 years her senior and apparently nobody seems to care. Well, I’m sure her age appropriate boyfriend will eventually when he learns about it.

While I know we don’t fully understand the effects of an actual EMP, unlike the impression this book gives, I’m confident the effects of one do not ‘wear off’. If an electronic device is fried, it’s fried. It doesn’t wear off and start to work again. If transformers are blown they have to be replaced. They don’t start to blink back on. TVs and stove clocks will not turn on for a few seconds as told by the book.

Another reviewer mentioned prepping. The main character family likes to refer to themselves as preppers.....a lot, but the only thing anybody mentions regarding stockpiling is ammo. At one point when food was discussed the mother said she just went to the grocery store so they were set for awhile. What?! They have no back up system in place for cooking, water or anything else. Other than the plentiful gun battle scenes, there isn’t much in the way of survival in this book so far.

I’ll touch on the narrator. I generally avoid books narrated by her. This is seriously not the genre for her. She often sounds incredulous and surprised, both at completely inappropriate times. While she has gotten better and her inflection isn’t quite as bad as earlier books I’ve listened to by her, I think I’ll continue to avoid her with this genre.

Update: Again, the above review was for the first story of this set. The second story I have actually already listened to before and enjoyed it enough the first time that I'm listening to it again. Both the narration and characters are quite good as is the storyline.

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2 people found this helpful

I listened twice....in a row...it’s just that good

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 05-30-19

Helllllloooooo Gibs! Yep, I’m officially in love with a book character. Don’t go getting him attached to some girl now Josh, Gibs is all mine! Lol The next addition to this series is even better than the first and the first is amazing!!!! Josh’s cast of characters are all so unique! They are all flawed, normal, decent and sometimes not, ruthless when needed, and just people. Random people tossed together and trying to make a go out of it. Josh balances survival with people and situations and personalities and biases and reality. He does it in such a way that you don’t even know it’s happening. You just get swept up in it. I swear I could shut my eyes, swivel my head and see every person, every seat, every bullet hole, every weapon, and even the white knuckles of Oscar on the steering wheel of the super duper Funtime shit bus in my mind. I felt exhaustion as they ran out of Denver. I felt the apprehension when the 2 groups met for the first time. Heard their laughter in my head about Blucifer.

There’s no words for RC’s narration. He never alters the characters, never misses an inflection or fails to deliver the correct line. Flawless. His reading is just flawless.

Thanks again for another amazing book Josh!

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1 person found this helpful

OUT-F’ING-STANDING!! 5 stars isn’t enough!!!

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 05-30-19

Sweet baby Jesus with gold boots on, I swear on everything I hold dear and even stuff I hate, Josh is a d*** genius! What an amazing ‘conclusion’ to the best series in this genre ever! Seriously, I have over 300 books in this genre and this is the best of any series I’ve listened to. Firstly, Josh doesn’t give away his characters. They’re all a bit of a mystery (some more than others as Jake will leave you theorizing and scratching your head even after the conclusion of the book), but it’s done in such a way that even though you don’t know him or his past, you ‘know’ him as the other characters do. Gah! I know that doesn’t make sense, but you’ll get it if you listen to the books. He is able to give you a sense of deep character development without having to drone on about their pasts in great detail. You feel like you are another character in the book and learning about others as we progress through the series together. Josh leaves lots of hints and pieces of Jake sprinkled throughout the series, it’s just up to us to piece it together and come to a conclusion. I also love how Josh makes his characters very real. I mean truly real. It isn’t a book where there are clear lines of good and evil. The characters are complicated and doing what they think is best for themselves or their people. I mean, we shouldn’t like Clay, right? I can’t help but understand him and, in a way, respect what he’s doing. I found myself getting emotionally attached and responding to portions of this series like I never have before to a book. I paused the book to spew a lengthy rant laced with every colorful metaphor I know (and some new ones I learned from Gibbs) aimed directly at Josh for killing somebody off, only to realize that it’s just the direction the story went. Like he didn’t have control over that, it’s just the way it was and his writing it didn’t change that. I laughed out loud too many times to count when Gibbs’ unbelievably versatile handle on the English language went in directions I didn’t think possible. I also shed a tear or 2. Many times I quickly book marked a spot because I knew that it ‘meant’ something in regards to Jake.

I cannot even begin to praise RC Bray enough for his narration. He quite literally brought every single character to life. Never once did his renditions of each character alter or fail to give me clear visuals of people and scenes. The 2 components here, Josh and RC, were the only way this series was meant to be presented. Josh’s storytelling and characters coupled with RC’s uncanny ability to give those two things life and a literal voice is seamless.

Please continue Josh. Please let us know how Gibbs is and if Otter was successful at accomplishing his mission.

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1 person found this helpful

Interesting listen

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 05-30-19

I enjoy a good pandemic book! I was a little disappointed in the lack of character development. We got bits here and there, but not enough to truly care what happens to them. The basis of the book was a bit cliche, but still well done. Narration was good even though the female voices were definitely strained. Ending was unexpected so I will give the author credit for that!

Spoilers! Basically this is a book about a false flag event conceived by an Illuminati style group that has infiltrated all levels of society and government. There’s a little good vs evil with a former member trying to stop the current plan from evolving. The story revolves around a couple of different sets of people set far apart, but yet connected. For instance, patient zero is the fiancé of the man who is with the fiancé of a captain at the base holding patient zero. Meanwhile the captain falls for a rather unappealing woman at the base (frankly, as a woman, there is nothing redeeming about her and when she finally realizes the error of her ways, it’s too late in the game because I had started to hope she would be killed off a dozen chapters prior), the fiancé of patient zero falls for the captain’s fiancé and in the end you have no idea who you’re ‘rooting’ for and as it turns out, it doesn’t really matter in the end. Anyway, it’s about their journeys and although interesting, I feel like we just got a surface story without a lot of depth to the characters. As an example, one of the groups runs into a 10 year kid and his merry band of the lord of the flies. Naturally, you start by really not liking this kid, then somehow we’re supposed to like this kid because now he’s helping, but we still don’t know a thing about him or where he came from or how he’s survived without adults thus far. So again, in the end, I didn’t really care about him throughout.

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4 people found this helpful

Wow! Pleasantly surprised

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 02-06-19

This is an author I wasn’t familiar with and honestly bought it because nothing else was jumping out at me while browsing. I should add that at last count, I have over 200 post apocalyptic (non zombie) books in my library and tend to only leave a review when one is exceptional or when one sucks. This book is the former.

This book outlines a terrifying possibility. Coordinated terrorist attacks that would inflict sheer chaos and complete terror in US citizens and done so efficiently. I actually discussed this type of attack with my husband years ago as being the most effective style of attack so it was fascinating to read the author’s vision of something similar.

I don’t want to give away anything, but the way the story unfolds, you become invested in many different characters and their stories very quickly only to be eventually surprised (even though it keeps happening over and over again). That there is enough to keep me interested. You get glimpses of a couple of characters you know we will see later down the line, but they are not much more than glimpses. In this book we follow the terrorists themselves and their attacks. Both the terrorists and the attacks were well thought out and you wanted to keep listening to hear what they do next.

I know this is a vague review, but I seriously don’t want to give anything away and it’s a really well plotted book that needs to be experienced. The narration is done well and is a little more on the dramatized side, which I liked. Take a chance on this one. I guarantee you will be like me and anxiously awaiting the second installment!

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9 people found this helpful

Really enjoyed this book

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-01-19

Let me preface this review with I have well over 100 post-apocalyptic books in my library with only 4 of them have anything to do with zombies, so needless to say I am not a zombie fan. This book, however, is f'ing fantastic! First I really like Dusty. He made me laugh, I could relate to him and his rants, and he was incredibly well written. After 2 years in a bunker Dusty has wrestled in his mind all the things that were messed up with society, usually in a very creatively humorous way. He puts pen to paper in hopes that some future society (possibly an advanced society of bees) will find his journal and learn about what he believes is the last of humanity. He's plain spoken, opinionated, lonely (especially for female company) and sort of cranky. Did I mention funny? Seriously, I was cracking a smile or outright laughing throughout this book. Even the absurd, yet completely believable because it was absurd way the zombie apocalypse started. I thought that maybe "reading" the journal of one man would be kind of boring, but it was the completely opposite and Ray Porter had a huge role in making that happen. He's an excellent narrator and really brought Dusty to life. I highly recommend this book, even if your aren't into zombies. They aren't the focus and there isn't a ton of fleeing from zombies or fighting with zombies or graphic descriptions of zombies or zombies, zombies, zombies. Just a really good story that's well written and very well narrated.

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9 people found this helpful

Difficult narration

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
1 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 12-05-18

Overall I liked the story. It was typical of the genre, but decent characters and an actual enemy on US soil was a different take than the usual. However, the narration. It seems the author likes to use Ramona Master regularly. He may want to rethink this. First, it’s a male lead character and majority male cast of characters. She struggles with male voices. Anybody over the age of 40 sounds like they are 90 and decrepit. Then there’s the narration itself. Stilted with inappropriate emphasis and inflection. For example, a simple, normal, mundane action, such as standing up is said like it was the most astounding thing to ever happen “and he STOOD UP!” There are odd pauses and the sentence structure is just tortured. It made it extremely difficult to listen to.

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58 people found this helpful

Not my usual, but worth my time!

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 12-30-17

I'm a post apocalyptic junkie, but aliens aren't my thing. However, I really enjoyed this book! I'm a big fan of getting a really long book with my credits, but I was a bit nervous given it's length and alien angle. I didn't need to worry! First, the first time I checked to see how far into the boom I was it was nearly 8 hours and it seriously didn't feel that long. The book progresses at such a perfect tempo that it never felt like a 40+ hour book. I liked that we got basically 3 entirely different stories (with some minor overlap) in this first series.

In the first book we follow a couple on the west coast, a sort of couple on the east coast (briefly) and a lone man on the east coast who eventually gets to the west coast. It starts us with a brief background on the pandemic with the sort of couple and takes us before the pandemic and through it up until the alien arrival with the others. The author really does a great job of character development, especially in this first book. Because of this, even if you don't totally like the character, you really feel invested in them.

In book 2 you get more of the same with the character development. 2 brothers and a brother/sister duo. It starts over again with the pandemic, but from their experience with it and progresses further past the time frame where book 1 left off. Again, some of the characters have very annoying traits, but it really made them feel like real people.

Book 3 brings back the lone fella from 1 and a new set of characters. Now we are well past the pandemic and alien arrival. There's all sorts of new struggles, enemies (many of which we aren't sure are actual enemies until the end) and a new main character in the form of a teenage girl who really had it rough since the pandemic initially struck.

I'm glad I invested not only my credit, but my time in this series. I was glad to see there are more left (and that each of them are lengthy) because I look forward to hearing what happens to everybody and what new characters Mr Robertson is going to bring to life for us.

Now for the narrator. I love Ray Chase! He's truly a narrator. He doesn't change his voice drastically, but it in no way takes away from the book. He has a slightly sardonic way of reading that I enjoy.

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Surviving the Collapse: Book 1 Audiobook By James Hunt cover art

Overall it was entertaining

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 12-17-17

This book is different than most in this genre. First it starts a couple of days after the event and second it isn't a 'how to', rather it's a story about a group of people trying to get to a destination. There were a few aspects that made me shake my head (people freely giving away a plane, 10' of snow falling overnight and yet people are moving about, and not a lot of character background with the exception of the main character), but overall I enjoyed the listen. I even bought the second book to see how things turned out.
The author writes well, the dialogue flows naturally and the characters are believable and they also stick to their personalities throughout the book (something many authors of this genre struggle with). The narration was well done with a good tempo and voice changes.

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