Five Post-Apocalyptic Reads to Check Out
I've featured several post-apocalyptic book series on here before, including my two favorites: Edge of Collapse and EMP Aftermath. In this post, I highlight a few others that might be of interest to fans of Blackout Trail. These mini-reviews focus only on book 1 in the series.
For other post-apocalyptic book and movie reviews, check out my post-apoc blog tag:
Linda Naughton
Collapse
Conquer the Dark, Book 1
by T.L. Payne
After a harrowing near-death experience, extreme sports athlete Ayden Miller is finally on the road to recovery. Throughout this ordeal, his girlfriend, Mia, has been a constant source of strength and unwavering support.
Accustomed to navigating the treacherous terrains of the world's most daunting natural landscapes, Ayden faces an entirely different challenge when an urgent family crisis calls him back to New York City. There, he's thrust into an unforeseen battle for survival as a devastating EMP attack cripples the city, threatening to plunge it into total chaos.
Alongside his sister, Clara, Ayden is thrust into a desperate bid to flee Manhattan as society collapses around them. The city's descent into anarchy is a brutal reminder that nature isn't the only force to be reckoned with. With every passing moment, Ayden's hopes of reuniting with Mia grow dimmer.
Back in the rugged wilderness of Wyoming, Mia and her boys confront a menacing threat as an old adversary sees the EMP-induced chaos as the perfect opportunity to settle old scores, targeting Mia and her sons as pawns in a vengeful scheme. Faced with the ultimate test of survival, Mia must draw upon her deep well of resourcefulness and courage to protect her children and make it to safety.
In this tale of survival, Ayden and Mia's stories converge in a dramatic struggle against the forces that seek to keep them apart.
I found the characters in Collapse particularly engaging. Ayden and his sister Clara come from a privileged family, which gives them a different mindset from the usual post-apocalyptic tropes. From Clara refusing (at first) to bug out without her skincare products to the siblings gearing up for defense at a hardware store, their reactions were very believable. Ayden is also an extreme sports guy, caught between his need for thrills and his connection with his girlfriend and her kids.
The author also did a great job bringing the locations in Manhattan to life, though I might quibble over the speed at which the city devolved into absolute anarchy after the EMP. The cuts to Mia, Ayden's girlfriend, in Wyoming felt a bit disconnected from the chaos in New York, but I enjoyed Mia's interactions with her kids. Overall, the book was an interesting story that set things up well for a sequel.
Trapped Days
After the End, Book 1
by Grace Hamilton
Shannon Grayson is a tough-as-nails long-haul truck driver on a routine job. But her life is turned upside down when a massive electromagnetic blast hits North America while she’s unloading cargo at the South-Central Retail Supercenter, demolishing the power grid.
Now she’s trapped inside the sprawling building, along with dozens of other survivors. And no one is coming to their rescue. Without power, the world outside begins to collapse. Shannon is determined to escape and find her daughter—they haven’t seen each other since Shannon entered witness protection five years ago, but when SHTF her momma-bear drive takes over.
But first, she must survive this ordeal…
Eight hundred miles away is Dennis Sullivan, Shannon’s witness protection officer, who swore to protect her and her daughter—and he’s a man of his word. He’ll battle through the ruins of America to reunite with them and ensure their safety.
Desperation quickly turns to terror as Shannon and the others realize there’s no way out of the locked-down supercenter. They’ll have to depend on each other to survive.
But in a world gone mad, the greatest threat are the people around you.
Post-apocalyptic stories often feature long journeys, but Trapped Days flips the script by trapping the main characters inside a supercenter. At first glance, it might seem like a great place to hole up in an apocalypse: lots of supplies, nobody can get in, etc. But as tensions rise and factions begin to form, it becomes clear that everyone inside is in great peril.
Shannon is an interesting protagonist, a long-haul trucker who's also in witness protection. Her guarded-loner tendencies present challenges when it comes to dealing with her fellow survivors.
In a parallel story, US Marshal Dennis tries to keep his promise to Shannon by making his way to her daughter. He is also well-drawn, struggling with addiction and what he feels is his duty.
Although there were times I wanted to shake some sense into the characters, it was refreshing that they didn't all immediately jump to "the world has ended, no holds barred!"
The Safety Plan
Safety Plan, Book 1
by Jack Hunt
Meanwhile, in the rugged wilderness of Mount Desert Island, Maine, Michael's family fights to protect their estate. With no power, no communication, and basic services crumbling, lawlessness spreads across the region. As violence escalates and neighbors turn against each other, the island's fragile balance teeters on the edge of collapse.
In a fractured nation where alliances mean survival and trust comes at a deadly cost, one journal may bridge the distance between strangers—or lead them all to ruin.
Safety Plan is a unique twist on the post-apocalyptic genre. Instead of the main character being a prepper, it's their recently-deceased father who foresaw the collapse and left behind a blueprint for their survival. While this does set the family up pretty well on their isolated island of Mount Desert, it also paints a target on their backs.
The storyline involving estranged son Michael was the most interesting for me. He's in New York City when the blackout strikes, hiding from his past. Erika, a storage hunter, finds some of his old stuff in a storage unit, including his father's "Safety Plan". Curious that Michael might know something about the blackout plaguing the city, she tries to find him. They end up with an entire gang after them (long story)—a gang that's awfully persistent given that the city is collapsing into anarchy). It's a stretch, but the non-stop action makes up for any implausibility.
No Rescue
EMP Sabotage, Book 1
by Grace Hamilton
A storm looms on the horizon as Ruth Garber and her granddaughter Stella travel by helicopter to an offshore drilling rig. Ruth, a geologist, is there to consult on a software upgrade. Stella, a geology student, just wants to prove herself to her legendary grandmother. They don’t know their trip will soon become a grim struggle to survive…
When the helicopter goes down after dropping them off, they realize they’re in trouble. The platform loses power. Cell phones don’t work. Everything electronic is dead. There are whispers of an EMP attack. Now they’re stranded with a skeleton crew on a steel platform miles from shore, battered by massive waves, the deadly truth of their predicament slowly sinks in.
Meanwhile, John and his son Curtis are in a fishing boat, suddenly adrift when their engine and navigation equipment fails. The waves are getting higher, and the storm has them on a collision course with the rig.
As the castaways on the rig struggle to survive, they discover the back-up generator has been deliberately damaged. Then when people begin to disappear, they come to a grim realization.
Someone in their tiny group is a saboteur—willing to do anything to ensure the lights stay off.
A unique setting and interesting characters make No Rescue stand out. Set aboard an offshore oil rig, the book had a tense, claustrophobic atmosphere. I loved that Ruth and Stella were grandmother and granddaughter—that's not a relationship you often see in these kinds of stories. Ruth is a no-nonsense sort who's an expert in her field and handy in a crisis. Another cool twist (spoiled by the book description) is that one of the crew is actively working with the people who engineered the EMP. At times, it felt more like a murder mystery than a disaster story, and that made for an interesting read.
One Second After
John Matheson, Book 1
by William R. Forstchen
New York Times best selling author William R. Forstchen now brings us a story which can be all too terrifyingly real...a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages...A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP). A weapon that may already be in the hands of our enemies.
Months before publication, One Second After has already been cited on the floor of Congress as a book all Americans should read, a book already being discussed in the corridors of the Pentagon as a truly realistic look at a weapon and its awesome power to destroy the entire United States, literally within one second. It is a weapon that the Wall Street Journal warns could shatter America. In the tradition of On the Beach, Fail Safe and Testament, this book, set in a typical American town, is a dire warning of what might be our future...and our end.
No list of post-apocalyptic stories would be complete without mentioning One Second After, the book that arguably kicked off the EMP survival genre. It was the first book I'd read that dealt with EMPs at the level of a natural disaster, and it caught my imagination. It's a little weak on the "self-rescuing princess" front, but I appreciated the portrayal of John's relationship with his daughters. It's one of the most realistic portrayals of an EMP collapse I've seen, which makes it positively brutal at times, but still worth reading.
Liked any of these? You might also like my own post-apoc story, Blackout Trail:
Linda Naughton
The Alice Network - Book Review