The Last Survivors

I had mixed feelings about this book the entire time I read it. It's well-written with very few errors, which puts it a step above many books I've run into over the years browsing Amazon and other booksellers. However, it missed one very important thing for me--a connection with the characters. The chapters in this book come fast and furious, and as soon as I was just starting to get to know a character, the authors made the decision to switch gears to a new character.<br /><br />The result? I had no real sympathies for <i>any</i> of the characters. Of them all, Ella / William were the ones I liked the best, but I still had no real connection with them. The short space they were given didn't allow for them to really stretch out and grow--or be developed as thoroughly in their chapters as I really wanted.<br /><br />The story had so much promise, and there were some really interesting things that happened, but I just couldn't get into it nearly as much as I wanted. It's a very brutal book, and characters die in higher frequency than in Game of Thrones, so by the halfway point, when the characters started converging and some points of view became more common, I no longer trusted the author to keep the characters alive. That formed even more distance. Bad stuff happens to everyone, and because it does... I went from being unable to forge a connection with the characters to being unwilling to, as I have the knowledge one or more will inevitably die.<br /><br />Could this have been a great book for me? Sure--the premise is there. But, if you're like me, and like sympathizing with one character throughout a book, this one probably won't appeal to you very much. If you don't care if characters are discarded, you'll probably like this. Chapters are about as short as many of the character lives. Some of the characters are also so foreshadowed as they'll die it makes it very difficult to want to get into their POV, too.<br /><br />That said, the book was very well-written, it just wasn't for me. Too brutal, the society a bit *too* primitive, and the lives of characters were just too cheap. Death is the most common currency, and not even the characters really care that much who dies at the end of the day, because they're so used to death it doesn't really touch them all that much.<br /><br />I really liked the nature of the apoc in this one, though. It was interesting. It was two-fold, which gave the situation depth. I think I would have really liked this book a lot more if the chapters hadn't been so short. It really took away from the development of these characters as people.

Only the rocks and the trees stay the same. This is a post apocalyptic saga that takes the reader on a circuitous literary trip to a predictable end. It is strange but true that science fiction writers invariably revert civilization to a Middle Age state after an apocalyptic event. Clothes, weapons, mannerisms, beliefs, morals and sometimes even speech are consistent with this time frame. What this historical period has in the cycle of history I do not know but it seems to be used universally as a reset point. This book is no different, like so many before it life reverts to a time in the distant past; making this almost an historical novel. <br /><br />The story takes place around three English cities, Brighton, Coventry and Davenport. People (especially women and small children) are subjected to bi-annual inspections for blemishes and warts, both real and perceived. After a degrading public physical inspection, the unfortunate few are sent to the pyres and are soon screaming for a swift death. Ella Barrow and her son William flee. William had a physical blemish that would surely cost him his life. Forget political correctness, this nightmarish society is sure to turn the stomach of everyone. Witnessing the helplessness in facing the hopelessness isn’t my idea of entertainment and without a single fact, which is all that’s left. <br /><br />One of the many traits of the human species is their power to change. I think the word power isn’t exactly right as humans change as a natural course and the power (if anyone had it) would be to stay the same. People mature and grow old; this is a part of nature. Other, less obvious changes also occur, that are not physically displayed. Once, a long time ago, I was an avid science fiction reader. The power of man’s imagination astounded me. Their insights into what might someday come to pass left me mesmerized. With the passing of years my reading interests atrophies in that quarter and other genres came to the forefront. If one trait hasn’t changed with the passing of years, it is my love for bargains; especially ones that are FREE. I am not, and never will be, someone to look a gift horse in the mouth. Unfortunately with this attitude one must reasonably expect the occasional horse with rotting teeth. This story isn’t quite at this stage but the horse is in dire need of dental attention.

I really hate to give anything from Bobby Adair anything less than a stellar review. Unfortunately, this book was tedious, boring, and wrought with cliches. I'm currently reading Dusty's Diary and judging by the content in that one, I'll blame the other author for everything that is wrong with this book. The worst part of the book was the overdone then beaten to death then run over with a tractor cliches. Character archetypes were so overdone, I was rolling my eyes at first then just skimming passages with character descriptions. The general sentence structure and descriptive mode basically ruined every scene with how improbable and/overdone it was. Then there were the other annoyances. 'Omg this wall circles the whole village how will we escape?' Oh, except for that passage about how the wall is crumbling. And the huge unguarded opening where a freaking -river- comes through it. Also, 'prairie' at the top of a mountain? Wth? Dramatic descriptions of structures taking 'months or years' to collapse? Dafuq? The book is set God knows how long in the future and these buildings are still standing. 'Months to years' before they collapse? Pretty freaking sure they've been there waaaay longer than 'months to years'. Ugh. And apparently, Ella and her aunt and uncle have email and a car because they -would- have shown up for Ethan but..... How dafuq would they even know in a twelve hour time span, much less show up? Then there's the one kid, despite over a decade a marriage? Oh, so they -did- have birth control then?? Even the opening scene was so f--king stupid, I almost stopped reading right then. These are the ones that annoyed me the most but the book is full of crap and generally plagued by poor writing. Most likely not going to continue the series at this rate.

<strong>Tne last survivors</strong><br /><br />Pathegic. A lot of sexual content and filth used as bland and unimaginative filler to create a story that could have been an epic adventure had the author had the ability to wrjte with passion for his characters instead of falling back on the easy and u inspired writing style that leaves readers with contempt .A talented author can create even evil antagonists without resorting to words that o ly disgust and bore readers. This is a book to be picked up with enthusiasm and then abandoned without being read. <br /><br />

<b>Mini-Review on the Last Survivors Series on 06/08/2020:</b><br /><br />4 Stars for Narration by Sean Runnette<br />2 Stars for 2D Characters<br />3 Stars for Meandering Plot<br />3.5 Stars for Handful of Cool Ideas<br /><br />The Last Survivors is about how people scrap together to live in a dangerous world without modern technology and threat of dangerous men/women/beasts of the time. <br /><br />Good:<br />- Clearly structured societies that were more on the sadistic &amp; depraved side than not. <br />- Interesting hints of how the world imploded. <br />- Couple of neat twists with side characters &amp; events. <br />- Abuse/rape/etc scenes were kept to minimal description or the books would have been 2x longer. <br /><br />Mediocre: <br />- Characters are not well developed. Bodies to move the story instead of being key elements that drive the story. <br />- Too much focus on the dark aspects &amp; why it happened. Not much spent on the extremes of the various choices that line up on the good or middle ground. Very little time spent on the more positive elements except as a way to manipulate events &amp; reader response. <br />- The story as a whole would have been great if it was not a polished brainstorm of ideas. This still comes across as a brainstorming session vs a well thought out &amp; developed story. The whole thing needs to lose half of books #1-3, the characters fleshed out a bit more, and clear plot points established. If the whole series was a bit more like the last book, I would have enjoyed reading the books a lot more than I did. <br /><br />Bloopers:<br />- POV changes should not also mean repeat everything that happened that was already described by another character that was in the same event/scene. <br />- Moral/etc ambiguity is great. No one is 100% good or bad. Trying to show the different shades are fine but a lot of the characters came across as brainwashed robots vs real people. People make dumb decisions all the time. We are a product of our environment, even if we don't fit in the one we grew up in. <br />- Affects + Effects of the disease should have been one of the key points of the series. That should have been one of the coolest elements and it was not. <br />- Most of the books are good about having active scenes to show the reader what is happening vs telling you what is going on but the lack of depth given to the characters made the stories bland &amp; not as interesting. You don't have to like a character or event to be engrossed by what is happening but a reader should be responding in a manner that wants to read <i>more</i>. Not think: Oh right, that again. <br /><br /><b>04/22/2020 Notes:</b><br /><br />Great Narration by Sean Runnette<br /><br />A solid intro for the series. I'm probably not in the right mood to appreciate this story right now, but it held my attention enough that I know I'll keep reading the other books.

awful. couldn't bare to finish it. Life is too short to read badly written, generic fiction. Just a waste. Glad I didn't pay a cent for this.

Forgettable. The worldbuilding was interesting, and the characters could've been had this had a round or two of professional editing done

So. Yet another Kindle freebie. Yet another instance in which I side-eye a publisher who's taking something that in theory <i>should</i> be good enough to pay for and giving it away for free.<br><br>Yeah, I did <i>not</i> go into this one with my hopes very high.<br><br>The beginning of the story... was not promising. One of the first things we learn about this society is that it's regressed more or less back to the Middle Ages, giving us gems like this:<br><br><blockquote>"Women are weak," Franklin droned. "Women must be weak to love a baby enough to hold it to their breast. Women's hearts must be weak to sacrifice for their children. Women must be weak to take the seed of the man. Because women are weak, a woman cannot keep the truth. Love triumphs over truth. So a woman's words are lies[...]<br><br>"When boys age seventeen years, their hearts become hard like stone. Until then, boys are not men. They are not women either. But they cannot be trusted. They must be Cleansed. Father Winthrop Cleanses us. The only people excused from the ceremony are men who are of age and too busy with their work."</blockquote><br><br>So... if I understand this right, basically what they're saying is that they don't ever bother to regularly check grown men for any sign of infection because they honestly believe that grown men can always be trusted to turn themselves in to be put to the sword or burned alive if they get infected.<br><br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1505261618i/23909929.jpg" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>Look, you could go back and forth for eternity on how justified it is to portray a backwards misogynistic society after the end of the world, but this... <i>this is just illogical!</i> This is <i>actively detrimental</i> to the survival of their community! Natural selection should have weeded these people out <i>generations</i> ago!<br><br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1441034412i/16054321._SY540_.jpg" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>So yeah, let's talk about the misogyny.<br><br>Granted, given that <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23519146-stand-still-stay-silent" rel="nofollow noopener">the <i>last</i> After the End post-infection post-apocalyptic story that I read</a> featured women as soldiers and scientists and military strategists and leading expeditions and chopping infected monsters' heads off and thorougly enjoying what they were doing, the bar was already set <i>reeeeeeeally</i> high on the count of How Not To Be A Horribly Sexist Writer, and pretty much <i>anything</i> I read after that would've had an uphill battle to impress me. This, though... look, I'm not saying that every last infection apocalypse out there <i>has</i> to have a Sigrun Eide. Just... treating women like people, people; is that really too much to ask?<br><br>But wait! This story <i>was</i> advertised as a dystopian society. And we've already seen even a supposedly-simple <i>child</i> questioning the status quo and turning the priest's words back on him when he tried to feed them this bullshit that men can't lie. So this is the part where the writers go all <i>Fury Road</i> and deconstruct it... right?<br><br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1505261618i/23909932.jpg" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>Yeah... about that...<br><br>See, the authors <i>seemed</i> to be giving this whole thing a self-aware nod... but it was handled in just about the most self-contradictory way possible. See, when we finally get the story of the founders of their society, Lady and Bruce, we learn that Lady was in fact tough as nails, probably a soldier, capable of beating any man in a fistfight, and that twenty men were kicked out of the community shortly after its founding because they couldn't get over the fact that she was stronger than them... and this has <i>not</i> been lost to history in favor of turning her into a feminine angel! Literally <i>all</i> of this is coming out of the mouths of the priests who are responsible for upholding the status quo of religious oppression and subjugation of women! <i>And they don't disapprove of Lady at all!</i> As a matter of fact, they openly <i>admire</i> her strength. So seriously, what gives? Your whole society was founded by a strong, barren woman, but... women are all weak and can't ever be trusted to do the right thing?<br><br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1505261618i/23909933.png" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>Unfortunately, I never got any further than that. Because this story's complete inability to stick to a narrative that made <i>sense</i> just drove me far too up the wall for me to continue. Take this gem, for one:<br><br><blockquote>She knelt down on the riverbed and began scrubbing at the top of her dress. To her relief, she was able to get off some of the blood, but some of it remained, and she did her best to dilute it. If someone inquired as to its origin, she'd blame it on a food spill, or perhaps a wound from a sewing needle.</blockquote><br><br><i>What kind of needles does this woman sew with?</i> Does she substitute rusty nails? Take it from a chronic finger-pricker who due to reasons of budget has sewn on a whole lot of patches over the last few years: I have never once managed to get blood from a <i>sewing</i> injury anywhere near the <i>top</i> of my shirt, nor has it ever been enough to leave more than the tiniest smudge. For that matter, I've never managed to stab myself with a sewing needle in the <i>neck</i> before either. What was she going to claim - that she'd been trying to fix her dress while she was still wearing it, and punctured a major artery???<br><br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1505261618i/23909934._SX540_.jpg" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>Then, there was the fact that no one was allowed to do any sort of research into a way to preserve their crops from locusts, or even to try to <i>prevent people from catching the plague</i>, because when anything bad happens, it's supposedly "God's will".<br><br>...<br><br>...<br><br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1505261618i/23909935.jpg" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><i>YOU DESERVE TO GO EXTINCT.</i><br><br>Worse than the cliches, worse even than the misogyny, was the way this story regularly snapped my suspension of disbelief clean in half and then stomped on the pieces for good measure. Desperate people fighting progress that would save them from starving to death or turning into monsters? Bloodstains from committing a murder being excused away as a <i>sewing injury</i> of all things? A whole society based around the subjugation of women in spite of the fact that they were literally <i>founded</i> by a strong fighting woman whom they still remember and admire? Every last protagonist in the story, right down to the <i>children</i>, being suspiciously and unbelievably genre savvy as to how backwards the society they'd grown up in actually was? Even the <i>monsters</i> rape women, and <i>only</i> women - why? <i>Why would you feel the need to do this?</i> Look, I don't care how off the deep end the premise is, it's science fiction, suspension of disbelief is a thing, I get it - <i>but the internal logic of your story still needs to make sense</i>. Sell me a fungal infection turning people into ravening monsters; it's right there in the synopsis, I'm fine. But if you're going to throw in references to things that the average person does know a thing or two about, up to and including the way your characters behave, then <i>you had better make it believable</i>.

First, if books were rated like movies this book would be rated PG13 or maybe R for violence and sex. The sex is not explicit but its there and in the area of rape and prostitution. It's used to illustrate the corruption and depravity of the community. The violence, although graphic, is expected because this isa Zombie story.....of sorts. <br /><br />This is the first Zombie book I have read. The Zombies aren't the real focus of the story. The story-line follows a mother and son as they escape a corrupt community and travel to a distant community to live with family. Zombies are a constant part of the story but only for brief periods.<br /><br />This is book 1 of ?. There was some good character development in this book but the story did not develop very much. Hopefully the following books will move the story along.

I enjoyed reading this book. The idea is that "our world" has gone under and people are living under conditions similar to the Middle Age. They don't have a lot of knowledge of the world as it used to be. New religions and beliefs have emerged and life is hard, unless you're the ones in charge. And there is always the zombies to be scared of. Or the chance you might get infected from the spores. And 2 times a year are the Cleansing, where everyone that has anything resembling signs of infection gets burned alive.<br /><br />All in all this was as good book, especially considering I got it free in Amazon. But I'm not sure it caught my attention enough to buy the other 5 books in the series.<br />Would definitely recommend trying it out if you think the story sounds interesting though!