Release Date: January 7/2014
Adquired: Print copy provided by publisher
Goodreads: ADD
Purchase: Amazon/Indigo/Book Depository
What would you do to survive?
Young Gordon Van Zandt valued duty and loyalty to country above all, so after 9/11, he dropped out of college and joined the Marine Corps. This idealism vanished one fateful day in a war-torn city in Iraq. Ten years later, he is still struggling with the ghosts of his past when a new reality is thrust upon him and his family: North America, Europe and the Far East have all suffered a devastating Super-EMP attack, which causes catastrophic damage to the nation’s power grid and essential infrastructures. Everything from cell phones to cars to computers cease to function, putting society at a standstill. With civilization in chaos, Gordon must fight for the limited and fast dwindling resources. He knows survival requires action and cooperation with his neighbors, but as the days wear on, so does all sense of civility within his community—and so he must make some of the most difficult decisions of his life in order to ensure his family’s safety.
Title: The Long Road (The New World Series #2)
Release Date: January 7/2014
Adquired: Print copy provided by publisher
Goodreads: ADD
Purchase: Amazon/Indigo/Book Depository
The End was just the beginning of the new world….
Only six weeks have passed since a super-EMP attack devastated the United States, but already, life has changed dramatically. Most of America has become a wasteland filled with starving bands of people, mobs and gangs. Millions are dead and millions more are suffering, with no end in sight. For Gordon, Samantha, Sebastian, Cruz and Barone, the turmoil and chaos they dealt with in the early weeks after the attack will seem trivial in comparison to the collapse of society that plays out before their eyes. Uncertainty abounds as they all travel different paths in search of a safe place to call home. The only thing that is definite is that The Long Road will take its toll on all of them.
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I'm not going to lie to you: I KEPT EXPECTING ZOMBIES. It's impossible not to, what with post-apocalyptic horrors, mixed with a dwindling supply of food, mixed with intense starvation, mixed with the fact that The End and The Long Road were my very first ADULT post-apocalyptic books. I'd grown SO accustomed to the plot lines of teen books that follow the fall of the world as we know it, and c'mon, let's be honest, there's usually zombies. But these books were refreshingly different, and SO detailed oriented. It took me a moment to throw out the (sometimes) horridly unrealistic explanations of apocalypse found in YA books, and embrace the VERY real possibilities that The End and The Long Road expressed to me.
I use the word "refreshingly" up there very lightly, both of these books are definitely not for the faint of heart. They both contain blunt, no-holds-barred accounts of what our planet could possibly spiral into, should a weapon of mass destruction be used against us. These realities included brutality, rape, murder, savagery, and all around hostile situations. In The End, the book begins (and ends) not too far into the future (2066), where a now aged descendant of the Van Zandt family is about to recount to a reporter, the disturbing events the day of, and weeks following, the attacks. The meat of the books take place in present day, where we follow the storylines of four main characters, all spread throughout the country, fighting their own battles for survival. All four characters were intricately linked, each making decisions that would inadvertently, or directly, affect the others. The Long Road continues to detail the events following the attacks, though with more intensity, and urgency.
The areas that completely lost me were the technical military terms and situations. The author comes from a U.S Marine background, so it was understandable that he would use that knowledge to his advantage. However, it tended to leak into moments that should have been more candid, and natural. Dialogue between Gordon and his family, or moments between those not in the military, came across as robotic, and stoic. This aspect made it hard for me to connect to some characters on a personal level. I couldn't empathize with them as much as I would have liked to-their words just didn't seem to come from a genuine place.
To reiterate, The End, and The Long Road are not books that simply brush the surface of world apocalypse. This is the camera zoomed into the specific details, the exact realities of what measures need to be taken to prepare for survival; what sacrifices, and split-second decisions, need to be made to keep those you love the most, safe. I enjoyed this aspect the most. Again, as an avid reader of YA dystopian books, I only get to read about the OUTCOME of an apocalypse-the "new world" that has been established, MANY years into the future. Hardly ANY details are ever given about how it ended up that way.
But The End and The Long Road were RIGHT NOW, they were the events leading up to that, the "behind the scenes," and I appreciated them for exactly that reason. They were fast-paced reads, and COMPLETELY eye-opening: the attack that triggered mass hysteria is a REAL possibility, and that scared me half to death.
Read these books for some real-life knowledge. I learned about things in these books that I might be very thankful that I learned, one day.
Recommended for Fans of: Apocalyptic/Post-Apocalyptic fiction, Dystopian, Controversial topics, Political Fiction, military situations.
Challenges: Goodreads 100 Book Goal
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G. Michael Hopf is a combat veteran of the Marine Corps, a former bodyguard for the Saudi Royal family, entrepreneur, and best-selling author.
He has studied the threat of EMP for 6 years and how to best prepare in the event. He wrote The End and The Long Road (Books 1 & 2 in The New World series)to illustrate the effects our nation would suffer if ever attacked by this type of weapon.
He and his family currently reside in San Diego, CA.
Contact Links
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Thank-you to Lisa from TLC Book Tours for hosting this tour, and to Plume/Penguin for sending me a print copy to review!
I love these kinds of books - I always feel like I'll be better prepared in case of the apocalypse! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for being on the tour. I'm featuring your review on TLC's Facebook page today.
Hi Reeka- Thank you for reading and reviewing my books. I know it takes time to do both so it is much appreciated. Take care and as Gordon would say, 'Stay frosty'. - G. Michael Hopf
ReplyDeleteSounds great,I love your review ;)
ReplyDeleteOh wow, these books sound pretty good to be honest! I would probably expect zombies, too, so I don't blame ya, but the fact that they're non.. well, it's certainly refreshing. it sounds like a unique take on apocalypse, and I'd love to give it a try! Thanks for sharing your honest review :)
ReplyDeleteEvie @Bookish