Slashed

Disappointing. I quit three quarters a way through. I just could not finish it. It’s a weak story. Too much Unnecessary detail and lame cliches. The conversations between the characters were too odd and unbelievable for me. The narration didn’t help, felt robotic and disjointed with the odd vocal tones used.

Good idea, needs some work. Lou is clearly a creative person. It's obvious that he has an eye for unique spins on typical tropes and helps them feel new and unique. However, his use of language could use some work. Nearly every line of dialogue is begun or ended with "said" even when the characters are clear asking questions. Lou could afford to learn more adjectives and broaden his vocabulary from "said" to stated, exclaimed, asked, declared, objected, and so on. He's not a bad writer, just a monotone one. It's clear that Lou is more of a tech head or a person who is mechanically inclined instead of someone who understands people or the way they operate. While his characters aren't bad, they vacillate between being eraric and flat. One character specifically is a bit of an Uberminch and it's a little annoying. Sure he's the main character but he lacks any real discernable flaws, and he is drastically inconsistent in his code of conduct. One moment he is lusting over his neighbor the next he's praying for someone else's forgiveness for committing suicide. For adhering to a Christian mindset, he sure is disgustingly un-christian. Further, the non-Christian spiritual character is depicted as a soft character who is called unmasculine and insecure in his masculinity while his hyper-testostrone fueled friend is portrayed as someone who doesn't need real change because he's a "real man" who consistently yells at his son and treats his wife rather poorly. All while claiming to hold onto a Christian world view. Make it make sense please. The gunfights were alright, but slow and bogged down by the characters having to justify their actions of basically murder for their selfish property views because "oh you didn't plan accordingly, lul get gud scrub, I'm a Christian still tho." If it wasn't for that the gunfights would have been perfect. I know it sounds like I'm just sitting here crapping on this but I did finish it because Lou combined realism and possibility. He did a good job of making the survival feel gritty and realistic in the ways the characters try to overcome their challenges and the challenges they face. The fact that every day was largely filled with mundane manual labor was very realistic and helped make it feel like something that would happen should the planet run out of fossil fuels, which is a very realistic possibility in itself. The fall out of the lack of fossil fuels also felt very realistic; the fight for food, the brown outs, etc. The narrator did a good job, helped keep me engaged and I would listen to more of his stuff. I'm glad I didn't pay for this, because I absolutely would not, but it did make my drives to work better.

Great book, great narrator

Good

Good characters, Good story, kept my interest!

Great story for book one! Onto book 2! The narrator does an awesome job!