Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: post apocalyptic

DESPAIR Of The SEER: Book One of the Pithios Dominion Series by Antonio Guadagno – Dark Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic, Suspense Action

In Despair of the Seer, the first book of Antonio Guadagno’s Pithios Dominion Series, Revenant soldiers mercilessly hound two friends for their vital knowledge as they are pulled away from their everyday lives to a life-or-death fight through a fantastical empire.

This world is filled with life-threatening dangers and horrors that could shake even the most stoic individuals. What weapon could defy these evils? Is determination enough to propel a young man through the Pithios Dominion, defying the deadly, flesh-ravenous Revenant Army? Seeking to reunite with his father, Paxton Roald must race against the powerful forces he blames for this misery. Will he and his best friend, Terrance, be able to find the strength and forge the unity to face their enemy and fight its power?

True to its name, the Pithos Dominion dominates its people so that only the foolhardy and the desperate dare stand up to their threats. The reader is gripped wondering if two young friends can survive when their lives in Miami are turned completely upside-down. Terrance is on the brink of proposing to his girlfriend, and Paxton is caring for his mother and granny when the tentative, uneasy stalemate between governing powers begins to crack.

Laced with endearing humor, Guadagno’s suspenseful and exciting fantasy adventure plunges the reader into a power struggle that threatens to defeat humankind itself.

The ambitious Controller demands military supremacy from the lead scientist of the Revenant Project, Eugene Roald – Paxton’s father.

Instead, Eugene flees to avoid putting his hands on the scales of destiny. But Paxton becomes the Controller’s target, in the hopes he’ll lead them to his father. No one knows if the Controller plays with forces beyond his understanding, or has he found a way to tilt the scales in his favor.

J’Nou, First Brother of the Revenant, is the terror dispatched to pursue Paxton. Torment of the son, or anyone who gets in the way, is simply a means to victory. He shows Paxton the terrible price of power, until Paxton can no longer tolerate this despotism.

The Despair of the Seer may be prophetic as the land of the Dominion is filled with terrible creatures beyond his imagination.

With characters seeking ultimate power, fascinating in their ruthlessness, Despair of a Seer captivates like a horror you can’t force yourself to look away from. The luckless heroes evoke an empathy that will have readers cheering them onward. These two sides clash in a stunning plot that makes this story impossible to put down.

October 25, 2023
FAST BACKWARD by David Patneaude – Y/A Time Travel Fiction, Y/A Apocalyptic & Post Apocalyptic Fiction, Y/A Coming of Age Fiction

In Fast Backward, David Patneaude’s most recent YA novel, fifteen-year-old Bobby sets out on his morning newspaper route, but what happens next blows his shorts off, literally. First, he witnesses a blinding light that grows into a mushroom cloud, but no one on the military base where he delivers papers will talk about it. Then, on his ride home, a dot in the distance takes on the shape of a girl, a naked girl in the middle of the desert at the side of the road. Thus begins Patneaude’s novel that brings WWII to life through the eyes of a young man torn by his father’s anti-war sentiments, and his uncle’s military patriotism.

Bobby realizes that this girl, Cocoa, is somehow tied to the blinding explosion. What does Bobby do? He offers the girl his carrier bag, his shorts, and a ride home. After some preliminary conversation, Cocoa realizes where she is, and what she must do.

She has knowledge she must deliver a message to those in charge in the hope of stopping nuclear bombs that decimated her world.

Are we concerned yet? Bobby is. He can hardly believe Cocoa’s crazy story, but Cocoa’s knowledge of dates, towns, and ship names make him a believer. They convince his parents and, with some effort, Bobby’s Uncle Pete. Cocoa has enough knowledge to capture the attention of some high-ranking military officials, but she also receives serious skepticism. When a bombing that she’d predicted actually happens, the Generals start listening.

Cocoa’s premonitions are a torment to her, and when she remembers something that involves Robert’s dad, a journalist and pacifist and conscientious objector, Robert’s world is turned upside down. His ideas of the world are forever changed by Cocoa, Future Girl, the girl who will save the world.

Award-winning YA author, David Patneaude effectively suspends our disbelief as he deftly crafts a world where nuclear bombs, Nazi submarines, the bombing of US cities, with two kids coming of age stuck in the middle, becomes a reality. Patneaude’s world explodes on the page in this post-apocalyptic war story that is plausible, terrifying, and quite satisfying to the spectacular end.

Fast Backward is highly recommended for young and old alike – and won First in Category in the CIBA 2019 Dante Rossetti Awards for Young Adult fiction.

January 25, 2021
SOLAR REBOOT by Matthew D. Hunt – Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction, Action/Thriller, Dystopian Fiction

There’s a lot about life on earth that we take for granted. Most of us go about our daily lives, but what would happen if the sun shot out a gigantic solar flare. Would we survive? What would happen to us?

In Solar Reboot, a giant solar flare destroys the world’s power grids, disrupts the Internet, television, and radio communication, and is an all-around nightmare for air traffic controllers. Add tidal waves and gigantic storms to the mix, and it becomes evident that life on earth will change profoundly.

Alex Robinson, his wife Cameron, and daughter Piper get to find out how tough it will become. On a trip to New York City, Alex and Piper expect to be home in Seattle in a few days. For Alex, a park ranger, flying back will be a relief from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. But when the sky turns purple, power disappears. Internet and broadcast communication all but ceases, and there are multiple reports of planes crashing to earth all over the planet, Alex quickly discovers the only way he’ll be able to return home will be to drive. It turns out that even driving is its own form of hell.

Meanwhile, Cameron in Seattle is also experiencing the effects of the solar flare. An ER nurse with military experience, she’s urged by her husband to pack up and leave the city with as much food and medical supplies as possible. She has indulged Alex’s survivalist leanings with some skepticism, but as tension mounts at home, she wonders if he may not have been right. Finally, she decides to leave for their well-stocked mountain cabin, accompanied by her older next-door neighbor, Bettie, who decides that life in the mountains might be safer than dealing with a frightened, angry citizenry at home.

Life is difficult for both halves of the separated Robinson family. There is no easy way to find a way home for Alex and Piper. Driving becomes undependable. Picking up rides, finding horses, and even back-packing become the only means they have of completing their journey. However, that doesn’t help when blinding rainstorms wash away roads, bridges, and, on more than one occasion, the vehicles they’re using. If that weren’t bad enough, other people whose lives have been disrupted often turn ugly as they forage for food and supplies, hunker down with weapons to protect their hoards and homes.

Of equal importance is Piper’s diabetic condition. It’s not a problem in society as it once was, but what happens when the insulin she and her father carry runs out and pharmacies are virtually all closed?

Cameron’s trip to their mountain cabin community might seem to offer her a more comfortable life. Don’t count on it. When she and Bettie reach the mountains, they find contentious, sometimes dangerous people. Some would love to invade their community and others inside their boundaries, intent on doing things their own way. Some even kill to get what they want. She becomes the de facto leader in the compound and forced to make difficult decisions of life and death.

Hunt has delivered a solid punch to our collective solar plexus. The pressure doesn’t let up as this separated family use their physical and mental resources to reunite, each half fighting against the elements and their fellow human beings to survive until they can be together. While some might consider this a science fiction novel, it is grounded in life as we know it makes it more of a book on survival. Solar Reboot is a testimony to the human spirit under virtually impossible conditions, and a tribute to people’s ability to survive under the most challenging conditions.

Solar Reboot won First Place in the 2018 CIBAs for Science Fiction novels.

July 17, 2020
NATURE’S CONFESSION by JL Morin – Time Travel Romance, Science Fiction, Y/A Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction

In a dystopian near-future where nobody is safe, the world is ruled by a ruthless capitalist. Humankind’s last hope may be a fourteen-year-old named Boy. Part sci-fi, part diverse love story, Nature’s Confession by J.L. Morin is an ecological coming of age novel that spans the universe.

The story opens with Boy, so-called because he hasn’t reached an age where he will be named yet for security reasons, managing to survive in the dystopian world he calls home. On next year’s earth, humanity is essentially enslaved by a worldwide corporate government, not for the people or by the people, but one that operates to ensure its citizens are brainwashed, downtrodden, and too exhausted to be able to offer any sort of resistance. When Boy stays after school one day, he meets a man who turns out to be his long-time idol—Tyree. Tyree is a member of the resistance and recruits Boy to help him and their cause, believing that Boy may be their last hope.

As the story progresses, readers are introduced to a motley assortment of characters. Valentine, Tyree’s daughter, is a genius whose inventions have the power to change the world. Porter, Boy’s dad, shows up throughout the story as different versions of himself crossing over from other realities and timelines. Eleanor, most often referred to as Mom, leaves her stressful, humdrum life on earth to become a Member of Starliament. A telepathic dog-like hupcha with six tails and the wise, albeit manmade, Any Gynoid lead the crew to befuddle polluters.

Almost every character gets their own chapter devoted to their point of view. Most of these chapters are told in the third person while a few switch to first-person narration. Boy, our hero, gets surprisingly few chapters. Rather than having Boy’s character be the main focus of the novel, Morin instead uses him as a frame for the book—showcasing him at both the beginning and the end. Boy’s journey unfolds through the eyes of those who surround him.

Nature’s Confession—that she might not be able to sustain the human race anymore—will appeal to readers who like their sci-fi broad and far-reaching. This novel continually moves from one plot point to the next, often switching characters to give a broader sense of the story, and never lingers too long on the technicalities. Alien lifeforms, alternative clean energy sources, intergalactic travel as well as time travel, and multiple realities abound in this diverse, multi-cultural love story. Morin does an excellent job using Nature’s Confession as a timely foil for the challenges our society faces regarding climate change, big industry, sustainability, and how the human race will survive. Highly recommended!

Nature’s Confession won 1^st Place in the CIBA 2017 Dante Rossetti Awards for Young Adult Fiction.

September 20, 2019
OVER by Sean P. Curley – Post-Apocalyptic, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Environmental

Over is a sci-fi novel of big ideas: the scourge on the future by today’s environmental negligence, the effects of biological warfare, even the development of a faster-than-light warp drive that opens the door to a future among the stars.

In this dystopian future, humankind must grapple with the repercussions from a technological advancement that essentially imparts immortality: immortality to a very few. Less than 30,000 of the world’s inhabitants, the privileged class, Overs, and the resentment of the billions of people who don’t fit into that category, aptly named, Unders.

Not only do the Overs have eternal life as their trump card, they also have a lock on the world’s economy, technology, medicine, and the ultimate say on who gets the benefits of their largesse, and who do not. There is even a global robotic “mind” that helps the Overs control every aspect of the planet—and that “mind” secretly gives birth to a “daughter.”

To say that the Overs rule is a benign dictatorship would be putting it mildly.

But the Overs must kowtow to the ruling familias who base their operations from Sri Lanka. These overlords do not respond kindly to threats against their near absolute rule.

Into this frothy brew comes Jaames (cq), a rebel leader in Denver where most of the action takes place; Demetrius, the Over’s boss of bosses for The Americas; and Anika, Demetrius’ comely daughter who has a mind of her own and a relentless and ultimately fatal attraction to Jaames.

Over is not a typical plot-structured, character-driven novel. Curley sets the planet up as the primary character and everything else falls secondary. While this may be jarring to some in regard to traditional plot, characters who are not fully fleshed out, and linking cause and effect in a character-rich and technologically-advanced society, Over stands strong as a powerful read – especially for its meditations on how our actions endanger our planet and our future, and for the author’s take on the upsides and downsides of a benign Immortal dictatorship. There’s much to think about, and no easy answers.

Curley plans at least two more books based on the plot and characters in Over and we wait with anticipation as to what this master-geo-political-environmentalist author comes up with. In a world where the rich obtain immortality, a forbidden love can either bridge the gap of unimaginable inequity or drive the disparaging classes even farther apart. A science-fiction novel with an earthly conscious.

April 3, 2018
The GRAVITATIONAL LEAP by Darrell Lee – Post-Apocalyptic, Time-Travel, Action Adventure

In a grim, cold future world, a small elite group guards a treasure from another time in hopes they can somehow rewrite the past, even at the cost of their own lives.

Timo is a sharpshooter who, with his wife Alyd, guards the Tower, a bizarre ancient building in the center of their small realm where rulers live and ancient secrets are kept.

When Timo shoots down a nomadic intruder trying to penetrate the fortress, he finds an unusually beautiful knife among the dead man’s possessions and chooses to steal it for himself. When the knife’s true owner is revealed, Timo is not in danger as he and Alyd feared, but instead will be invited into the Tower’s elite circle.

Timo, Alyd and her mother Wen move into the Tower where he will work for the chief government official, Maldor. He is assigned to transcribe books from a time more than 500 years before, when their planet was not desolate and desperate—1963. This work, and what Maldor reveals to him privately, will shatter Timo and Alyd’s illusions; “the Great Plague” that they were taught about in school was something far more cataclysmic and sinister, bringing widespread death to a once-thriving planet.

Meanwhile, the nomadic tribes tired of being without electricity amass outside the Tower’s fortress, led by Maldor’s estranged son who rules by visions, signs and the immediacy of weather-related food shortages, to plan a surprise attack. They will storm and possibly destroy the Tower, little knowing its potential for the preservation of mankind. The masses blame Maldor’s crack-pot scientific theories for their plight and are insistent on battle. Only the sudden bursting of a distant star and the skills of Timo’s marksmanship can save the world…but to save it, everything Timo has ever known must disappear.

A debut novel by author Darrell Lee whose experience in the International Space Station informs the science behind this action-packed story, The Gravitational Leap is a bold but rational foray into the worlds of science and pseudoscience, a mix of nuclear weaponry, Einstein’s theories, and the always intriguing notion of time travel.

It is important to note that this is a post-apocalyptic story and not a dystopian. With believable characters and a mind-tickling premise: What if history could be reversed to avert a worldwide apocalypse?

Lee’s book also encompasses a touching romance, and the question of personal religious belief and its place in a society that longs for salvation. The characters recite Bible verses throughout the work. More could have been done to delineate presumed ethnic differences in the future world, quicken the pacing of the battle scenes, and there are long passages from a twentieth century submarine’s log that would have been better presented as dialog or broken up in another manner. There are instances where characters are introduced to further the plot, then disappear again. Yet, this is an intriguing work with logical concepts balanced by plenty of excitement and a surprise ending.

In a gripping tale that blends historical fact and scientific speculation, the hero of The Gravitational Leap must risk all to end the desperation of a failing civilization and spark the chance for a global reawakening.

April 19, 2017