Bruce

Book 3 of 3 Great Novels. My favorite of the 3.

Reviewed: 08-27-24

I can't recommend this series highly enough. It moves in every direction. I cared about the characters. It never lost my attention. These aren't your average vampire apocalypse novels. I believe that novels are, for the most part, about people first, events and settings second. That is true here. 5 Stars well earned. Series comes to a firm conclusion.

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Book 2 of 3 great novels.

Reviewed: 08-27-24

I can't recommend this series highly enough. It moves in every direction. I cared about the characters. It never lost my attention. These aren't your average vampire apocalypse novels. I believe that novels are, for the most part, about people first, events and settings second. That is true here. 5 Stars well earned.

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A true 5 Star Series

Reviewed: 08-27-24

I can't recommend this series highly enough. It moves in every direction. I cared about the characters. It never lost my attention. These aren't your average vampire apocalypse novels. I believe that novels are, for the most part, about people first, events and settings second. That is true here. 5 Stars well earned.

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Awkward First Person and nonsensical expressions.

Reviewed: 08-23-24

I listened to Book 0 and thought that perhaps it was an unpublished bit of backstory released as a prequel and that Book 1 would be better. I did not find that to be the case. A few minutes into book 1 and I was done. The character (a teenager narrating in first person) comes off like one of the Hardy Boys in an early Hardy Boys novel. His word choices are awkward, and the dialog and narration triggered "oh, you have to be kidding me." If you can get past this, perhaps the book will work for you. There are expressions and statements that are ridiculous. For example: "He chambered off another shot." Perhaps a younger audience might enjoy this story, but I am more demanding.

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Inconsistent and sometimes mean spirited.

Reviewed: 06-29-23

Harem Novels (or similar) are what they are. I knew what I was buying. In the beginning I liked the main character, but he changed into someone to whom I would end up saying "Sorry, gotta go" in the middle of a conversation. In trying to be funny, or sexy, or age-relative the dialog seemed mean spirited and misogynistic well beyond the point of a good shock value laugh. Not enough story, not enough laughs, too many cringy bits. I don't think I ever used "Cringe" in a review before. It applies here. It isn't that I was "offended," just that I thought "Why am I reading this crap and why does the Author think I'd enjoy doing it?" I really liked the "Super Sales on Super Heros" stories up through book 3 (and I was becoming disillusioned in Book 3.) I'm done now. Give me a good story, great characters, Andreas, Pancakes, and I can overlook almost anything. That was sadly lacking here. There are lots of good books out there and so "Sorry, gotta go."

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8 people found this helpful

Great! Bring on more Forgotten Ruin Viewpoints!

Reviewed: 03-24-23

I loved this book. It made me happy to have another viewpoint on the Ruin.

I gave it an overall of 4 stars because it could have been a better book if someone had flagged the repetitive NOT MILITARY slang that became a minor annoyance. Specifically, "Grill" and "Hot Minute." Once or twice is fine, but Grill, in particular, really got on my nerves. Mouth or Teeth would have been more effective in most places. A couple more read throughs by people might have prevented that. I only point this out because I want more and the book could have been much more enjoyable without jarring me out of my "suspension of disbelief" by trying to figure out why this character was writing down in what would become a historical journal, some very regional and dated non-military slang terms.

I would also like to suggest that a couple interludes along the way might make the stories better. Slow down for a couple scattered short chapters and get to know the natives.

More Please.

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A steady ramp down

Reviewed: 10-18-22

I read these 3 (at the point of this review) novels back to back. As I went along, I became increasingly less interested. I enjoy B.V. Larson but this series is not for me. I like LONG audiobooks, but not when one can get distracted, come back to paying attention 5 minutes later, and find that the flow of the story has not changed significantly. "He's STILL in the process of doing that? He's STILL there?" By book 3 that was happening much more then I would like. The "Mouth" Alien Queen seemed to slobber on for hours. I didn't develop any real attachment to any of the collection of female love interests in this series. I will sick to Larson's other work because I don't care for this series enough to read another installment.

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Inconsistent

Reviewed: 10-16-22

This book is up and down, in and out, good and bad. The writing is either very good or awful. There is a point where the similes became so awful that I caught myself groaning out loud. When the story ended, I was glad it was over and I really don't care what happens to the surviving characters in the future. It was something to listen to while painting the ceiling in my hallway and not worth climbing down off the ladder to turn off.

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2 people found this helpful

A nasty trainwreck in 5 Parts

Reviewed: 09-21-22

My thought process while listening to this audiobook: 1) Oh, this is interesting. It isn't a prepper book, it isn't politically polarized, and it has a science fiction premise leading up to an EMP. Good, something new! 2) Hmm, yep, like the other reviews say, this book is full of young girl rape talk and a nauseating amount of "beautiful women, lovely girl, attractive woman" woman adjectives. Even so, I am interested in the characters, and it IS the apocalypse after all. I'll keep reading. 3) WTF? 4) Is this one of the "Girl's point of view" GOR NOVELS? I guess not because I actually like THEM. You have got to be kidding me. "... a society that tells a young boy that he can easily become a girl?" "She doesn't like girls, that is just what girls her age say to boys." (*These are not quotes, the are paraphrased from memory because I'm not going back to get the wording exact. Once was enough) 5) OMGWTF! Not only OMGWTF, but: A character pretends to be "flamboyantly gay" so he will be tossed in with the girls at the cannibal rape camp. 6) The guy who said "I'm 40 some hours in and I just don't care how it ends" pretty much said it. We get very little of the main characters, some voodoo priest guy shows up casting magic circles, and, oh joy, the author's take on a bisexual woman. People are called snowflakes. 3 separate bad guy characters are called "The Ginger." Then the book just ends, with (in my opinion) no real conclusion to most of the story arcs, and NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON! To say something good, I was entertained by "Fire's" story arc in book 1 and 2. After that, see thought process 3, 4, 5 and 6 above. Yuck.

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Awkward and juvenile

Reviewed: 06-10-22

The protagonist has a college degree in robot programming (or something like that.) He has 2 "$13,000 Sniper Rifles." He talks about his Father constantly. "My Father taught me... My Father would be disappointed... Thank goodness my Father drilled xxx into my head from an early age...." He says things like "gosh" and "Mother F*&*er" in the same paragraph. A precocious genius man-boy with a career soldier's skills at arms and a comprehensive knowledge of military hardware who lives with his mother. I can't tell if this book was intended for young adults or not. I suspect so. The narration is pressured and breathless. I tried slowing it down but that didn't help. It isn't the narrator's fault, it is the writing. The author doesn't give the reader time to think about what is going on. That is probably for the best. It was not for me and had it not been the free part of buy one get one free I would have returned it.

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2 people found this helpful