I really enjoyed this book. I am a huge fan of "end of the world as we know it" books and this one was more believable than many I have read. Frightening actually, since it could happen. We are so dependent on our ability to go to the store and grab food off the shelf, start our cars and go anywhere quickly, and flip a switch for heat and light. The main characters were well developed and the story never dragged. I finished with in a few days, hard to put down! ( )

I reread this book because I was contemplating purchasing the next in the series. I give this one more star than I would have given it initially solely for the concept. I think that this is one of the first books to explore the concept of EMP (I could be wrong--it was the first I ever read).

The book is interesting in that there is some gradation to the characters. They are not entirely black or white which, in the post apocalyptic series, is pretty far up the ladder of sophistication. The efforts of the town to survive seem more realistic to me than many other novels I have read.

The 4th star is also in acknowledgement of an astonishing absence of armaments and preppers: it was a joy to read without lists of guns and bullets and lists of all of the smug actions taken by survivalists. If the author had managed to forgo the usual wretched American jingoism, he might have wrenched that 5th star from me. ( )

So, I pretty much write a review but this book made me want to. A better title might have been "God, Guns and Country." I don't think a single paragraph went by without touching on those themes. ( )

Geez, that darn ending... ( )

This book grabbed on and didn't let go until I closed it. If you think you are ready for whatever may come down the pike at you, reading this book will make you re-evaluate your preparedness.

The characters are well written, and the subject matter well researched.

I'm not sure if I will read the other 2 in the trilogy, mainly because I don't want to be disappointed. ( )