A. American

It’s guilty pleasure time and I have to admit that I absolutely wallowed in Going Home by A. American. There isn’t a speck of literary value to this book, but it did keep me totally engaged with it’s survival storyline and non-stop action. The main character is over 250 miles from home when the North American power grid shuts down. All he wants to do is get home to his wife and daughters and so he sets out on foot. Luckily he just happens to be a survivalist and he always carries the show more necessary equipment to survive in most any conditions. Along the way he picks up a young women who also wants to get home and a black truck driver. The three have many adventures along the way, running into black gangs, redneck bullies, some military types and even a pedophile who is in charge of a camp and lording it over the other people. It did seem a little repetitive when almost all the people they met were “bad”.

The power failure turned out to be part of a conspiracy by a rogue element in the American government. Assisted by the Homeland Security Department, military rule was being put into effect, but this turned out to be a front for “them” taking what they wanted. A thread of mistrust toward authority and a definite view of city-dwellers as sheep who blindly follow and are totally helpless when all moral authority is removed is on display throughout the story. While I enjoyed the survival aspect of the story, I need to warn others that there were many grammatical and typographical errors that interrupted the overall flow. The female characters were either frightened, clinging vines or harpies that needed to be controlled (by a MAN, of course). Product placement played a strong element as well and left me wondering if Walmart didn’t help foot the bill for publishing the book.

Although the last thing I would ever do would be to grab a rifle and jump on an ATV to go hunting, this story is peopled by characters that embrace this lifestyle. Even though I wouldn’t last five minutes in a situation like this I love to read about it. I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I couldn’t put this book down - I devoured it and I will probably do the same with the sequel. show less

The storyline and characters are more developed than in the first book of the series as the author examines the relationships between people that will impact choices, decisions, and ultimately survival in an extreme situation. None of us are truly independent, and there are those we want to save but whose perspectives and readiness to change and adapt are different than our own. The author has attempted to portray the various psychological challenges that people in this situation will have show more to face. show less

This book is written like Common Core public school "literature" with the intent to inform, not as an example of true literary development. It is a list of supplies that would be useful to have in a SHTF situation, why one piece of equipment might be better than another similar piece, how to use the equipment and the necessary peripherals (a stove AND the fuel, as an example). Basically, the story is there to make the learning about equipment interesting and memorable. Along with the show more equipment list is the fact that a serious consideration for survival are other people: the ignorant, the unprepared, the overconfident, the bullies, the sick and injured, the bewildered, the discouraged, and a lack of social order and conventions to restrain human behavior. After having lived in Florida myself, where this story is set, I noticed the author chose to not address the natural predators (scorpions, snakes, alligators, etc.) but only the human threats. Therefore, it meets the needs of a wider audience in introducing practical equipment that would make life a whole lot easier in a difficult environment.

I have read the next two books, and the storyline and characters are more developed as the author examines the relationships between people that will impact choices, decisions, and ultimately survival in an extreme situation. None of us are truly independent, and there are those we want to save but whose perspectives and readiness to change and adapt are different than our own. The author has attempted to portray the various psychological challenges that people in this situation will have to face. show less

The storyline and characters are more developed in this third book of the series. The author continues to imagine a scenario where social conventions have broken down and injury and death is an every present reality. The relationships between people that will impact choices, decisions, and ultimately survival in an extreme situation are further developed. None of us are truly independent, and there are those we want to save but whose perspectives and readiness to change and adapt are show more different than our own, and there are real human threats to our self-determination. The author has attempted to portray examples of physical, environmental, governmental, and psychological challenges that people in this situation will have to face.

For those who found Morgan to be SO prepared, we see him dealing with his own uncertainty and reluctance to fully accept and adapt to this reality. It is so tempting to try to settle in and hope that people will leave you alone! (But that's probably not going to happen.) show less