S. M. Anderson

End of Summer by S. M. Anderson is an “end-of-the-world” story about how a viral apocalypse kills 97% of the people on the planet and the survival of mankind is in tatters. Sheer carelessness released the virus from the lab to the American public in September, and within 24 hours it had spread world-wide. Incubating for a week, the disease worked fast and by the end of September it had taken it’s toll and burnt itself out. The small percent that were immune had to decide how to carry show more on.

Some survivors are power-hungry and crave control. We follow one survivor who when he stumbles upon a nest of brutal thugs that are keeping many as slaves vows to set these people free. He gathers a small group around him and they work on a plan to change things. Unfortunately he can see that some of the younger members of his group are starting to love the gun play and violence too much so he decides to try and end it on his own. He sets off to put his plan in action but of course once his group figure out what he is doing they are not far behind.

I enjoyed End of Summer. This is a book that doesn’t require a lot of thinking. The action and violence is constant, the characters are not deep and the reader has to accept most relationships on face value. It is a frightening tale, but frightening in the style of a cartoon. This is just the first book but I was happy that the author mostly wrapped up the story line although he did introduce some new characters at the end of the book that I am sure will play an important part in the second volume. I have a lot going on in my own life right now and End of Summer allowed me to escape and read about people who were in a much worse situation that I. show less

Reap What You Sow by S. M. Anderson is the second book in a post-apocalyptic trilogy where a virus has claimed 97% of earth’s population and the survivors are scrambling to find a new way of life. The first book dealt with freeing a group of prisoners from being treated like slaves by a group who thought they are in control. Ex-army ranger Jason Larsen, a teenage boy, Pov, a dog, Loki and a woman, Rachel have bonded together as a new family and take care of each other.

A new community has show more been set up but Jason finds himself restless and leaves to scout out what else is out there. What he finds sends him back to his community as there is another large, well armed group out there slowly eating up the territory. He needs to warn his people before it’s too late.

This book also includes another group, that of the military who have returned to America by ship from Antarctica. This group is a combination of Americans and Russians, it isn’t long before they run into the large group who are converting survivors to their way of life. Eventually the military meets and joins up with Jason’s group and together they face their common enemy.

Lots of action but I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the first book as I thought there was too many descriptions of the military vehicles and weapons.. Although it’s a bit of a time waster, I will continue on with the third book in the near future. show less

What’s left after a society collapses? In “Reap What You Sow”, the author helps us envision two emerging groups as they rebuild in a post-apocalyptic world. As in most novels in this genre, there’s a lot of fast, hard action which the author narrates quite well.

More important, the author fleshes out an underlying philosophy of survival. One of the Prindle characters describes this philosophy: “ ... we don’t have the authority to enforce the laws of a nation that no longer exists. show more The same holds for the norms of a civilization that is gone. For myself, I believe our principles may be the only type of law and order we have any hope of enforcing. They are the only guidelines that I think this world can afford right now.” Action speaks louder than words when the protagonist leads a group to clash with a neo-Marxist group.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wonders about the way civilization may rebuild after a collapse. For this book to make sense, I recommend reading the first book in the Seasons of Man series as a needed prelude to this book. I will look forward to reading more in this series and from this author. A minor note, if I could I would give this book a rating of 4.5 stars but that’s not possible show less

The Edenites find that their new "digs" have some problems with their neighbors. The Kaerin do not like anyone they cannot enslave and going back to Old Earth would be awkward as well as fatal. An alliance with the surviving Jena; basically the children, the Kaerin left alive as an exemplar for their enslavement practices, is promising but off to a quite difficult start. This series continues to develop and sustain its interesting storyline quite well.