Forstchen William Book Reviews

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Good book, felt too short. If you're looking at reviews for this book you've almost certainly read the previous three in the series. In that case just get it, it's as good as the rest and a fitting end to the series. (although it certainly isn't a hard ending, the door is wide open for more installments to the series) My only complaint about this one is that it just felt too short. It felt like just as it was picking up it was already starting to wind down to the conclusion. It's probably best that the author leave us wanting more than drawing it out too much, but I could read another 10 books in this universe and knowing I have to wait potentially years for another left me sad. Good book, read it and head its warnings.

Unputdownable. I'm glad to see another installment in this series, the granddaddy of modern American apocalyptic scenarios. Inspired by the government report of the threat of EMP strikes, it had the poor fortune to be released at the same time as the official 9/11 report, if memory serves. And no one paid attention. This saga spins a depressingly realistic forecast of what would happen if such an attack - a few nukes detonated high above the country - knocked down the entire grid, fried most electronics and plunged us back into the 19th century without warning. In the first three books we watch the massive die-off from starvation and lack of medicine, the battles against a now hostile outside, and the resourcefulness of those in a small North Carolina town struggling to survive and provide for itself. Century-old journals in the college library contain now-valuable plans for basic power generation. Some tech types discover early-generation computer equipment stacked in college basements didn't get fried and is salvageable, and work at booting it. Five years later, John Matherson is running the small Black Mountain college he used to teach at. The population and food supply have stabilized. Many people died during the starvation years at the outset and there are fewer mouths to feed. Meanwhile local agriculture has kicked in. Everybody farms now. The college teaches a core of Western-civ style liberal arts, but is mostly about practical skills. He's also vice-president of the New Republic, which is trying but not succeeding to restore Constitutional order. Forstchen has updated the scenario modestly, alluding to events that hadn't happened in the mid-2000s when he started the series, such as the COVID pandemic and the rise of China. We learn a little more about the disaster worldwide: which nations were struck, which weren't, and who benefited. Matherson and his second wife Makala, a nurse he met on The Day and now the town's chief medical figure, have a 2-year-old toddler. Matherson is still haunted by the memory of his daughter Jennifer, a diabetic who died for lack of insulin. Everyone grieves such losses. People generally have a new look, one familiar from photos of the Civil War era or the Depression - angular cheekbones and drawn faces, a look of having survived starvation that never really goes away. Matherson, called to the New Republic's headquarters - an underground Cold War bastion near Gettysburg - is stunned to learn another governmental power has survived all this time through the chaos, its power intact. What's up with that? And what are its plans? The earlier books focused significantly on Matherson's leading Black Mountain defense in the chaos after The Day. Now, that's less a priority. Matherson still has the militia, the core of which are his students. But Matherson has turned over command to younger people. Young people, with the strength to farm and fight, are the most valuable resource, and are adapting better to the world after the fall. Matherson knows he and other older folks see too many ghosts. He's more preoccupied here with the political and philosophical issues, as he struggles to preserve civilian government while confronting a general with greater strength and a chillingly realistic outlook. (And an unlimited supply of fine English cigarettes.) As he faced some chilling choices in earlier books, as he took the most difficult tasks upon himself for the sake of the community, he must now do that again, on a much larger scale.

Five Years After -> This installment seems a bit forced. I've enjoyed the previous trilogy by Forstchen, One Second After, One Year After, & Final Day, so I was looking forward with anticipation to this next installment, and while I was taken in by the story, & references to the story line from previous books, and once again - Narrator: Bronson Pinchot did an excellent job with this book, I just felt the story line was a bit too contrived, and to me, almost predictable, as if Mr. Forstchen was really reaching for something he just wasn't feeling. In an interview I heard on a late night coast to coast talkshow, he so much admitted he really couldn't turn down the offer his publisher made him for another book, having enjoyed the three previous audiobooks in this series, Five Years After left me feeling like it was written for the money, & not from the heart. Still, I'd give it 5 stars, the premise of this installment would really only make sense if you read the previous books in the series, and for the price of buying the book, I'd say it was worthwhile, it just didn't have me on the edge of my chair wanting to continue listening to just "one more chapter before bed" which is when I would usually listen to a few chapters each evening, so it actually took me a little longer to get through Five Years After. I hope Forstchen's next book will tackle an entirely new plot & storyline, & a year from now, I'm not reading: 10 Years Down The Road, (The Stones Return To play the country fair)

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