This book was a bit disappointing. It is similar in subgenre to The Road, but not as good by far. The story is dialogue heavy, with far too little description. The setting is poorly developed, and the characters seem flat and contrived. And, the attempts at injecting religion into a dystopian novel are clumsy, enough that I could easily imagine this book being sold at camp meetings, as a book written to appeal to church people rather than as a piece of mass-market fiction for the general public.
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Marcus Battle lives an isolated life on his ranch in Texas five years after a plague has devastated humanity. Despite his painstaking efforts to prep for just such a scenario, the plague claims the lives of his wife and son. Anyone who has ever come near his property in the days after the plague hasn't lived to tell anyone about it. One day a woman approaches, screaming for help, and being chased by a group of men, leaving Marcus with a choice of whether or not to intervene or continue with his past practice of leaving no one alive to speak of his presence.

The main character is an Army war veteran and expert marksman who served in the Middle East. As a prepper, he was ready for the plague with a significant stockpile of food and collection of guns, each of which he has named. The story shifts back and forth between the present moment and the days leading up to, and immediately after, the plague reaches his family. His character is pretty well-developed as a result. However, the remaining characters are not fleshed out.

The book is fairly short, so the story moves along steadily but it just wasn't a very captivating story. The book was written using plain and direct language so there wasn't much enjoyment gleaned from the writing. I listened to the audiobook and I felt the narrator did little to adequately accentuate the book's action-packed and tense moments. The narrator also sounded like an older gentleman, which confused me about the age of the main character, who son was only about 10 years old when the plague hit. An adversary referred to him as "old man" at one point, but yet he successfully find his way out of a few physical altercations with seemingly younger men.

This the the first of a 5-part series, and is not a standalone novel. I see no reason to continue. ( )

Guns and God

Mostly a good read, but way too much military rah-rah and the unique American version of Christianity, with a side of Trump. If you like that kind of doomer porn, you will probably love this author! ( )

Another new series about a post-apocalyptic world, this time a terrible pneumonia called The Scourge was the culprit that ended with most of the world’s population dead. The main character, Marcus Battle, is a retired army officer. In dealing with his own PTSD, he became a survivalist and he and his family were prepared for most everything that could possibly affect the earth. Everything except for this highly contagious air-borne disease that took both Marcus’ wife and son in a matter of hours. Marcus is immune to the disease and so he must live on without his family. He has spent the last five years living on his isolated property and killing any intruders.

One night he sees a woman running from a group of men and something inside him decides to help her. He rescues her and kills most of the group of men, but one escapes and goes for help. He is a member of the Cartel, a viscous group of ex-criminals and drug dealers who now run what used to be Texas. The woman, Lola, has escaped from the Cartel but wants Marcus to help her rescue her son as well. After the Cartel sends more men against him and burns down his house, he decides to help her and the book ends when they are in the midst of this rescue.

A main character who is so capable at surviving that he is almost on the same level as a super-hero and the unrelenting pace of action and violence made this book feel very much like a comic book. The total cliffhanger ending was expected and I can pretty much guarantee that Battle and Lola will be successful but as in all episodic stories find themselves off on another adventure. I have the next book so I will probably read on at some point but I am not in any hurry to do so. ( )