Thought provoking and gripping

Part of me wants to give this book 5 stars, or maybe 4 and half. It takes us to a post (oil) apocalyptic world and follows the stories of a few groups of people trying to survive. It really made me think about what we are doing to the world, how we would survive without the resources we currently have and made me wonder if something like this could really happen the way he describes. It also, paradoxically perhaps, made me more grateful for the things we have and made me resolve to think less about the evils of modern technology as I realise how hard life would be without it all. I am not sure if this is the message the author was going for but this is one of the things I took from it.
I hold back on 5 stars just because of some of the writing. I found some of the characters less than fully developed, struggling, even with some of the main characters, to be fully sympathetic towards them, or fully understanding of their motives. I also felt a little bit uncomfortable with some of the ways the female characters spoke to themselves - I felt like some of the language was more the kind a man would use in a derogatory way than the way a woman would actually chastise herself. Having said this I am only one woman so I only know the way I speak to myself!
Overall I loved it, loved the themes and how relevant it is to modern day excesses. Will be reading about the factual basis of all this and also looking out for more Alex Scarrow books.

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1 person found this helpful

Are we closer to a rat or disaster?

Well they say hope springs eternal and at the point of writing this it seems that it does. Actually this isn't wholly an original idea. It's been done many times before though not in quite such a modern way. I feel that the author is writing this in order not so much to entertain as to make a point. It reads like so many other apocalyptic novels in terms of riotting and pillaging and the rest that there's not much to choose between it and a lot of others though in this case the reasons for the colapse are at least gone into by the characters and the discerning reader won't fail to notice the similarity between the events in this book and the story of Noah and his ark though the time frame is longer of course. The staccato naration spoils it a bit and there are passages of weakness in the prose which is why I can't rate it much higher. Having said that at least the author pays more attention than most to the deliery of doalogue and can manage better than most to vary the 'said' syndrome that most lazy sentence stringers indulge in. So it's not all bad and there's a happy ending I think.

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Great listen

Any additional comments?

I gave this book 4 stars and not 5 mainly because I don't like end of the world stories. You may then be wondering why I bought this, well mainly just because I like Mr.Scarrow' s work and I'd listen to his other stories. There were bits in this book that made me want to put my fingers in my ears so I didn't have to hear what happens next; I'm the kind of person who hides behind the sofa in the middle of the really scary bits in movies. So it would be fair to say it's quite nail-bitey in places. It asks the question "could you live in a world without all the things we take for granted. Can you live with the loss or would that loss actually be a relief?". Made me think and scared me and kept me interested and entertained, what more can you ask for?

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Thought provoking!

The books first light and after light by Alex Scarrow are two of the best that I have ever read, I have recommended to many friends and they all agree. The story is based on the end of society as we know it, in this case not by the usual virus/zombie outbreak. Therefore making this much more believable and thought provoking. The speed of the collapse and the behaviour of all the characters is extremely frightening, my circle is now definitely more prepared!

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2 people found this helpful

This sums up perfectly what could happen.

This sums up perfectly what could happen to an oil addicted world in the very new future.
We have already use up over half of the worlds oil reserves in a hundred years so how many more years do we have?
Very well written and read 19 hours flew by!

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Good idea, too long.

The Opening 3rd took far too long. Ending was lame as well as disappointing boo.

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