Customer Reviews

Without Warning

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Excellent read. I am going to order the follow-up book to this to see where it goes from here. This was my first book by this aurthor and I'm looking forward to seeing where he goes from this.

While I certainly enjoyed Birmingham's Axis of Time trilogy, it was differentiated from the other alternate histories of World War II yet tended to drag and confuse. What I really enjoy about this first book in his new trilogy is the premise and the pace. A weird event has taken out the continential U.S. and parts of Canada and Mexico. But the best part is the timing of it - the story takes place in 2003 as the U.S. is set to invade Iraq so a great deal of their military might remains intact. Birmingham takes us around the globe as people attempt to digest the sudden shift in geo-political power not to mention associated economic and environmental issues. The characters are sound and the individual plots interesting. But it is the question of what would the world do if the U.S. vanished that is so intriguing. I am anxiously awaiting the second entry because the first ended with an amazing cliffhanger. Overall it is solid entertainment.

This is the first book by John Birmingham I've read. I loved it. It's everything I was hoping "One Second After" would be and more. It takes characters that are spread all around the world and follows them as they deal with the fallout from this huge energy wave. I won't get into the plot because it's easy enough to find a synopsis. As I'm plowing through the second book in the series I like this book even more. Birmingham does an excellent job crafting a variety of characters and placing them in a wide array of situations. I like it more now that I've started the second book because I like how the plot is coming together, and have grown fond of the characters. If you're into post-apocolyptic stuff, and world events this book is for you.

I am currently reading this book, the first from this author and so far - very disappointing! The language in this book is more complicated then John Cook, who is a doctor. I am forcing myself to read it because I paid good money but many times I will put it aside, read something else and come back to it. The book does have more then 500 pages and I hit 200 but I still don't have a good idea what this story is about. The characters are interesting but John's writing makes them boring and hard to follow.

At this time, I'm not sure I will buy the next book After America, unless the ending of this one gets better.

Super that the author knows big complicated words, but this takes away from the actual pleasure of reading it.

As for the story? YES DEFINITELY a super idea and this is the reason I bought it in the first place but as I said earlier - the writing is killing this book, atleast for me it is. I do have a huge collection of novels and read many different authors. Honestly, this takes me back to when I read the STand by Stephen King. That book took me a long time to read but the last few hundred pages flew by quickly.

If Without Warning does get better, I'll write a new review.

- Michel