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★☆☆☆☆
Apocalyptic writing style
I live in the middle of one of the world's largest nuclear missile fields and therefore I am very interested in reading books related to nuclear war, which is why I bought this book. I have to admit that I could not finish reading the book, for three reasons. First, the author doesn't know basic grammar skills; second, the author doesn't know the most fundamental facts about nuclear war; third, the author doesn't understand basic geography. Regarding grammar, the writer falls into the camp that believes one should use an apostrophe any time a word ends in the letter "S" as in: "Lookout! Here come's an S!" This drives me batty, especially coupled with other grammatical errors. She also doesn't grok narrative points of view. If you're going to write a book from a first person point of view, stick with it for the entire book. If you're going to write from the third person point of view, stick with it for the entire book. This book jumps back and forth, sometimes several times per page, which is distracting. Then there was the description of the nuclear damage, in an event where basically every nuclear warhead in the world goes off all at once. In a nuclear explosion, the bomb detonates in the air above the ground and the damage comes from the heat, the shock wave, and the radiation-- but a nuclear bomb does not impact the actual surface of the earth other than to scorch the items sitting on top of it. Here the author has the nuclear bombs causing the New Madrid fault line to rupture in a devastating earthquake, and then (in a demonstration of her lack of geographical knowledge) has the nuclear bombs that fall in Michigan causing the "Salt Lake" to suddenly inexplicably flood the eastern U.S. and drain into the Gulf of Mexico. I know she must have meant the Great Lakes, and not Utah's Great Salt Lake, but even so, nothing outside of a cataclysmic world-destroying meteor impact is going to cause the Great Lakes to empty into the Gulf of Mexico. In a work of good fiction, the reader must enjoy "suspension of disbelief" but the problems in this manuscript prevented me from doing so.
August 2011 · Books · verified purchase
the product in question
The Survivors (Life After War Book 1)
4.1★ · 4,504 ratings, as of 2023
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