I love apocalypse books, and I have mentioned previously my semi recent enthusiasm for the Kindle self published books and how they have made available so many more apocalypse adventures I can partake in while still comfortable in the safety of my home.  Recently I was reading the descriptions of some of the Kindle books Amazon was suggesting for me, and I read the review of John O’Brien’s, A New World: Chaos, and I decided to give it a try. 

The next day I was frantically looking John O’Brien back up on Amazon and downloading the next book in the series, A New World: Return.   

This guy is really putting a well thought out, enjoyable and action packed series together.  No joking either.  During the wait for book #3, A New World: Sanctuary, to come out, I read his Amazon bio four or five times.  And as I picked up from reading the first two books, John is not BS-ing the details present in his books.  This guy knows this stuff first hand.  His bio includes “a former Air Force fighter instructor pilot who transitioned to Special Operations” and “became a firefighter/EMT” among other qualifiers.  Yeah, so, it’s pretty clear, this John guy, knows his stuff. 

He speaks at length and detail about weapons and tactics, writing about military actions, using military talk.  He doesn’t dumb it down to the point of watering anything out.  And just the way the main character, Jack, thinks and plans and reasons thing out, rings truth.  And all survival details and necessities are being taken into account at a reasonable point in the storyline.

Like any other enthusiast, I am annoyed when I read a book with inaccurate details.  And although I am not a pilot or aircraft mechanic, I do work in aviation, and know enough that I would be aware if he was faking the use of acronyms, flight paths, the capabilities of particular aircraft, or the way a pilot would think in an apocalyptic situation.  Aviation?  John’s got that.   

Stacy Westfall riding with no hands
(Photo from Google images)

Side note, or rant, however you wish to refer to the following – I am an equine enthusiast, in case you had not caught that in many of my previous blog postings, or taken notice of my other blog, Blue Ridge Pony , that I frequently plug and also have linked on a side bar of this blog.  I am also a fan of fantasy literature, which often involves horses.  Hence, I am often annoyed at the inaccurate details involving horses a writer will lob into a story to help generate validity and realism.  On more than one occasion I have read details written referring to how experienced or skilled a rider is because said character is able to ‘steer his horse with only the use of his knees’.  AHHH!  Yes, a skilled rider can steer without their hands, but not by using their knees.  To hand out a very brief and elementary lesson in equitation, a rider controls his/her horse using his/her entire body.  But very simply, this idea of steering with the knees, probably directives from a rider using their heels and lower legs to steer (with ‘steer’ being a horrendous choice of word for this action).  But the knees up through the thighs would be used more for grip and balance, not steering.

And now back to our current blog post, complimenting John O’Brien on his mad writing skills. 

So yes, O’Brien knows his stuff. 

He also has drawn us some realistic dimensional characters.  The main one, Jack, is a likeable, talented, take charge mo-fo, that any apocalyptic survivor, that’s not hell bent on being an unsavory rouge, would want to be led by.  He gathers and leads and creates survival.  Sometimes I picture him like a younger William Schatner (who I happen to think is a pretty cool guy), but more frequently, I picture him pretty close to the image of John’s bio photo on Amazon.

When I finished reading book 3, I punched up Amazon to leave a review, because this book deserved one, and also to check for book 4, knowing it couldn’t possibly be there yet.  But surprise, book 4, A New World: Taken, popped up that day!  Way to kick ass John.  Those fingers must be on fire.    

John has a lot of threads going in this series, and several tantalizing foreshadows that I am eager to see carried forward.  I like what he has done with his “zombie” like characters, which are not very zombie like.  They are more of an original creation, with the similarity of eating human flesh.  But their heightened senses and abilities, and their functional communication, are not even loosely traditional zombie. 

I look forward to the next book.  And I have already added both John and Jack to my fantasy league zombie apocalypse team, or maybe I should be added to their team instead?