Hello again, Happy Readers!
Well, the kickoff week of the Z-Day anthology has passed. It did manage to snag one of those shiny orange #1 Bestseller tags from the ‘Zon, so that’ s a cool thing. We shall see how it continues to go, but I am really glad to be a part of it. I, myself, am about to read the other contributions and will be doing a semi-review of the book soon. I mean, it’s 5 stars, OBVIOUSLY, but I still need to get into the details. I was a fan BEFORE I was a contributor!
The holidays are fast approaching. Turkey Day is just 2 days away, then the scramble for Christmas begins (for me at least). I’ll be spending time with family and the blog may only get one more post before the year end.
For now, though, I come to you with my review of the second book in The Fallen World series, and believe me, it’s a winner!
Happy Reading!
Amazon’s blurb & preview
No matter what you call him, though, he has a problem. Well, several of them. Ishmael—for want of a better name—woke up in a world that had changed. The Corporations—the wielders of power in a society not long from now—brought about the end of civilization as we know it, nuking each other to the point where it collapsed.
Ishmael doesn’t know any of this, though; in fact, he doesn’t know anything about himself when he wakes up in this shattered world. All of his autobiographical and episodic memories are gone, and along with them, any knowledge of who he was or anything in his past.
Worse, he has made enemies of some very important people, and they are after him. They are armed and he is alone and in…well, he doesn’t know where he is, either.
Can Ishmael stay alive long enough to recover his memories—to find out who he is and how he fits—or will he be just another casualty of This Fallen World?
Don’t Call Me Ishmael by Chris Kennedy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This second installment in the Fallen World series is from a different author, Chris Kennedy, and is from a different perspective, although the theme of ‘amnesiac bad-ass’ is the same.
Side-note: This is my first book by Chris (this Chris) and I can say that it was a great one to start with, and I will definitely be seeking out more. It won’t be hard because there are TONS of them. Just check out Chris Kennedy Publishing and you’ll see what I mean.
From the start of this book, you will be sucked into the Post-Fall then shoved through the door of your imagination against your will, naked, and forced to survive there! Well, not really, but it’s a fun analogy, so run with it.
Dude with no name (he tells them to call him Ishmael, but most of them just call him Fred) staggers forth into a crumbling world with no ‘personal’ memories, but a lot of ‘muscle’ memories of rather extra-ordinary abilities. He soon finds himself in a fight for his life, teaming up with set of survivors that just happen to be on their way to a place he doesn’t even know he needs to go. And fight he does. Busting through roadblock after roadblock from Slidell, Louisiana to Florida then on up to Tennessee, Mr. ‘Fred’ puts the bad guys in their places while seeking out his own true identity in This Fallen World.
I found this book to be one of the more exciting page-turners I’ve read in recent months. The familiar setting of just after the fall of the modern world was easy for me to understand. Having read the first book, I also knew the score of the world’s history which made it fun to guess at what was coming (sometimes rightly, sometimes not). I look forward to the further adventures of ‘Fred’ as much as I do the characters from book one in the series.
I give this one four stars and call it a Non-Stop Action Read.
The next in the series is an anthology of multiple authors from many different perspectives in The Fallen World called From The Ashes.
There rest of the series to date is as follows:
Book 4 is another by Kennedy titled The Price of Freedom.
Book 5, Farmer’s Creed is just out recently (Oct ’19) and is Chris Woods’ continuation of the Seeds novella in This one.
Finally, Call Me Mr. Smith, written by Alex Wrath, was just released this month (Nov ’19).
I’ll be reading book #3 in December (I hope!) and will drop the review here when done.
In the meantime, Happy Reading!
Make an author happy! Leave a Review on Amazon! Here are links to my novels if you would like to go do that!
If you like intrigue, humor and a bit of speculative technological supposition, you should pick up a copy of my technothriller-comedy eConscience Beta from Amazon today!
Peacekeeper Incorporated’s breakthrough nanotechnology could bring repeat offense crime to an end, freeing society from the need for criminal incarcerations. But first, they have to finish testing it. With funding on the line, and time to prove out the project getting short, the lead scientist must find a way speed things up. That’s unfortunate for his guinea pig, and anyone who would stand in his way.
Can the goal of ending most crime justify committing one… even a few?
And what happens when you conflate altruism with egotism?
Find out in eConscience Beta, where two lab techs and an uncouth petty criminal must outwit a brilliant but sociopathic scientist who’ll stop at nothing to establish his legacy as the man who ended crime.
If Science Fiction Space Adventure is more your speed, then you should check out my anthology, Horizons Unlimited: Volume 1.
HORIZONS UNLIMITED
Matter conversion technology—Matt-Con—has broadened the scope of mankind’s existence. It has opened up the real possibility of viable colonies on other planets in our solar system, and even space itself. Anywhere matter can be captured or energy from the sun can be felt, the possibility of expanding human habitation exists.
In this volume:
Quicksilver
The space station Chariot of Helios—on its way to Mercury to become a power collection station for Earth’s growing need for energy to power matt-con tech—encounters a strange anomaly that threatens ship and crew.
Escaping Aurora
The sudden destruction of mankind’s first atmospheric terraforming platform leaves three unlucky exonauts struggling to survive in the skies of Venus aboard a cobbled-together airship. Meanwhile, the commander of the space station above battles obstacles that might keep her from rescuing her stranded husband and crew in time.
Words from the Wampuscat 