Outstanding beginning.

Stillwell does an excellent narration of the first novel in this saga. The story is believable and the characters are true to life. The chain of events are also within reason and the antagonist is someone that can be expected to exist in this scenario.
Very good story, you won't be disappointed. I also own, and have read the Kindle ebook prior to purchasing, and I can truly say that it was more enjoyable to listen to the novel during driving to and from work, rather than finding the time to read after my business day.

11 people found this helpful

Predictable, slow and very basic story

What did you like best about Last Stand? What did you like least?

Just didn't do it for me.

What was most disappointing about William H. Weber’s story?

The story was too basic, without an interesting story line flow. Cliche to the highest degree. "The newest recruits (neighborhood teenagers) practiced with sticks as weapons" just about a minute, maybe two, after an EMP?

8 people found this helpful

Well done.

I enjoyed this story. Lots of ethical factors and dilemmas to deal with. Showed tremendous restraint with his language, somewhat rare in this genre. I would rate it PG13.

7 people found this helpful

Pretty Intense

Not a situation anyone would want to contemplate but it definitely makes you think twice about things & human behavior during desperate times good & bad. Hope for the best but being prepared very prepared! is what you you get after reading this, story.
The main character ex military was ready to protect himself & family when the authorities were awol when any real disaster strikes!
Keeps you going til the end! & it doesn't lead you to a sequel hanging!
Although there could be one :)

3 people found this helpful

Heavy Handed with Poor Character Development

Any additional comments?

We are always up for a good distopic story, and enjoyed One Second After by William Forstchen, a well written book about an EMP strike. This story, though, was incredibly disappointing.

The beginning chapters of the book, depicting "pre-event" normalcy, are so heavy handed that it was laughable. Three years ago, main character John turned his house into Fort Knox "just in case" including gold bars hidden behind an armored wall with gun slots and an arsenal that would make the Punisher jealous - and this is the least fortified of his locations. This story would have been so much more believable if the author portrayed this as slightly overkill, which then turned out to be needed, rather than just normal preparations.

On Day 2, law and order dissolves - which seems rather quick for a wealthy suburb. After this, the author completely skips the first two weeks after the event, which would probably be the most fascinating time for interactions with neighbors and strangers, and planning by the characters (looking for medicine, food, water). What was discussed about the neighborhood mobilizing was frustrating because the author excluded major details that most people would think of, including sanitation (trash and human waste management), agricultural efforts, hunting/ scavenging for food, and exploring abandoned homes for medical supplies, etc.

We stopped this book 3/4 of the way through when the main character, the neighborhood's messiah, started making ridiculously out of character decisions. The plot was believable but the character development was so weak, we couldn't continue.

Two stars because the story line intrigued us and we did enjoy frequently pausing to debate the characters' approach and how we would do it differently ;)

6 people found this helpful

STAYED UP ALL NIGHT TO LISTEN

I couldn't put the headphones down! I literally stayed up all night, on a work night, to hear the whole story! Captivating! LOVE IT!

9 people found this helpful

Pretty bad

I have read a number of apocalyptic novels, and if this is not the worst one I have ever read, it's close. The story is dumb , Unrealistic, and the characters are awful.

2 people found this helpful

predictable

way to simple and lacks detail and direction, the plot it seems, it's written by a 12 year old

2 people found this helpful

Survivalist fantasy cartoon

Any additional comments?

I just finished the remarkable "The Road," and was in the mood for another end-times story, but this was a really poor choice. I can't imagine this appealing to anyone but a hard-core survivalist who lives for the day all those neighbors who laughed at him for hoarding guns and gold and spam and toilet paper will be sorry and crawling to him for help. The characters have no dimension at all. The main character is a cartoonish Rambo who is humorlessly efficient (in everything except words - he makes constant references to his "S&W," when just calling it a Smith & Wesson would be one syllable less, but it appears important for tough guys to use letters rather than words in this "SHTF" scenario). The reader is probably appropriate to the material, but this unfortunately called for a monotone "knock this chip off my shoulder" delivery that I found as irritating as I found the story itself. I made if for the first half hour before writing the book off as a total loss.

6 people found this helpful

Pretty Standard for the genre

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Kevin Stillwell?

Just about anybody. The faked accents were atrocious. Just about the worst I have ever heard in an audible book. If you are not really good at the accents, its better to not try. The reader also does not know enough about the some of the "technical" vocabulary, pronouncing gun calibers wrong for example. Little things, but things that can be avoided by a minimum of research.

Any additional comments?

My first test of such a book is whether or not I manage to finish it. This is the first book in this genre that I have actually finished in a while. That does not mean it was great. The plot is even more predictable than most. The characters are totally predictable. The book has way too many "god bless you's" and "good christian woman" comments to start with, but that stuff tapers off pretty quick. But the characters are just bland, typical, predictable, "goody two shoes," and I never found myself caring one way or the other what happened to any of them. There was a minimal of over the top violations of space, time, physics and "gun" stuff. If you like the "gun" stuff, its very minimal and generic in this book. There were some things that couldn't have happened, some stupid things, "grenades" going off in suburban hallways an not taking down half the interior walls, a final big "shootout" with the bad guys, that reminded me of all the old 1950's westerns with the cowboys casually picking off the pesky redskins as they obligingly troop around the circle of wagons. Couldn't help wondering where the grenades were when the bad guys needed to breech a wall in a cabin with trapped people, surrounded and with no way out. All in all, if you like this genre, you can probably make it through this one without wanting to throw it across the room more than a couple of times. I'm guessing there is, or will be a volume 2 and I will probably pick it up. I hope they pick a new reader though.

1 person found this helpful