Scott Piper

Living in SLC, this book is fun due to all the local references. The story raises some interesting ideas, is generally plausible, and it's written well enough, so myself and others I've recommended it to have all finished it. However, you will cringe at many things. The worst is the author's wrote themselves into the book (with their full names!) and describe themselves as bad-asses. There are stupid references to coffee due to the author's association with the Black Rifle Coffee Company. There is ridiculous disdain for the 5.56 round in favor larger calibers. There are self-congratulatory remarks by those that prepared for bad times. You will cringe. But you will also probably finish reading it and the audiobook is be entertaining enough for a long car ride.

I listened to the audiobook, which at one audible credit for 50+ hours of well read content is a good deal, but the story is frustrating. The explanation of why the zombies exist, and (without giving too much away) the resulting differences in types of zombies was original and I appreciated how it made sense. The voice actor and recording is extremely good, but the main character is annoying. He acts childish in a way that makes me think this book was written for angsty teenagers. The repetition of descriptions of violence is unnecessary and becomes uninteresting. The focus on things like an old car and lauding over how cool it is again feels like it's aimed at a teenage audience. The story follows a repetitive pattern of getting a new weapon or a new means of transportation, and playing that out until the next plot device is found. All in all, this isn't a great story I would recommend going out of your way to listen to, but if you want a lot of hours of content for a single audible credit, it's worth getting.

This book is unsexy but very realistic and practical. It's more about the basics of preparing for disasters, such as saving money in case you lose your job. It does move into other areas, but remains focused on more likely disasters, and although it does mention guns, it is generally opposed to them, because for most people and under most circumstances, it is more of a problem than a solution. If you want to encourage friends and family to take quite reasonable measures to prepare for disasters, this is my go to.

Around page 30 the protagonist (who is 14 years old) is seduced by a woman in her mid-30s in a smut scene. I threw the book away at that point.