Review: Cannibal Reign by Thomas Koloniar

 





Cannibal Reign by Thomas Koloniar Genre: Thriller/apocalyptic Reviewer: K.F. Breene

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  First the asteroid would come, slamming into the earth just north of the Montana border, followed by earthquakes, tsunamis, and unending night.

And after that . . . Hell.

Astronomer Marty Chittenden is the first to recognize the approaching doom—a discovery that makes him a marked man.

Green Beret Jack Forrest knows the catastrophe is inevitable, and begins stockpiling an abandoned missile silo with supplies while gathering together a small community of men, women, and children he prays can survive the apocalypse.

Then disaster strikes. In an instant the world they know ends forever, transformed into a nightmare realm of eternal darkness. Soon the few remaining humans are transformed as well, becoming savage things—raping, pillaging, and devouring their own.

And the time is approaching when Forrest and his people will have to leave their underground "Noah's Ark" to face a shattered world and the unspeakable terrors that dwell there—in desperate pursuit of one slim hope of survival . . . called Hawaii.








I have to get my irritations out first, and then the accolades. Just have to get some things off my chest...
First let me say that I am happy to be finished with this book, in a way that I was happy to be finished with A Game of Thrones series books or the Terry Goodkind books. That is not a bad thing. There is just a certain mass raping aspect that gets tough to take for the lowly female such as myself.
The last bit was certainly a joke, but at the same time, you can't help get the sense of "man is king" from this book. It's a man's tale, mostly, with an egocentric undercurrent. I can't help but poke holes in a lot of the reasoning for that, but I'm a strong woman that would act differently than the females in this book.
Of course, given a post apocalyptic world, dominance would almost assuredly be crowned to the strong and brutal, which let's face it, are dudes. It would only be later, after the need for stability, culture and families, that women and men would again find a balance, like Aborigines, where they are equal but different. They need each other to survive. They respect, and get respect.
The problem for me in this book, was that the tone of "women are weaker and subject to be taken by force" was more or less pushed in our faces. We were told, a few times, how women were commodities, only "equal" in our industrialized world due to law and order. And in a place where starvation is rampant and the future uncertain, you will, of course, have mass raping and plundering. We've seen that in war from even decent fellows. The problem here, I found, is that it was over-glorified just a bit. It was threatened of the reader, instead of being shown and making us cringe when we witnessed it. For example, in the beginning, a gang tried to steal a woman away even though people within that gang were getting shot in the face. Reality? Not trading death for a little vagina, I don't think, no.
But this isn't real life. If it was, who's to say, I might be wrong.
I will say, though, that the raping made me angry more than uncomfortable, meaning I didn't see the blatant reality shown that I might see in other works (like those listed above). The women were more or less simpering fools who couldn't properly think for themselves. A geek man would rise to the occasion and turn army man, but the women needed to be saved and protected (except for the lesbian...which is basically portrayed as a man). The women didn't get guns, they got means to kill themselves. And maybe that is all men think we are capable of. Maybe the author doesn't know any redneck women. Could be. But again, it was more or less dangled in our faces early on how likely that outcome, so when it happened, it was expected and more glorified than realistic. Hence the anger instead of withering uncomfortableness (which is maybe a blessing in disguise).
I wasn't particularly fond of the heroes, or the relationships. Men cheating and the women not able to abstain from sex, when, let's face it, if they were single mothers, they'd probably been without for years before that. (Not faulting the women, just stating facts here--I'd probably want a little nookie, but I wouldn't do a married man to get it). The hero kind of having a roaming eye, and mostly two-dimensional, and that being cool. The men falling in love with women who did not return the affection....
Up until here in the review, men won't care in the least. They won't mind any of this nit-picky stuff, I am certain. And maybe most women won't either. Again, maybe I've been in romance-land too long. I've forgotten to take a man's tone with an eye-roll and a pat on the head. The women's role in this book did leave a bad taste in my mouth, though.
The story was fairly simple--what would happen if a meteor hit the earth? Within that idea, there is lots of room for observation and living the horror of humans suddenly fending for themselves. I think the author takes us through this nicely, covering all bases and analyzing how governments might handle it. Or hide it, as the case may be. How people would react, and what they might do. And most importantly, how people might survive, and the atrocities one might face.
This was all well done. It mostly keeps you turning pages, only dragging there in the middle a little, but there was plenty of action to be had, so it easily kept the reader engaged. The villains are plentiful, as you might imagine, and even though it mostly concerns rape and eating people, instead of also including abuse to kids and bashing babies heads on walls and other atrocities that would've happened (and did when the Nazi's were around), the actions and traits of the male villains are very real and believable.
There was even a small dialogue about why men (no mention of women) turned so morally filthy, the heroes having a discussion of how a good man might be swept up with a bunch of lunatics. And those good men were dotted here and there. They did exist. I would've liked to see more to better balance things out, or maybe from someone other than a geek that turned tough and army (I didn't find him as believable as others), but I got the idea later in the story, so that works.
I would've also liked to see a female villain, because whores would really work well in that world, and have in war times, often turning the ear of the man in charge. But this goes back to the sub-tier level of the female characters and this being a man's tale, so I'll refrain from going down this road.
The pacing was good, as I said before, and very well written. I had absolutely no complaints with the writing at all. Coming off of a Dan Brown book, thank the lord I ended up with Mr. Koloniar, no matter my complaints. The novel was rounded and well-told, covering  elements others might have missed.
All and all, this was a good read. It had a lot of elements going for it and was a well-put together book.  Would I recommend it? Well, if you can turn a blind eye to the simpering fool women, then yes, it is a good book at a reasonable price. But the ride won't be daisies and party favors.
3-3.5 stars