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Doomsday Diaries

Doomsday Diaries

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When Americans are alerted of an imminent nuclear attack, Luke and his parents retreat to their underground shelter, barely escaping the deadly blasts. The years crawl by, and as their supplies continue to diminish, Luke's desire to leave the shelter is further driven by his raging teenage hormones and sexual curiosity. But when the time to leave the shelter finally arrives, what waits for them on the surface surprises them all. Follow Luke as he gives his personal account of doomsday, growing up in a fallout shelter, and a civilization that rises from the ashes of the apocalypse.

134 pages, Paperback

First published June 16, 2012

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Aaron B. Powell

25 books68 followers

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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
Profile Image for DJ Harris.
114 reviews64 followers
May 29, 2013

Doomsday Diaries by Aaron Powell

What if? What if this empire we have amassed really is doomed? Let’s face it, it is doomed. No empire lasts forever. Even America will end.

Don’t panic.

The world is ending. Mom is worried about saving the pictures, Dad is concerned about how to get you (and the rest of the family) to the bunker, and you are worried about saving the dog!

Are you prepared for the worst case scenario?

The Mitchell’s had to evacuate immediately, no time to scramble around the house to find things, and so they took their bug out bag (B.O.B.), a few special items, and supplies and fled for safety.

Life in the midst of the Apocalypse isn’t all bad, or is it.? Growing up underground isn’t all it’s chalked up to be. Luke Mitchell’s parents provided him with a journal to record what it was like to survive doomsday and grow up in a fallout shelter.

The years passed slowly and their supplies dwindled more and more each day. Luke Mitchell, now a teenager, wanted nothing more than to leave the shelter. Luke was getting older, he had.. well… needs! Needs he was unable to satisfy deep beneath the earth’s surface. When the time came to leave the bunker behind Luke was ready! It’s like he had trained for this his whole life, and in a sense he had, but the Mitchell’s were in for quite a shock!

Doomsday Diaries by Aaron Powell five star review

Excerpt:

Work. Spend. Consume. Repeat. They are so numbed by their desire for material things that they bury themselves in debt. Their reliance on the convenience of fast food, video games, television, and the comforts that they desire makes them oblivious to everything else life has to offer. In other words, they choose not to live their lives and to experience them. Rather, they float through life on an assembly line.


Luke is a lucky boy, at least in this way he is. Thanks to his parents he was sheltered from the lunatic logic that drives Americans each and every day, allowing him immunity to the pettiness that consumes us all. Growing up in a bunker has its good points apparently.

Excerpt:

“’…the following cities may be impacted in the next fifteen to twenty-five minutes: San Diego, California…’”


My heart sunk when I read about San Diego. I know, I know it’s just a story, but a feeling of panic and wonder if it were happening today, right now, how that would really feel swept over me. I spent a good portion of my life in San Diego. I went to school in San Diego. My oldest son was born in San Diego. I think part of me would die with the city if one day, one moment, it was gone.

Luke’s dad, Patrick Mitchell, having been a Marine, had to know that whatever was going on was serious when they announced San Diego was in danger. San Diego has a HUGE Military presence. Marine Corps Air Station Miramar (MCAS Miramar, formerly Naval Air Station (NAS) Miramar, is a United States Marine Corps installation that is home to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, which is the aviation element of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. It is located in Miramar, San Diego, California, about 10 miles (16 km) north of Downtown San Diego. Marine Corps Recruit Depot (commonly referred to as MCRD) San Diego is a United States Marine Corps military installation in where over 21,000 recruits are trained each year. The Depot also is the home to the Marine Corps' Recruiter School and Western Recruiting Region's Drill Instructors School. Naval Base Coronado (NBC) is a consolidated Navy installation encompassing eight military facilities stretching from San Clemente Island, located seventy miles west of San Diego, California, to the La Posta Mountain Warfare Training Facility and Camp Morena, located sixty miles east of San Diego. 32nd Street Naval Station, also located in San Diego, is the largest base of the United States Navy on the west coast of the United States. Basically, if San Diego goes, thus goes the country.

Excerpt:

I am getting pretty good with the guitar, too.”


Bringing an instrument, like the guitar, into the shelter was one of the best decisions Luke’s dad, Patrick, could have made. People often think about food, water, and weapons when setting up their shelter but few remember to take items that will keep them busy and help them to pass the time. Luke’s family was very well educated as to what to do to keep them from going stir-crazy in their bunker. I think anyone trying to set up an emergency location needs to take a cue from the Mitchell family.

My oldest son, Christopher, taught himself guitar. Christopher is incredible at it and is currently looking for a band to join. He wants his little brother, Xander, to get into it now. Xander plays a bunch of instruments, such as; the clarinet, recorder, xylophone, bongos, harmonica, and he just started learning the drums. Both Xander and Christopher sing as well. I think I will need a music room for them if we are the lucky ones who survive the apocalypse!

Excerpt:

The history of religion that you read now is an evolution of a fairy tale based on minimal fact.”


It is obvious that Luke isn’t going to just accept that the existence of God is a fairytale, he’s going to figure out the truth. Luke is still a teenager though, and he’s not immune to typical teen distractions.

Funny thing is, that this is a current theory today. Researchers of the New World Order think they know that people have past lives, but they conceal this knowledge so they can use their own past life knowledge and experience as a weapon. This theory is essentially a mixture of Milton William Cooper (aka Bill Cooper) meets Charles Darwin meets John Locke.

Aaron Powell served as a Marine during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 2003 with a bachelor of arts in criminal justice and a psychology minor. He also completed a second bachelor of arts in business administration at Ashford University, where he graduated with distinction in 2011.

It is Aaron Powell’s background in psychology that, I believe, allows him to create such in-depth characters and storylines. Pulling from his own time serving in the Military provides his characters, settings, and plots with a realistic edge that is not found in many author’s work today.

Excerpt:

I thought about the dolphin dream again, and the way my parents were holding each other as they stood before the dolphin tank.”


Don’t judge a book by its cover!

I was fully prepared to rib on Aaron Powell for the books cover. ”How ridiculous to have dolphins on a book about the end times, I thought. Well, color me embarrassed, because it makes perfect sense when you read the book. The dolphins really tie it all together. It’s the perfect book cover choice!

You may not know but in Celtic animal symbolism, the dolphin is regarded as a highly honored creature as it was seen as the protector of sacred wells and sacred water. The dolphin, to the Celtic mind, is the watcher of the waters, and the guardians of all things water-associated.

Pirate lore also hails the dolphin as a symbol of protection. Indeed, legend admits dolphin sightings were often exaggerated into fantasies of mermaids. Sailors often understood the spirit of mermaids lived in the heart of the dolphin, and ancient stories of the sea refer to dolphins metamorphosing into beautiful sea maidens (and mermaids) if seen under just the right conditions.

In the book, Luke never makes it clear why the dolphins are so important, but they play a huge role in Doomsday Diaries : Vol. II. Trust me when I say it is worth hanging on for!

Excerpt(s):

“’…no one can change the way it is. It has always been this way, and it always will be’.”

My God, it has got to get better than this.”


I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book, and the entire series!

Doomsday Diaries by Aaron Powell on Kindle

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Review provided by DJ Harris (aka DJ6ual):

DJ6ual: An Irish Girl’s Blog
Profile Image for Cedric Nye.
Author 10 books100 followers
July 9, 2013
"Doomsday Diaries", by Aaron B. Powell.

This book grabbed me from the start, and didn't let me go until the end.

No spoilers, the book's description tells us that there is a nuclear attack. So let us start there! BAM!! POW!! Are you awake now? Good.

America gets lambasted by nukes, and Luke's mom and dad are barely able to get the family to a fallout shelter before the blast. Years go by, and Luke grows. His father, a former U.S. Marine, teaches Luke the fine arts of combat. I say "arts" because there are many different aspects to combat, and I was very glad to see them all addressed and explained in this book. There is nothing pedantic or professorial about the explanations, just harsh reality at full-adrenaline speed.

I have to step off, now, because I won't do spoilers. This book deals with issues that we are facing, that our children are facing, and issues that will be faced in the future.

The Eloi and the Morlocks, master and slave, brainwashing, culling, conspiracies, and the hidden puppet-masters pulling the strings to make us all dance. These are some of the things that came to my mind while reading Powell's book.

Raw reality in the combat descriptions, explained just right so I was inside the combatant, looking out through Luke's eyes, and killing with Luke's hands.

"Doomsday Diaries" is the vision of a future that is already being forged. A future that doesn't belong to us, only to THEM.

This book contains violence and sex. I recommend "Doomsday Diaries" to ANYONE over the age of 18. This book has something for everyone.

Well done, Powell, well done.
Profile Image for Poet Gentleness.
126 reviews43 followers
March 3, 2013
This is not exactly my kind of book, but wow! It did for me. It's very interesting and the characters are very believing. But what made me give the 4 stars is: What a turn of events!! I could have never imagine what did happen when they left the shelter!
Congratulation Aaron. Great Job!
Profile Image for Larry B Gray.
Author 6 books155 followers
September 7, 2012
“Doomsday Diaries” by Aaron Powell is a good book which was hard to put down. The storyline is very good and creative. The story is well developed and easy to follow. I enjoyed the way the author wrote the book as a journal.

The characters were believable and easy to relate to. I found I could put myself into the story and identify with the characters.

There is one section of the book which did not add any value to the storyline but actually distracted from it and will limit the book’s readership. It was a section of the story that dealt with graphic sexuality and could have been handle more discreetly.

Other that this I liked the book.
Profile Image for Jordan.
329 reviews9 followers
May 19, 2014
I wanted to like this book. Really, I did. Especially since the author was so generous as to send me a copy of the series omnibus even after I failed to win the FirstReads giveaway. But alas, I found it to be decidedly mediocre. The plot was okay, I suppose, if nothing incredibly gripping. The characters were kind of cardboard, but not uninteresting. We get a good sense of who the main character is, his wants and dreams and so forth, because the first two-thirds of the book are presented as diary entries. It's not made readily apparent when this device stops, except that there's an obvious break point where that's no longer feasible. I only see that in retrospect, of course, but whatever.

Luke and his family have been living in their bomb shelter for nearly five years now, ever since the world was consumed in nuclear fire. In that time, the only people he has interacted with are his parents. The only females (other than his mother) that he's seen are in the pages of his father's Playboy magazines. Luke is now seventeen, and anxious to get out of the shelter and explore the surface world--not least so he can find a real girl to talk to. But when their supplies run out and they are finally forced to emerge, they could never imagine what awaits them on the surface....

Okay, so that sounds like the intro/synopsis for a three-star review right? Not horrible, but not great. Based on the plotting and writing alone, I would probably add a third star. But here's where it loses me: this book is hands down the most sexually explicit novel I have ever read. The prologue is simply a graphic scene of Luke masturbating. I don't object to sexual content when it is presented tastefully and/or to good purpose, but there's a limit. I was prepared to forgive the prologue due to the fact that it really did a decent job of putting you inside Luke's head and where he's at emotionally, very much depressed and wondering how the model died even as he relieves himself. I didn't appreciate reading about that, but I admitted it's effectiveness in its assumed purpose. The rest of the material? It was overly detailed to the point of being pointlessly gratuitous. I don't deny that the characters would act the way they do in the given situations, but I don't need details! Extra creepy since everyone involved is underage....

There were a couple nitpicky other things I had issue with--mostly a couple inconsistencies in the given dates, but that pales in comparison with the aforementioned turn-offs.

CONTENT: Hands-down the most sexually explicit novel I've ever read. There is graphic descriptions of masturbation, oral sex, and the main character losing his virginity, as well as multiple other acts he witnesses but does not participate in. You've been warned. R-rated language, occasional but still present. Strong violence. No occult content so far, but I have a sneaking suspicion that there's going to be some heavy New-Age BS laid down later in the series. Probably involving dolphins.
Profile Image for Michelle.
10 reviews1 follower
July 29, 2012
I have read many books in the "End of the World" genre. Many times I feel like I am reading the same thing repeatedly. However, this book has a fresh take on the aftermath. You can tell Luke's parents are preparing him for anything-good or bad-that may happen once they leave their safe confines. I must admit I was a bit surprised by what they encountered and even shed a few tears towards the end. The author did a good job of developing the charecters. Overall a good book for summertime reading; I highly recommend it.
Profile Image for D.R..
Author 19 books125 followers
April 17, 2013
"Doomsday Diaries" by Aaron Powell is a thrilling apocalyptic story told from the first person perspective of Luke Mitchell, who begins the story as a 13-year-old being hurried to an underground survival shelter by his mother and father. Worldwide nuclear destruction has erupted, and their hometown of Austin was among the first cities destroyed. As they rush into their shelter several miles outside of Austin, bright lights to their rear signify the end of the world as they knew it.

The beginning of the story focuses on Luke and his parents as they struggle to survive for five years in the cramped but amply supplied shelter. They try to live their lives as "normally" as possible. Luke continues to be home-schooled, but his curriculum is expanded to include the survival and defensive skills he will need once (if) he and his family are able to return to life above ground.

Aaron Powell obviously knows a thing or two about survival preparation and training. Significant and realistic details are provided throughout. I found the book to move at a believable and page-turning pace as I anxiously anticipated the family’s return to the surface and what awaited them.

When the Mitchells finally venture above ground, they find a “New World Order” has been established. The systematic nuclear destruction of the world had been their doing. It is here the story takes a fast-paced turn. Luke transforms from a home-schooled and somewhat naïve farm boy into a super hero as he attempts to rescue his parents from a world where older citizens are of little value and the main purpose of teenagers and young adults is procreation and repopulation.

I found the speedy transformation of Luke, still a teen, and how he reacts to what he finds in the New World as stimulating reading, but a little hurried and less believable than the first half of the book. I felt the characters introduced at this point -- the New World Leader, Mr. Winthrop, Luke’s love/lust interest, and the dolphin woman who came to Luke's aid -- needed more time to develop.

"Doomsday Diaries” was a quick enjoyable read, and the stage has been set for new and exciting adventures for Luke Mitchell. Aaron Powell is a promising new author worthy of your reading time.
Profile Image for Ann237.
427 reviews5 followers
November 15, 2012
Doomsday Diaries #1 was a very hard book to put down, so I really never did. It came to an end way to soon, all ready to dive into book 2. Going through the time living in a doomsday shelter with a mother, father, and a son. That the very disciplined father previous Military had built with money he received from an inheritance. We explore the diary of the young boy that grew to a teen, being home (sheltered)schooled, learning to play the guitar, reading, and continuing a very rigorous training program with his father. That now included not just exercise, but the art of combat and weapon use. He learned of the birds and the bee's, and given a gift of Playboy from dad...make sure you hide it from mom! Thank goodness they built the shelter with ROOMS!Then we go through the time of its time to leave the hole in the ground, for the 3 of them. With no idea of what is waiting out there, if anything. The author did a great job connecting with those that have certain beliefs of what is taking place in the world, and were it is heading...well the heading part...Ok that is you got to read it for yourself...I am off to continue with snooping, ah I mean reading through the next doomsday diary #2 ssshhh wonder were its hiding? Perhaps with the playboy?
Profile Image for Camilla.
47 reviews3 followers
April 16, 2013
This is a story about an apocalypse. Luke, a 13 year old boy that is home schooled by his parents tells us the tale on first POV. The first installment of "Doomsday Diaries" describes life in a small shelter and how these characters spent their time and what happens a few days after they come out to a new world that they don't recognize anymore. And... OMG, leaves us cliff-hanging for the second installment.
Aaron Powell is a skilled author. He uses his narrative and dialogue with great ability. I'm sure he did great research because the description of the shelter, supplies and way of living there is amazing. Also, I loved the way he describes the relationship between Luke and his parents, including the way they teach the teenager and prepare him for the unknown. It's very interesting to see all this in Luke's perspective.
If you enjoy sic-fi and apocalypse stories, don't miss "Doomsday Diaries".
3 reviews
February 16, 2013
This book had a concept that I have always been drawn to. Post apocalypse stories are always fascinating.
The lead up to the 5 year stay in the underground shelter was done well as was the interaction of the three characters as they lived in close contact and tried to lead a normal life.
I wouldn't have minded more detail of that section of the book.
I didn't care for the sexual content at all. It wasn't needed to make the book enjoyable.
Overall it was a quick and enjoyable read.
I received this book thru Goodreads. Thankyou Aaron Powell.
6 reviews
July 13, 2016
Book starts out pretty good, urgency to get to the bunker and live in the bunker is actually pretty interesting to read. Once they open the hatch, it is downhill with frightening speed. Further you read, the worse it gets. X-files type of conspriacy theory, plot holes large enough to drive a truck through, ZERO character development, graphic sex which does not bring anything to the table. Orgy description is like a very weak ripp off of Aldous Huxley... Rating includes book 2 from the series, did not bother with the others.
Profile Image for Randy Harmelink.
934 reviews258 followers
September 9, 2012
I enjoyed the first part of the book, leading up to and living in the underground shelter. However, for me the story lost all credibility when the main characters leave the shelter. Overall, the writing was good and the action sequences were interesting, but the direction the story went just left me not caring about it.

I probably won't read the sequel, especially priced at $5.99.
Profile Image for Tasha.
1,490 reviews26 followers
August 10, 2013
OH DAMN this book deserved every single one of those 5 stars this book will leave you stunned, amazed and mostly speechless there are no words what a boy will do to save his parents even if he has to leave the woman he loves to do it. I am super excited to read the next story in this wonderful series
Profile Image for Karla Slusher.
182 reviews29 followers
January 12, 2014
interesting concept. I liked it, but it was too short in some areas and too drawn out in others. it needed better balance, but despite the writing style it was a good story, it just needs cleaning up.
Profile Image for Darcy Leerhoff.
207 reviews13 followers
January 23, 2013
Very interesting book series so far. A bit more sexually graphic then I expected but not offensive. Looking forward to seeing what happens next!!
Profile Image for Patti.
2,112 reviews
October 12, 2013
A completely different look at the post-apocalyptic world. Characters were well written, action scenes were jam packed.

Looking forward to the rest of the series.
Profile Image for Anna Guy.
11 reviews
May 23, 2015
Good idea but not very well executed. Won't be bothering with the other books in the series.
Profile Image for Jeff Dawson.
Author 23 books107 followers
October 26, 2013
Interesting concept

This isn’t your normal post apocalyptic story. Book one is written in the style of a journal. Luke and his family take refuge from the coming nuclear holocaust. His father Patrick and Uncle Grant built a shelter North of Austin, just in case the world goes nuts.

Is the pace a little slow at times? Yes, but that’s not a distraction. It allows the setting and players to be thoroughly fleshed out.

No heroics here, just the story of three family members trying to survive a world gone mad.

Some minor editing issues. I believe the author is going back to address them.

3.5 stars
Profile Image for Jeff Dawson.
Author 23 books107 followers
March 29, 2014
Interesting concept

This isn’t your normal post apocalyptic story. Book one is written in the style of a journal. Luke and his family take refuge from the coming nuclear holocaust. His father Patrick and Uncle Grant built a shelter North of Austin, just in case the world goes nuts.

Is the pace a little slow at times? Yes, but that’s not a distraction. It allows the setting and players to be thoroughly fleshed out.

No heroics here, just the story of three family members trying to survive a world gone mad.

Some minor editing issues. I believe the author is going back to address them.

3.5 stars
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