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Nine Meals
Cheese Ravioli, Beefaroni or SpaghettiOs? That is the big decision Shep has to make on this day – a day that will turn his sheltered, post-apocalyptic life upside down. He has seen the worst that humanity has to offer, and that was before the sun belched and the power grid failed. In these grim times, the world has turned into a lawless frontier, where people kill for food and water, weapons and shelter. It only took three days – or the absence of nine meals – for anarchy.
Shep and Antigone, the girl he rescues, march across the unyielding landscape toward the one place unsullied by the disaster. On their arduous journey, they fight hunger and disease, desperation and death and run from a man who wants nothing more than vengeance.
Shep and Antigone, the girl he rescues, march across the unyielding landscape toward the one place unsullied by the disaster. On their arduous journey, they fight hunger and disease, desperation and death and run from a man who wants nothing more than vengeance.
201 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 11, 2014
14 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
September 11, 2014
We are proud to announce that NINE MEALS by Mike Kilroy is a B.R.A.G.Medallion Honoree. This tells a reader that this book is well worth their time and money!
May 7, 2014
An avid reader of science fiction since I was a child, I welcomed the chance to review "Nine Meals" in exchange for a copy. I'm always interested in reading a good sci-fi novel. Being a fan of other authors such as George Orwell and Isaac Asmov, I was pleasantly surprised when I found Author Mike Kilroy's writing style to be right on par with those masters. This writer is very talented and kept me absorbed for hours reading this possible future outcome for the human race. A very compelling read!
The story starts out painting a vivid story of a lonely man living a haunted past in a self-made tomb... day-by-day, meal-to-meal. But the story picks up quickly with the invasion of visitors, and a damsel in distress... ;) I found the story to be full of twists and turns to keep pulling you along, but not so much that I lost sight of the main story-line. The story itself seemed very believable and I didn't have to stretch my imagination too far to see that this scenario could be possible in our own future.
I really enjoyed reading this book. I found this story to be very well written, quite engaging and a little scary to think about the possibility of a worldwide technology breakdown. I am going to check out more from this author. I would recommend this book highly!
The story starts out painting a vivid story of a lonely man living a haunted past in a self-made tomb... day-by-day, meal-to-meal. But the story picks up quickly with the invasion of visitors, and a damsel in distress... ;) I found the story to be full of twists and turns to keep pulling you along, but not so much that I lost sight of the main story-line. The story itself seemed very believable and I didn't have to stretch my imagination too far to see that this scenario could be possible in our own future.
I really enjoyed reading this book. I found this story to be very well written, quite engaging and a little scary to think about the possibility of a worldwide technology breakdown. I am going to check out more from this author. I would recommend this book highly!
June 9, 2015
This book will likely appeal more to those who don't read or watch a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction. Much is borrowed from from other sources, whether consciously or not. This is my favorite genre, and I read/watch a lot of it.
On the character development - the main character is a 40-something softie. His wife apparently doesn't care he's having breakfast everyday with a beautiful, young teenage girl she's never met. I really kept expecting him to be a sex offender. The bad guy is very one dimensional, no feelings, just goes through the motions of being murderous. The girl, in spite of her entire family being dead is very perky and winning and smiles a lot.
On detail - at one point, he and the raven haired beauty he's traveled alone with but never touched in an unseemly way are living with a group of people, and he comes home achy and tired from a long, hard day of hydroponic farming. Why would he be so tired? I don't know anything about hydroponic farming, so some details would have been nice. The teenager falls in love with a boy she's forbidden to be with. The reader is continually told she's in love, but that's it. We just get told.
The worst part was, that I never really cared about any of the characters. Even the murderous bad guy was poorly written, and as bad guys go, they're often the most interesting. There was only one character, a doctor turned law keeper who held my interest, but he was featured only a short time. The rest of the characters were were just paper cutouts you were supposed to care about simply because the author said you should.
Even though I found much of the novel to be predictable, for some reason, I just kept reading, and I'm not sure why. Curiosity, I suppose, as to why it was called Nine Meals. That is something that should have been revealed much earlier. I was over halfway through the book when the meaning was revealed.
The first 2/3 of the book was compelling enough to keep me reading in spite of lack of character development and detail. That is where he should just have just stopped, but the last 1/3 of the book is from the raven haired beauty's point of view and is just flat out boring. Her goal has been to find Halcyon where her brother was, and I'd hoped it didn't exist just so the book would have a bit of surprise to it. I was disappointed there too.
On the character development - the main character is a 40-something softie. His wife apparently doesn't care he's having breakfast everyday with a beautiful, young teenage girl she's never met. I really kept expecting him to be a sex offender. The bad guy is very one dimensional, no feelings, just goes through the motions of being murderous. The girl, in spite of her entire family being dead is very perky and winning and smiles a lot.
On detail - at one point, he and the raven haired beauty he's traveled alone with but never touched in an unseemly way are living with a group of people, and he comes home achy and tired from a long, hard day of hydroponic farming. Why would he be so tired? I don't know anything about hydroponic farming, so some details would have been nice. The teenager falls in love with a boy she's forbidden to be with. The reader is continually told she's in love, but that's it. We just get told.
The worst part was, that I never really cared about any of the characters. Even the murderous bad guy was poorly written, and as bad guys go, they're often the most interesting. There was only one character, a doctor turned law keeper who held my interest, but he was featured only a short time. The rest of the characters were were just paper cutouts you were supposed to care about simply because the author said you should.
Even though I found much of the novel to be predictable, for some reason, I just kept reading, and I'm not sure why. Curiosity, I suppose, as to why it was called Nine Meals. That is something that should have been revealed much earlier. I was over halfway through the book when the meaning was revealed.
The first 2/3 of the book was compelling enough to keep me reading in spite of lack of character development and detail. That is where he should just have just stopped, but the last 1/3 of the book is from the raven haired beauty's point of view and is just flat out boring. Her goal has been to find Halcyon where her brother was, and I'd hoped it didn't exist just so the book would have a bit of surprise to it. I was disappointed there too.
August 26, 2014
I was a little hesitant about this at first because of the flashbacks, but the more I read, the more I realized how brilliantly they worked and how they didn't disrupt the pacing. Great book.
June 13, 2018
I liked the idea of a post apocalyptic world caused by coronal mass ejection and emp, but very little time is devoted to this, the characters were pretty flat and often acted in strange and unrealistic ways to advance the plot ...meh
May 8, 2023
An enjoyable, quick dystopian story about people just trying to stay alive. I liked it.
February 6, 2015
Nine Meals by Mike Kilroy is a modern tale of friendship and survival in a post-apocalyptic world. Earth has been driven out of its technological norm by a solar emission, and everyone is now in a struggle to find food and shelter. The book follows a man named Shep and a girl he befriends as they make a trip to a location that is fabled to be the last bastion of normal humanity.
For the most part, I did enjoy the relationship between Shep and Antigone as presented by the author. Many times, I wish that the author had went a different direction, but Kilroy did a great job here. The characters were realistic enough for me to not have any complaints with them being unreasonable, which was a great relief. I was happy to find that several events had me vocally laughing, gasping with shock, or getting a little angry at the bad events. It’s always nice to find a book that pulls you in emotionally!
The story was very predictable in a few ways, and this saddened me a little - but the plot changes that were unexpected more than made up for this issue. The story had many things that could not be revealed at the time in which they occurred, and Kilroy wrote the chapters out of order, as if they were flashbacks. This left me pretty confused in the first half of the book, when I had no idea when in the chain of events things were happening (no dates or any way to identify the time frame) until I got further into the book and the flashback chapters were within the timeline of the book itself. There was also a little too much religion presented randomly throughout the book. I didn't think that it served any purpose to the story, though I could be wrong here - I wouldn't be surprised to find that it gave a much deeper meaning to certain elements of the book.
Nine Meals was a great story of a journey and the hardships and friendships encountered throughout. I had a lot of fun reading this book, and the emotions that it made me feel were quite refreshing. I do have a lot of books in my reading queue, but I would certainly like to pick up another book by Mike Kilroy.
For the most part, I did enjoy the relationship between Shep and Antigone as presented by the author. Many times, I wish that the author had went a different direction, but Kilroy did a great job here. The characters were realistic enough for me to not have any complaints with them being unreasonable, which was a great relief. I was happy to find that several events had me vocally laughing, gasping with shock, or getting a little angry at the bad events. It’s always nice to find a book that pulls you in emotionally!
The story was very predictable in a few ways, and this saddened me a little - but the plot changes that were unexpected more than made up for this issue. The story had many things that could not be revealed at the time in which they occurred, and Kilroy wrote the chapters out of order, as if they were flashbacks. This left me pretty confused in the first half of the book, when I had no idea when in the chain of events things were happening (no dates or any way to identify the time frame) until I got further into the book and the flashback chapters were within the timeline of the book itself. There was also a little too much religion presented randomly throughout the book. I didn't think that it served any purpose to the story, though I could be wrong here - I wouldn't be surprised to find that it gave a much deeper meaning to certain elements of the book.
Nine Meals was a great story of a journey and the hardships and friendships encountered throughout. I had a lot of fun reading this book, and the emotions that it made me feel were quite refreshing. I do have a lot of books in my reading queue, but I would certainly like to pick up another book by Mike Kilroy.
May 29, 2014
I was hooked by the first sentence and the momentum continued until the end. This story tugged at all of my emotions! I love a good post apocalyptic story but "Nine Meals" is more than "just good" because it has such a unique plot. Moreover, the character development is incredible. You can't help but empathize for the characters in this story. I'd recommend "Nine Meals" to anyone who is up for a well written and engaging story.
June 21, 2015
This book seemed to follow almost exactly the storyline of The Walking Dead, only without the zombies. I noticed he did the same with The 17, taking much from The Hunger Games and Maze Runner, but in the 17, there was enough original material to make it work. Not so in Nine Meals. That said, it's an interesting and fast-paced story so it wasn't a waste of time.
August 31, 2014
Easy read, but predictable
This was an easy read, but at times, difficult to follow the story. The writer attempts to jump back and forth in time without precursor, making it challenging to recall where the writer has dropped from the current story line.
This was an easy read, but at times, difficult to follow the story. The writer attempts to jump back and forth in time without precursor, making it challenging to recall where the writer has dropped from the current story line.
June 12, 2015
Maybe I'm spoilt in the postapocalyptic genre but Inthought this book was just too amateuristic for me. It has the perfect plot, but too many serendipitous coincidences and unrecognisable behaviour from the protagonist make the whole seem a bit too unrealistic for my liking.
December 12, 2015
I understand why some people said it was difficult to follow the storyline. If you didn't take the time to read the chapter titles you could get confused pretty quickly. I thought it was a well written story from a different perspective.
I would read it again.
I would read it again.
February 14, 2014
This book is excellent! The characters were so balanced and the twists and turns had me on the edge of my seat. I highly recommend this book!
February 14, 2014
Loved this book!
Couldn't put it down.
A refreshingly new and different story idea that constantly keeps your interest.
Couldn't put it down.
A refreshingly new and different story idea that constantly keeps your interest.
April 28, 2014
odd book. Just when i thought i knew who the protagonist was the author switched it on me. I get the title of the book but i think it could have been named better.
August 19, 2014
Loved it
Loved it
believe it or not, a nicer version of what would actually happen during a long term power outage. worth reading
Loved it
believe it or not, a nicer version of what would actually happen during a long term power outage. worth reading
August 26, 2014
I love everything about the book. I actually read it twice and picked up a great deal more flavor the second time around. There are LOTS of Easter Eggs hidden in the prose. Very slick.
April 25, 2015
Really weak plotting
April 22, 2015
Meh...a kind of generic post-apocalyptic story.
April 25, 2015
Terrific
January 7, 2016
"Can I cook, or can't I?" - Dr. Carol Marcus
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews