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Salvation: Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse
SEQUEL to Conflict: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse and the conclusion to Jacob Thornton’s story of survival. When the change struck, a quarter of the world’s population simultaneously, and without warning, perished. Seven minutes later the corpses reanimated and promptly began to attack the living. At zero hour well over one billion zombies walked the Earth. A day later, more than half the world’s population had turned. Escaping the city, Jacob Thornton and a group of survivors began work on a settlement deep in the wilderness where they hoped to rebuild their shattered lives. Isolated and far from the chaos, it seemed they were indeed safe, that is, until the raiders appeared. Forced to flee, Jacob led his people north to the Black Hills. They built fortifications, gathered supplies, and waited for the inevitable. It did not come. Time passed. Homes were constructed, crops planted, and contact made with others around the globe. So few remained, but efforts were underway to rid the world of zombies. There was a very real chance civilization would bloom once more. Then the enemy returned, determined to complete the genocide they began two years earlier.
327 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 10, 2014
11 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 11, 2024
Salvation is the third and final installment of Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse series. It's pretty standard fare when it comes to the subgenre, which accounts for the popularity of these types of stories. A group of survivors must gather, develop a relationship based on mutual need, independent of what was before, and create a cloistered society based on the new paradigm.
Jacob Thornton, our main character, was fortunate enough to live alone on the outskirts of a Texas city, when the apocalypse struck. He awoke that morning, grabbed a bowl of cereal, and began to watch the news (the way he did most mornings), but the chaos was already in full swing. With foresight, he decided to prepare to leave his suburb, packing food, weapons, and everything he believed he might need for survival into his Jeep Wrangler.
Just before leaving, there was a change of plan in order to save a 16-year-old Briana. They met up with other survivors and eventually set up camp in the Black Hills. However, a motorcycle crew of raiders witnessed that Jacob's group had constructed a pretty sweet and protective castle which over the previous two books they have continuously attacked, purely to create more chaos.
Overall, a really nice series. There are some objectionable characters, but there is an attempt to construct an orderly society out of the morass of horrid situations that must be faced, and ingenuity should be celebrated, especially amidst the insanity. The entire trilogy was tremendously satisfying.
Jacob Thornton, our main character, was fortunate enough to live alone on the outskirts of a Texas city, when the apocalypse struck. He awoke that morning, grabbed a bowl of cereal, and began to watch the news (the way he did most mornings), but the chaos was already in full swing. With foresight, he decided to prepare to leave his suburb, packing food, weapons, and everything he believed he might need for survival into his Jeep Wrangler.
Just before leaving, there was a change of plan in order to save a 16-year-old Briana. They met up with other survivors and eventually set up camp in the Black Hills. However, a motorcycle crew of raiders witnessed that Jacob's group had constructed a pretty sweet and protective castle which over the previous two books they have continuously attacked, purely to create more chaos.
Overall, a really nice series. There are some objectionable characters, but there is an attempt to construct an orderly society out of the morass of horrid situations that must be faced, and ingenuity should be celebrated, especially amidst the insanity. The entire trilogy was tremendously satisfying.
January 5, 2015
I don’t know why I decided to write my first review on this after so many books but here it goes. I want to give this book 3 stars and series so far 3.5 Stars due to the second book. I will try not to spoil anything. This is for the first three books.
First my likes; I’ve liked the story from the outset; I found the main character Jacob pretty relatable and likeable. He made sound decisions based on his circumstances. Other than him figuring out a safe place to survive, he wasn’t overly super human like some other zombie protagonists nor did he seem like he knew everything about everything. Just a logical, quick thinking man. I love the twins even though we find out so little about them, but with enough other characters, I still love their intrigue. Hopefully he comes up with a good back story for them and we find out one day. Many may disagree but I don’t need everything already explained to me. There was a good pace and action until the 3rd book.
Slight twist on the whole zombies devouring people thing, these zombies are sated after a few bites though that lasts only 20 minutes. (Would be nice if we saw some tactics used based on this) No virus strain origin story but that is fine with me, how would anyone in Jacob’s circumstances really find out? This is just your pure; there are zombies and survive story. It didn’t try to get too cute, the writing was solid, I liked the interludes, they were relevant and not too long. Except for a few major flaws I enjoyed these books but those flaws led me to dropping this to 3.5 stars and maybe 3.
Dislikes; Earlier reviews in earlier books pointed this out, but the writer making Brianna 17 was a huge flaw (at this point she is 20/21). Aside from the underage stuff in the first book, she becomes a real leader later, and I just find it hard to believe people would all follow and take orders from someone that young. The relationship didn’t bother me as much as others but I can see where they are coming from. The author could have avoided this whole thing by making her 24 to start, and late 20s by now. Just seemed like an easy avoidable mistake.
Lizzie and Mary could be two of the most annoying characters I’ve have ever read. The banter between the characters, constant interruptions in meetings, and lack of growth of these characters really really bothered me. I get people jabbing or interrupting each other but that seemed the only thing these 2 characters do. Especially when important things were being discussed. I don’t think the author wrote any women characters that well for that matter except maybe Renee. I don’t hold that against him as I’m sure it is real hard for someone to write so many different women being a male author but still, these were worse than I have seen in other stories. Lizzie would have been shot by someone they way she acts. Mary was written like an 8 year old and stays that way even though she is 17 by now and had 4 tough years of the apocalypse. She actually regressed if you ask me. If it weren’t for me enjoying the story as much as I did, this would have been a 1 star book.
Ok, now most of the second book and third rely on transportation. I don’t know much but I do know that gas will go bad fast. I found it impossible they had so much good fuel left to power trucks, helicopters etc., 4 years later. This was another thing that drove me nuts every time they did anything. Some of it was refined in Hawaii with that group, fine, but there were too many references to them running out of cars to scavenge gas from. I am sorry by the start of book two, cars should have been out! Maybe by 3 they could have received enough from the others, but otherwise, no.
The bad guys (humans I mean); considering so many perished in this whole end of the world thing, the Prophet having such a large force of that kind of person didn’t sit with me too well. I get that there will be tons of bad people in the apocalypse, but these guys were just brutal and if you told me 30 thousand people survived and half were this bad, well it’s hard for me to believe.
The second group of bad guys in this book just seemed unnecessary and not much was related about them. Just seemed like filler and they were yet again another cult type. Why in all these books are cultists such good survivalists?
Lastly, in the third book, important things happened early, and the second half was just boring. Maybe he is setting it all up for what’s next. They could have easily reversed the first half of this book, and the second half and it would have been a ton more exciting with a satisfying ending. Instead, I thought it was very anti climatic.
I will certainly read the rest of the books if there are more to come though. This author has what it takes, just needs a little refinement.
First my likes; I’ve liked the story from the outset; I found the main character Jacob pretty relatable and likeable. He made sound decisions based on his circumstances. Other than him figuring out a safe place to survive, he wasn’t overly super human like some other zombie protagonists nor did he seem like he knew everything about everything. Just a logical, quick thinking man. I love the twins even though we find out so little about them, but with enough other characters, I still love their intrigue. Hopefully he comes up with a good back story for them and we find out one day. Many may disagree but I don’t need everything already explained to me. There was a good pace and action until the 3rd book.
Slight twist on the whole zombies devouring people thing, these zombies are sated after a few bites though that lasts only 20 minutes. (Would be nice if we saw some tactics used based on this) No virus strain origin story but that is fine with me, how would anyone in Jacob’s circumstances really find out? This is just your pure; there are zombies and survive story. It didn’t try to get too cute, the writing was solid, I liked the interludes, they were relevant and not too long. Except for a few major flaws I enjoyed these books but those flaws led me to dropping this to 3.5 stars and maybe 3.
Dislikes; Earlier reviews in earlier books pointed this out, but the writer making Brianna 17 was a huge flaw (at this point she is 20/21). Aside from the underage stuff in the first book, she becomes a real leader later, and I just find it hard to believe people would all follow and take orders from someone that young. The relationship didn’t bother me as much as others but I can see where they are coming from. The author could have avoided this whole thing by making her 24 to start, and late 20s by now. Just seemed like an easy avoidable mistake.
Lizzie and Mary could be two of the most annoying characters I’ve have ever read. The banter between the characters, constant interruptions in meetings, and lack of growth of these characters really really bothered me. I get people jabbing or interrupting each other but that seemed the only thing these 2 characters do. Especially when important things were being discussed. I don’t think the author wrote any women characters that well for that matter except maybe Renee. I don’t hold that against him as I’m sure it is real hard for someone to write so many different women being a male author but still, these were worse than I have seen in other stories. Lizzie would have been shot by someone they way she acts. Mary was written like an 8 year old and stays that way even though she is 17 by now and had 4 tough years of the apocalypse. She actually regressed if you ask me. If it weren’t for me enjoying the story as much as I did, this would have been a 1 star book.
Ok, now most of the second book and third rely on transportation. I don’t know much but I do know that gas will go bad fast. I found it impossible they had so much good fuel left to power trucks, helicopters etc., 4 years later. This was another thing that drove me nuts every time they did anything. Some of it was refined in Hawaii with that group, fine, but there were too many references to them running out of cars to scavenge gas from. I am sorry by the start of book two, cars should have been out! Maybe by 3 they could have received enough from the others, but otherwise, no.
The bad guys (humans I mean); considering so many perished in this whole end of the world thing, the Prophet having such a large force of that kind of person didn’t sit with me too well. I get that there will be tons of bad people in the apocalypse, but these guys were just brutal and if you told me 30 thousand people survived and half were this bad, well it’s hard for me to believe.
The second group of bad guys in this book just seemed unnecessary and not much was related about them. Just seemed like filler and they were yet again another cult type. Why in all these books are cultists such good survivalists?
Lastly, in the third book, important things happened early, and the second half was just boring. Maybe he is setting it all up for what’s next. They could have easily reversed the first half of this book, and the second half and it would have been a ton more exciting with a satisfying ending. Instead, I thought it was very anti climatic.
I will certainly read the rest of the books if there are more to come though. This author has what it takes, just needs a little refinement.
June 4, 2015
I really found this series to be entertaining. I liked that the main character was just a logical thinking normal guy and it seems realistic that more women and children would make it in middle America during the zombie apocalypse. Most authors make these stories all about the men and never even consider that. I also liked that there were several strong capable women in this series. The author is a great story teller.
I would have rated this book and this series higher, except almost all of the characters were a stereotype. It took me until 1/2 way through the 2nd book to figure out what was bothering me about it, but that is it. Well, that and the icky statutory rape relationship, but that later turns into a stereotypical marriage with the stereotypical pregnancy and stereotypical parenthood included. It fit right in with the stereotypical foul mouthed overweight lesbian, the stereotypical giggly teenage girl, the stereotypical biker gang, and the stereotypical strong silent type shooters. Even the lady that attempts the coup was stereotypical. Because the black man was the only non stereotypical character, I found myself wondering if the author did that on purpose. Oh, well, I guess I'll never know.
The third book got a little too political in a couple of places for my liking, but the author threw in his stereotypical view of liberals, which made me laugh, so I forgive him.
Overall, this series is worth the read.
I would have rated this book and this series higher, except almost all of the characters were a stereotype. It took me until 1/2 way through the 2nd book to figure out what was bothering me about it, but that is it. Well, that and the icky statutory rape relationship, but that later turns into a stereotypical marriage with the stereotypical pregnancy and stereotypical parenthood included. It fit right in with the stereotypical foul mouthed overweight lesbian, the stereotypical giggly teenage girl, the stereotypical biker gang, and the stereotypical strong silent type shooters. Even the lady that attempts the coup was stereotypical. Because the black man was the only non stereotypical character, I found myself wondering if the author did that on purpose. Oh, well, I guess I'll never know.
The third book got a little too political in a couple of places for my liking, but the author threw in his stereotypical view of liberals, which made me laugh, so I forgive him.
Overall, this series is worth the read.
February 4, 2015
Love these books
I really enjoy the way it is written. I can easily insert myself into the action as well as the normal day-to-day business of survival. Great series. Also i recommend The Coal hole also written by this author.
I really enjoy the way it is written. I can easily insert myself into the action as well as the normal day-to-day business of survival. Great series. Also i recommend The Coal hole also written by this author.
April 9, 2015
Great reading. What if.........
......
Good reading. Contains suspense, action, fun and a little romance. This. Was a better read than the last mystery I read
......
Good reading. Contains suspense, action, fun and a little romance. This. Was a better read than the last mystery I read
March 29, 2015
Salvation
Great read,the first two books are great as well.Really liked certain characters,such as Tara and Dale,Mary is still my favorite followed closely by Lizzy
Great read,the first two books are great as well.Really liked certain characters,such as Tara and Dale,Mary is still my favorite followed closely by Lizzy
August 5, 2016
The first half of the book was great, but the second half really lags.
April 20, 2015
This series was absolutely fantastic. Loved it and I'm so very sad to see it's over. Or is it?
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews