Forty Days at Kamas

The Kamas Trilogy #1

by Preston Fleming

Inspired by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s account of a Soviet labor camp revolt in Gulag Archipelago, Volume III, the story follows political prisoners and security officials at a corrective labor camp in Kamas, Utah, where inmates seize control during the summer of 2024.

Kamas, Utah. 2024. In the totalitarian dystopia that America has become after the Unionist Party’s rise to power, the American West contains vast Restricted Zones dotted with ghost towns, scattered military garrisons and corrective labor camps where the regime disposes of its real and suspected enemies. Kamas is one such camp.

On a frigid March night, a former businessman from Pittsburgh, Paul Wagner, arrives at a labor camp in Utah’s Kamas Valley, a dozen miles east of the deserted resort town of Park City, which prisoners are dismantling as part of a massive recycling project.

When Wagner arrives, he is unaware that his eleven-year-old daughter, Claire, has set off to Utah to find him after becoming separated from her mother at the Philadelphia Airport. By an odd quirk of fate, Claire has traveled on the same train that carried her father into internal exile.

Only after Wagner has renounced all hope of survival, cast his lot with anti-regime hard-liners and joined them in an unprecedented and suicidal revolt does he discover that Claire has become a servant in the home of the camp’s Deputy Warden. Wagner is torn between his devotion to family and loyalty to his fellow rebels until, on the eve of an armored assault intended to crush the revolt, he faces an agonizing choice between a hero’s death and a coward’s freedom.

In Forty Days at Kamas, author Preston Fleming offers a stirring portrait of a man determined to survive under the bleakest of conditions and against formidable odds. Fleming’s gift for evocative prose brings the characters and events to life in a way that arouses emotional tension while also engaging the reader’s intellect with fundamental questions about the future of American society.

Genres: Fiction, Dystopia, Science Fiction, Thriller, Ebooks, Historical Fiction, Amazon

336 pages, ebook

First published December 7, 2010

About the author

Preston Fleming writes realist thrillers set in exceptional times and places, from Siberia during the Russian Civil War (MAID OF BAIKAL), to explosive 1980s Beirut (DYNAMITE FISHERMEN), to a near-future gulag-style labor camp in Utah (FORTY DAYS AT KAMAS). His experience as a diplomat, lawyer and corporate executive, combined with his ultra-lean writing style, lend rare authenticity to his stories. All of Preston’s six novels have received praise from KIRKUS REVIEWS and other publications. Preston is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, but left home at fourteen for boarding school and has been on the move ever since. Today he and his wife live in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains with a Belgian Sheepdog they rescued after it bit too many humans in Delaware. Connect with Preston at his website (prestonfleming.com) or on Amazon.com, GoodReads.com, LibraryThing.com, Twitter or Facebook. To learn about new releases and free book giveaways, follow Preston on Bookbub.com.

Reviews

[Kyle Wendy Skultety (gimmethatbook.com) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book free from Preston Fleming in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of the book was intriguing: a work/prison camp in the future, in a dystopian society. The story unfolds with the simultaneous stories of a male prisoner and a female child, father and daughter. They both deal with their own problems, and hope to be reunited with each other eventually.

The main portion of the book is taken up with the revolution going on in the camp. The political prisoners have had enough of the brutality and they rise up. I enjoyed how the author described the bleakness and despair amongst the prisoners, and I feel that he appropriately captured the emotion and futility.
However, I did feel that the actual revolution and fighting went on way too long. The prisoners went on strike a few times before seizing control of the camp, and for me this seemed an arduous part of the book. At times it seemed the labor talks went on forever and I grew weary, hoping for more action and less bargaining.

Each chapter starts out with a quote relating to labor/politics/unrest, from leaders such as Lenin, Trotsky, Idi Amin, soviet camp doctors, and authors such as George Orwell. The quote directly reflects the action that is going to take place in that chapter, and I thought it was very unique to have the foreshadowing told in that manner.

Towards the end of the book, the main character has an out of body experience, that provides the reader with a birds eye view of the action taking place down below. The author also utilizes this in the first chapter, where it worked well. The portion at the end of the story seemed out of place and a bit confusing; at times I wondered if he was still "floating" above or if he was back in Earth watching the action. Finally, when he returns back to his body, it all makes sense, but I feel there could've been a better way to convey this by the author.

In summary, good plot, great idea, but I didn't feel much of a connection with the characters. I would have enjoyed this book more if it was about 70 pages shorter.
That being said, I do have to commend the author for having an easy writing style. His sentences were flowing, he described his characters well, and the story did have a good air of suspense at times. His knowledge of political unrest and union bargaining was comprehensive, and I know those readers who have an affinity for that kind of thing will enjoy this story immensely.

[Bill Thibadeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author and his book are what is wonderful about indie authors. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. I was also enlightened in my realization that the Orwellian theme of the book could happen in our country.

There are a number of good reviews that will lay out the characters and storyline so there is no reason for me to rehash those great reviews. However, I do want to chime in with a few comments about the work of Preston Fleming. This is the first of his books to pass by my eyes. I was engrossed with how well it was written. I thought the story was exciting and had a relatively quick pace which kept me fully interested. The characters are a real strength to this book. I feel that I would actually recognize the majority of them if I passed them on the street. That is how well they were developed.

I now have another great author to read. It is a shame that there are so few books to read. On the bright side, he is young so he has a lot more writing time left in his life. Pick up a copy of this fine book to entice him to keep writing.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

An incredibly emotional read about near-future America in which Unionists have taken over and destroyed the freedom that had been the American way of life for over 200 years. People, many of which are war heroes or former government employees, are now taken prisoner for the slightest perceived infractions, charged with sedition and other drummed up charges, and send to a prison camp system based in the Western United States, primarily Utah and Colorado.

A very heart-wrenching story based on the true story of Alexander Solzhenitsyn and his time in a Russian gulag, told from the perspective of an innocent prisoner, and his living through a prison-camp uprising, and survival in the most extreme conditions brought on by prison wardens, government officials, and even fellow prisoners.

An excellent book, well-written, and very compelling. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read Sinclair Lewis's IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE as a young man, I found FORTY DAYS AT KAMAS gripping from beginning to end. Lewis wrote during the 1930s, when America suffered from the Depression and Europe turned to Fascism and Communism. Today, America's economic and social problems bring back the specter of a government takeover by a would-be President-for-Life. If you have ever been afraid of how America could be taken over by anti- American statists, read this book! The characterizations of the villains are chilling. I couldn't stop reading it.

[Teel · Rating 2 out of 5]

(I received a free copy of this eBook for review, from the author.)

Beginning with the good: The writing is well-paced, many of the characters are well-developed and generally well-realized, a lot of attention had been paid to getting details right, and other than its length (I hold any book over ~80k words to a higher standard) I never felt strongly compelled to quit reading it. If you like the idea of reading 130k words that effectively start and end inside a forced-labor camp circa Stalin's USSR, detailing at length what it's like to suffer in a forced labor prison camp (first ~50%) and then what it's like when the prisoners revolt and take over the prison (next ~40%), and suicide against the government's army (next ~5%), then I can recommend this book. Especially if you like commercial fiction, generally.

I have a few caveats: First, as I told the author when he asked whether I'd like to read his dystopian novels, I now automatically deduct one star from my review if you needlessly compare the evil authoritarian government in your novel to the Nazis, or otherwise refer to Hitler or the Nazis when not writing book which takes place during the existence of Nazi Germany - a good author can easily convey how evil their evil overlords are without having to say "they're as bad as the Nazis!" Within the first 5% of the text, the author (apparently unknowingly) used this crutch.

Second, while the author wrote nearly the entire book in a straight realist style, in a few places he inserted, without explanation, moments of psychic and supernatural experiences. The protagonist, stuck telling the story from a 1st-person POV, has a couple of out-of-body experiences so the author can switch to 3rd-person POV when 1st-person would have been unable to capture the full story in that "show, don't tell" way commercial fiction writers prefer. (The occasional chapter about his daughter is also told 3rd-person, though more on that later.) Several characters accurately dreamed the future. This managed to drain all the tension and anticipation out of the book, after the formulaic predictability of the writing style had already done most of the work. (I'll admit the latter affects writers more than readers, but the detailed visions of the future gave away everything the chapters with the daughter didn't.) Then, while in "the isolator", amidst his random visions, the protagonist sees that his wife and daughter are alright, and actually has an accurate, current-time vision of his older daughter, who is living nearby. It's hinted that he nearly psychically contacts her at that time. What? Why are people psychic? To give the protagonist a reason to live, here, or a goal to strive for (which wouldn't make sense otherwise) there... deus ex machina, I suppose.

Which brings me to the daughter. Re-reading the blurb, I see that her living nearby without the protagonist's knowledge is already given away, so I don't feel I'm spoiling anything to say that when I read that she had coincidentally ridden in on the same train he had, and coincidentally met the only woman in town sympathetic to her cause and coincidentally crossed paths with her own father during his transfer into the prison camp, then coincidentally gets a job working for the family of the Deputy Warden of the prison... I had trouble suspending my disbelief. This might be a spoiler, but later on in the book, when the woman the daughter had met also coincidentally happens to regularly pass messages in and out of the prison and the protagonist coincidentally happens to take over corresponding with her, in order to maintain the (capital-D) Drama, he goes out of his way say "I WILL NOT MENTION MY NAME". (Yes, in all caps.)

Anyway, the occasional chapters with the daughter (and they are few, and far between) seem largely to exist so the reader can get inside information on what the prisoners do not know - her coincidentally living with the Deputy Warden means she can stand around, silently listening to the prison-leaders discussing their plans in detail. Nothing she can do about it, of course, and she doesn't; the scenes are only there so the reader has a 3rd-person POV. Half the times these scenes took the place of the prisoners' psychic visions, giving away what was about to happen and sucking all the tension out of the next sequence. I believe the book would have been better served (and be more consistent, and possibly even able to drop the out-of-place psychic phenomena) had the entire thing been written in 3rd-person POV. Because of the inconsistent POV and the unexplained psychic visions (in the context of such harsh realism), I have had to remove another star from my rating.

There were a noticeable number of small errors in the text (line editing errors), about on par with, say, the first edition of Under the Dome - about one every 30 or 40 pages. A little more than I'd like, but I might be paying more attention to them because I've been line-editing my own books, lately. As a dystopian novel, I'd have preferred more background - what led to this situation, how did we get here, but that might be because I've read so much dystopian fiction (and WWII-era history) that I well-understand what horrible things go on once you get there. Or it might be because the book suggests nothing towards how to get out of that position, either. The inevitable happy ending (if only for the protagonist's family) after the crushing torture of the rest of the book and the massacre of the inmates was a harsh contrast.

Also, there is a distinct lack of advanced technology in the book, despite its being set in 2024. As though, in the never-explained "Events" and "Civil War II", all (or nearly all) the computers and technology in the world had been sought out and destroyed, and the military's technology reversed 80 years, without mention. Until the final chapter of the book, I was sure not a single character in the book had ever seen or used or heard of a computer. This book might work better as an alternate history, where the US was taken over by Communists in the 40's or 50's - only a few sentences refer in any way to technology more advanced than that of the 50's; it would be a simple edit that might do a lot of good.

Otherwise, I would say it was a solid, 4-star book. As I said at the beginning, it was well-paced, a fast read (relative to its length), and seemed to accomplish what it set out to do, from a story perspective. If it had been under 80k words (a book I could read in a single sitting), I might have said it was a 5-star book. (before the 2-star deduction)

[C.J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Read on my Kindle e-reader.) When I was in college, I read Solzhenitsyn’s ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVITCH and excerpts from GULAG ARCHIPELAGO and came away thinking of the Gulag as a uniquely Soviet phenomenon, just as the Nazi death camps could only have happened under Hitler. Then I read about the labor camps in China under Mao, in Cambodia under Pol Pot and in North Korea under the Kims, as well as others in South Africa, Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. Later, when I traveled in the Third World, I recognized that the kind of tyrant who creates forced labor camps can pop up nearly anywhere.
Years later, I read Sinclair Lewis’s novel, IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE, about a fictional American dictatorship in the 1930s. That, in turn, brought me to THE PLOT TO SEIZE THE WHITE HOUSE (non-fiction) about the 1933 Business Plot to overthrow FDR. More recently, I have been asking myself this: if the Great Depression brought America to the brink of dictatorship, might today’s Great Recession do something similar?
This summer I came across FORTY DAYS AT KAMAS, a novel that asks: what if American tyranny replaced American democracy? What struck me first about KAMAS was that it is based on a true story from GULAG ARCHIPELAGO that I remember having read in college. But, in KAMAS, the setting, characters and political backdrop are authentically American and chillingly realistic. Though the author does not describe in detail the events that bring the President-for-Life and his Unionist Party to power, his America of 2024 is a totalitarian one-party state where political dissidents are sent to forced labor camps to work and die as slaves of the state.
Most of the action takes place in and around a corrective labor camp in Kamas, Utah. The novel’s protagonist, Paul Wagner, lands at Kamas on the eve of an unprecedented prisoner revolt that leads to a forty-day siege by government forces. What Wagner does not know is that his eleven-year-old daughter has become separated from her mother and sister and has arrived in Utah on the same train as her prisoner father. There she is put to work as a domestic servant to the wife of the camp’s Deputy Commandant, where she observes at close hand just what kind of people her overlords have come to be. Eventually, Wagner nears of his daughter's presence and must choose between his family and his commitment to the revolt
Though dark and at times difficult to read due to the relentless suspense, I found KAMAS to be a hopeful and uplifting story that affirms positive American values and shows how even the most oppressive tyranny cannot easily extinguish the American love of freedom. Paul Wagner is vividly and believably drawn as a devoted father and responsible business owner, though not without flaws. The minor characters are sufficiently three-dimensional to drive the plot, though in some cases are not as fully developed as I would have liked. But, to me, one of the most valuable and insightful aspects of KAMAS was how it showed, largely through discussions overheard by Wagner’s daughter, what motivates the camp officials and their visiting bosses in their effort to exert total control over the camp and society at large.
KAMAS is difficult to pigeonhole because it is quite unlike other dystopian novels I have read. First, it comes across more as a serious piece of fiction than a genre thriller. Second, it holds up a mirror to our current political landscape in a way that helped me to see how the U.S. might today be headed down the road toward dictatorship. And, finally, it is written in a low-key, realistic style, with close attention to facts and details that made it easy for me to suspend disbelief and enter into the story.
This is not a sensational page-turner to be read merely for titillation, though it works quite well as a thriller and kept me awake past midnight reading straight through to the end. I recommend KAMAS highly for thriller readers with a taste for political intrigue and conspiracy. But I also recommend it for readers of non-fiction who might benefit from a richly imagined vision what a future dystopian America might look like. In the coming weeks I plan to read KAMAS’s sequel, STAR CHAMBER BROTHEROOD, to see what Preston Fleming’s America might look like in 2029. If the sequel is crafted as masterfully as KAMAS, I expect Preston Fleming's books will draw a good deal more attention from readers like me. I give FORTY DAYS AT KAMAS my highest rating.

[Jeff Wetherington · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointing, depressing story that was not well-written or well-edited. The best I can say is that it had a happy ending which I desperately needed after struggling through the forty days.

[Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story based in the future. Some will find problems with how the story breaks down and call it a bunch of mularky, but I can see our country heading down this path. It follows a man from Pittsburgh (already has to be good), who loses his business through the nationalization act. Gets arrested as he is trying to leave the country with his family and ends up in a prision camp in Utah. The whole book takes place in only a 6 month time frame except for the back story on his factory.

His oldest daughter manages to accidently get seperated from her mother and sister who are also detained. She makes her way west to Utah and with help from strangers manages to find a job as an au pair for the deputy commanders wife of the camp.

Over 850 pages on my Nook, but I could hardly put it down!

[Jared Ruplinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read and a page turner. I spent two nights reading until 3 AM unable to put it down. The action is brisk and unpredictable. The characters are engaging and the scenario is frighteningly conceivable. I am looking forward to reading the remainder of the trilogy.

[Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is among the best books that I have read in 2017. The plot’s pace is consistent, not overwhelming; the author’s prose is highly readable and descriptive; Forty Days at Kamas is a book that makes the reader think deeply about their own experiences with bureaucracy, persecution, and the philosophical will to focus on what in their life is truly prescious: their freedom.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kamas' main character is Paul Wagner, a businessman with a classic good family life in suburban Pittsburgh, who falls victim along with his family to a new America political system.
The year is 2016 when, after a series of natural disaster events, a President of the United States begins his regime, a totalitarian nightmare where the old system of freedoms and rights give way to the demands of the State. Wagner runs his family manfacturing business, but The Events and the regime lead to a progression of taxes and inflation which make it impossible for the family to survive in America. Emigration is the route they choose, but imprisonment on a bogus charge takes Paul to a corrective labor camp in the Wasatch Mountain range of Utah. And his beloved wife and daughters are separated on totally independent ventures. The author incorporates historical references directly and indirectly which give the reader the sense of being in Stalinist Russia in the Gulags, or in Nazi Germany in the work camps.

Life in the corrective camp Kamas revolves around Wagner but provides portraits of a diverse population who have been sentenced for various moves, real and imagined, against the State. The command and control system of the new regime are painted clearly, with historic parallels frighteningly clear. The perverse camp warden and staff, always looking to exploit the prisoners' labor and break their morale, become key characters in the lives of all. Wagner's will to survive and gut instinct to do what is right move him along a winding road.

[Angie ~aka Reading Machine~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagine what if USA had another Civil War and ended up in another World War not too far into our immediate future. That is premise of Forty Days at Kamas. This futuristic book had at times eerie chills running down my arms and shuttering thoughts could this happen through out the whole book. Forty Days at Kamas focuses on one family The Wagners:Paul, Juliet, Louisa, and Claire. Paul is sentenced to labor camp for five years. Juliet and Louisa are taken into custody at Philadelphia train station. Claire escapes and makes her way to Heber, Utah near Kamas. Claire is taken in by Helen Sigler until she becomes junior au pair for Martha and Deputy Warden Doug Chambers. I'm afraid to say more because I don't want to spoil it for anyone. But this quote from book sums up it nicely:"No matter who we are or what our situation may be, our sacrifice has a meaning. It is essential to the very nature of this sacrifice that it must appear pointless to the world of material success. But there must be no doubt in anyone's mind that the meaning exists. Those of you who have held on to your religious faith will have no difficulty in recognizing this."
Judge for yourself in Forty Days at Kamas.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me the shivers knowing how easily this could happen in the United States. Unfortunately it is all too possible the way things have been going lately.

Paul Wagner got separated from his wife and two daughters just as they were about to leave the country supposedly legally. He was taken to one of the camps set up for corrective labor. Until the very end you will not know what happened to his wife and one of his daughters. Claire, his other daughter could not find her Mom or other sister in the crowd and decides to go and try to find her Dad. Luckily for her she is befriended by a woman who works within the resistance and ends up employed by a rich household---which is run by the camp's (where he is held) Deputy Warden.

It amazes me how there could be a somewhat happy ending-but there is.

[Val. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book. They say history repeats itself and I can see something like this really happening.

The year is 2024 and Paul is a political prisoner. He sent to a work camp for the next 5-8 years. The way they treated these people is inhumane. It was like a Nazi work camp. The whole time I was reading that is the one thing I kept screaming in my head. The whole time you are rooting for Paul and every other man and women in that camp. You want the prisoners to win, you want their revolt to be successful. You really see the will to survive being tested with this one. Such a heartbreaking read.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

just finished reading Forty Days at Kamas, by Preston Fleming. I gave this book 4 stars. It will keep you interested all the way to the end. I laughed, got very angry and cried. check it out. the setting is in 2024 we are no longer United States of America, We are now Unionist party has taken over the country and Mexico and Canada. I won't say anymore don't want to spoil it for those of u that want to read it. and I only had to pay 2.99 for it on my kindle you can get on line for the same price

[Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written. Scary concept (dictatorship in US in 2024) with internment camps for political dissenters.

[Tony Parsons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Park City, Kamas Valley, (Wasatch Range, Great Salt Lake) UT. Kamas Corrective Labor Camp (KCLC). Lieutenant Colonel Doug Chambers, & Martha Chambers (wife) were having a get together.
Jerry Lee (Susquehanna, PA.), Major Reineke & Ralph Knopfler were talking to each other through the barbed wire enclosure.
Several Division 3 prisoners had died.
Meetings in Barracks C-14, Division 3 & Division 2 went on all night long.

What happened to Deputy Sam Renaud (chief warder)?
Some of the prisoners are: Jeff Fisher (attorney/business advisor Columbia; JD; law), Pete Murphy, Ben Jackson, Al Gallucci, George Perkins, Dennis Martino, D.J. Schultz, Chuck Quayle, Alec Sigler, Paul Curtin Wagner (46, prisoner # W-088), Earl Cunningham, D’Amato, Jerry Lee McIntyre (Tech dept.), Gary Toth (former US Navy SEAL), Terry McIntyre (50+, chief consulting engineer), Colonel Mitchell Majors (USMC), & Steve Bernstein (44, pharmacy rep, Manhasset, Long Island).
Jack Whiting was in charge of security.
Alec had been killed. He had no one to blame but himself.
Dr. Renée Nagy & Dr. Ernest Fell were looking over Dennis Martino (25+, medical student, Atlanta), Brian Gaffney (Portland, commercial artist), J.J. Johns (A/A taxicab co. owner, St. Louis) & Georg Schuster.

Hopefully there would be no trouble with the newest arrivals: Frank “The Beast” Brancato (leader), Randy Skinner (right-hand-man, former motorcycle gang leader, meth dealer), Ramon Sanchez (Mexican-American drug smuggler), Jimmy Vega (Mexican-American car thief), & Jabril (Harlem, NY., master burglar).
Unbelievable. A meeting with the KCLC prisoners will be held.
The delegation would consist of up to 10 prisoners, & 4 from the commission: Chuck Quayle, Georg Schuster, Libby Bertrand, & Betty Shipley.
Brigadier General Jake Boscov (55+, Corrective Labor Administration’s Western Region Director, Denver, CO.), Major General Gil Hardesty (Operations Division, State Security Department Headquarters Washington, DC.), & Director Kenneth Cronin (Corrective Labor Administration) were in attendance.
Libby Bertrand (Division 1 women’s camp work scheduler) was the only representative from the women’s camp.

Much later what was Helen Sigler (widow) up to?
Who would escape?
Who will perish?

I did not receive any type of compensation for reading & reviewing this book. While I receive free books from publishers & authors, I am under no obligation to write a positive review. Only an honest one.

A very awesome book cover, great font & writing style. Wow, a very well written dystopian book. It was very easy for me to read/follow from start/finish & never a dull moment. There were no grammar/typo errors, nor any repetitive or out of line sequence sentences. Lots of exciting scenarios, with several twists/turns & a great set of unique characters to keep track of. This could also make another great dystopian movie, an animated cartoon, or better yet a mini TV series. A very easy rating of 5 stars.

Thank you for the free author; dailyfreebooks; PF Publishing; Amazon Digital Services LLC.; book
Tony Parsons (Wasburn)

[Ron Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got all three in the series for free. Figured that for the price, I had nothing to lose.

Well, I was very pleasantly surprised. The first couple chapters were a bit confusing because of the jumping from one time and location to a previous time, then back again. But once I figured out what the author was doing, I was hooked.

Basically, it is the story of Paul Wagner, middle-class owner of a small business, married with two daughters. After a Revolution that brought a totalitarian debt to power, Paul was forced to sell his business for pennies on the dollar.

He attempts to emigrate to England with his family, but is arrested at the airport and sent to a labor camp in Utah.

Meanwhile, his older daughter, Claire, gets temporarily separated from her mother and sister, and by the time she gets back, the mother and sister have also been arrested and carted off.

Plucky little Claire makes her way to Utah to try to find her father. She winds up working as a junior au pair for a man and his wife and their baby girl. Surprise! The man is the Deputy Warden of the same prison camp where Claire's father is an inmate. However, the relationship between Claire and the inmate remains unknown to all concerned.

The bulk of the book concerns Paul and the conditions in the camp. The 8,000 prisoners are treated poorly, worked like dogs, fed just enough to keep them alive, and housed in barracks fit only for dogs. The prisoners revolt.

The fighting is terrible, with several thousand casualties.

Is Paul one of them? Does Claire ever get reunited with her family? Pins and needles right to the end.

Much better than I expected. Looking forward to the next in the series.

[Peripeteia · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are books you can't put down, and books you don't want to pick up again to continue reading. Unfortunately for me, this was the latter. I was intrigued by the basic plotline... sort of a "Utah Archipelago" (or something). Where do I begin? The plotting was poor, the pace was poor, and the characters were mere cutouts.

While it was somewhat intellectually interesting to see the negotiations that took place at the camp, these were boring as hell. I didn't give a damn about the characters because I didn't get to know them - aside from perhaps Claire - and they didn't seem believable on top of that. The mental condition of the prisoners rang totally false. Hell, I don't think there was a single incidence of the foul-mouthed, brutal lingo of the prison yard in the entire book. Also, the tactical action felt contrived and unbelievable; seems obvious the author only knows about these things from books. Despite occasional incidents of violence, and the big tear-up at the end, my adrenaline didn't spike above getting-out-of-bed-in-the-morning level.

I was determined to get through to the end, and I admit that was extremely difficult. My overall impression of the book is that of a post-collapse story narrated in a Sunday school class. Very disappointing. For a *real* pulse-pounding and realistic near future dystopian thrill ride, I'd suggest starting with Matt Bracken's "Enemies Foreign and Domestic".

[David Huelsmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good read of what America would be like with a dictator President for life and a Security Service who dressed like Hitler's SS and acted in a similar manner. Paul Wagner and his wife sold their business in preparation for them and their two daughter to emigrate. They had exit visas and had paid the exit tax when Paul was suddenly arrested for sedition and eventually sent to the prison/work camp called Kamas in Utah. In this brutalizing environment the prisoners did strike three times refusing to work.

Paul's daughter Claire ends up in the town of Kamas after she saw her mother and sister arrested by the Security Service at the airport. Claire managed to get transportation to Kamas where she had heard her father might be. So now we see what happens through Father and daughters eyes as the action plays out.

Characters are fleshed out. The writing is very good and holds your attention. The two dream-like states that Paul encounters are a little strange though the second one works better than the first.

Enjoy the book. I did.

[Pat Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A ghastly futuristic look at America

This horrific account of the State arresting ordinary citizens of America on the flimziest of trumped-up charges, ripping families apart, while incarcerating them in concentration camps, starving and brutalizing them, leaves the mind reeling in shock.
It was an absorbing story of humans pushed way beyond their limits of endurance.
What the author hopes to gain by forewarning readers of is unclear. Why she feels this novel needed to be written is an unanswered question.
Why one man is singled out to survive the two-year ordeal is also unclear. Never-the-less, it was very interesting in its appalling detail of man's inhumanity to man.
One can only conclude that satan forsees his end and lashes out at mankind to attempt to destroy as many people's faith in God as possible.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Americas have fallen into Nazi type regimes and people are being subjected to a holocaust in internment camps. Paul Wagner in sentence to five years at Kamas, his wife and one daughter are also arrested trying to leave the United States, and his daughter Claire makes her way to Utah looking for him. A series of mutinies occur in the camp at Kamas. Previously high rating was due to a fat finger on tiny spaces on my Kindle.

[Ray Wilhelm · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real page turner

The political atmosphere seems much like that that could erupt in the US in the not too distant future if we're not careful about the leaders we elect in this country. The book had the very real approach that you were there with the prisoners. Experiencing their hopes and fears, ups and downs, victories and defeats. The ending did not disappoint. If you're into political intrigue, this book is for you. Well deserving of the five stars I gave it.

[ron juscak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazingly Scary

I'm really not usually into books of this nature although I don't believe there are any books like this. I couldn't stop reading even though I was stomping my foot and cussing or trying to see the words through the tears pouring down my face...mr.flemming did an awesome job of making these characters real and touchable..look , I really suck a writing reviews ...just read this book..you won't regret it.

[Barbara "Cookie" Serfaty Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forty Days of Kamas

"Forty Days at Kamas" remains me of the story my farther told me about what happen at the campus in German and something like at can never happen here. It's a sad story with a happy ended. It a story which show you what happen when good people do nothing to stop bad thinks.

[Terri Calvert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chilling

I believe there are events that could come to pass. Or at least something similar. The author did a great job of writing a horrific story and yet giving us a happy ending for one family. Suffering that we can't imagine right now is so possible if things continue as they are. Good book.

[Tom King · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Grim and Prophetic Book

Fleming writes with the conviction of one who has seen the kind of misery he describes. Thank goodness the end isn't as grim as the story. The trouble is that America is but an election or two away from the sort of world he describes. Anyone who thinks it can't happen here should read a little history...and maybe this book.

[Amanda Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Diverse change of political leadership and anything is possible

Was not sure this was the book for me but in view of the current Brexit debacle gave it a go! The harsh regime and sentences given to prisoners for merely having different views was thought provoking. Enjoyed the twists and turns

[Chris Howells · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disturbingly possible

Dystopian with a capital ”d”. A disturbing read as the situation in the novel is a plausible future, not just for the US with it’s currently unhinged POTUS, but also many other world States. The UK is in a parlous political situation, there is the potential for a military coup and who knows what would happen then.

[Guy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A scary read

I pray this story remains fiction. My feeling is that NEVER will this country live through such a period. We must be aware of our responsibilities as Americans, not looking for what is best for us personally but for what is best for our nation.
An excellent story that all should read.