Cold

Renewal #6

by J.F. Perkins

In the aftermath of the Nashville battle, the community of Coffee County’s post-Breakdown future deals with complex new challenges in preparation for all-out war while the state’s limited legal system is pushed to the limits of morality. Back in the days of the Breakdown, the Carter family fights against the first enemy that cannot be tamed as they face the brutal cold of nuclear winter.

Genres: Post Apocalyptic, Science Fiction, Dystopia

58 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 9, 2011

About the author

I was born two years before we landed on the moon, somewhere in the middle of Long Island. I was too young to remember much, except for the park ritual of spinning three times on a stump, the bee that flew down my throat, and getting my fingernails smashed off in a car door. Ok, that's not fair. I also remember when the mean kid across the street was run over by the mailman.

I currently live in Olympia, Washington with my fantastic wife, Sharon, five dogs (Hunter, Hope, Elke, Jay, and Luna - Queen of the Lunaverse), and two cats (Donner - loves everyone, Jenny - rarely leaves the bedroom closet). Whew! That was a mouthful. I'm a digital artist by trade, woodworker by hobby, gardener by spousal association, and dog trainer by hard necessity.

Reviews

[Dollie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bill is laid up in bed, so he has been giving Terry a lot of responsibility for getting things done. Things are coming to a head and there are a lot of people coming to fight Bill’s group to in order to stay in power. People have to make hard decisions in this part of the story. I enjoyed it more than the previous ones for some reason. I found it very interesting the way that Bill’s father, Dave, got their family prepared for the coming winter in the barn. Dave was a no-nonsense kind of guy and Bill got a lot of that and it’s what helps make him a good leader. And once again, I enjoyed reading some of the author’s thoughts at the end of the book. He seems interesting and I like reading what he has to say.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

To start off, this is not a full-length book but the second of a ten-part series of short stories: it will take you less than an hour to read this one as well as for each of the ten other stories. If you haven't read the first book of the series (Renewal without any of the numbers after it), you need to read that one first then progress in numerical order through #10.

Similar to the other books in the series, the author sets you into a futuristic (and believable) outlook of America several decades after a nuclear destruction of organized society, with frequent flashbacks / narrations of what happened immediately after to the surviving families. I could actually visualize the various scenes and situations, and found myself wondering "what if" or "what would I do" while reading not only this one, but the other stories in the series. The author does a good job of wetting your tastebuds and wanting a little more at the conclusion of the story - hence, let's go purchase the next book of the series. Overall, the series is very good and I highly recommend it.

I will point out I did read all ten of the stories of the series one right after the other as the series is good: while good, it was a little annoying to having just strapped myself in to read for a while then finding the various stories ended and I had to go buy another.

[Felicia A Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great world-building and awesome dual storyline in this post-apocalyptic/renewal & rebuilding type of book.

It's about 35 years after the "Breakdown" (nuclear missiles worldwide, all hell broke loose, etc., etc., etc.). Since the nukes headed for the US were detonated in space, there is little bomb damage or fallout (not really believable, but it's not a big plot hole). The struggling survivors have slapdash governments and plans and such, but life pretty much sucks. A good group has an amazing town and life, but they keep hidden for obvious reasons. The protagonist stumbles onto it, and the backstory is great.

Big major problem is that this is probably only novella length, which is personally very annoying, and in order to make it great, probably 3 or 4 of the novellas in the continuing series need to be combined into one book each, and could make a great sequel or trilogy, depending on how far the author intends to take the series.

I sat for the last two days and read the remaining consecutive books in this outstanding series. LOVED the series, but hate the novellas. They need to be combined into one fantastic book.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great installment in the series. I really like how the author has drawn these characters. The more I read, the more I like the main characters. I think that the characters are written realistically. The only problem I have is how quickly people turned cannibal. In the "flashback" portion of the series, we haven't even gone a full year yet and there are whole groups of active cannibals. After the winter, it gets worse. other than that, I can honestly see how people would get desperate and do anything to survive. or, maybe worse, give up.

[David Galloway · Rating 3 out of 5]

All of my comments on the Renewal series can be found in the first installment of the story.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic world building and character growth.