The Island Final Chapters

Fallen Earth #5

by Michael Stark, Michael R. Stark

The old radio at the station had poured out haunting images of a dying world from the first day. Through it, the tiny group hunkered down at the Village of Portsmouth, bore witness to the death of millions. Where the sickness left off, storms and brutal emotions took over. Some fought. Some starved. Others simply disappeared.

Storms ravaged the power grids. Relief efforts died before they ever started. Entire countries collapsed.

Like the rest of the world, the people stranded on Portsmouth Island could only wait and hope. When it came, the disease struck hard, killing one and sending another into a violent rage.

Hounded by an evil he didn't understand, William Hill struggled to survive.

The evil had other plans. It wanted his blood.

This time, it had a face. This time, it offered a deal

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Thriller, Post Apocalyptic, Science Fiction Fantasy, Zombies, Science Fiction

102 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 17, 2012

Reviews

[Cheryl M-M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent ending to this five part series. The end is brought to a quick conclusion and links into the next book with a tad of a cliffhanger aka unanswered questions of which there are quite a few.
I have to say the story grew on me. It had just the right amount of gruesome horror to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up without going into flesh chewing goblin detail. I am certain that if someone sneaks up behind me and whispers 'Wee-Lee-Um' I am going to scream hysterically before relaxing into my usual natural fearless ninja pose.
The story was well written and the author managed to keep a comfortable flow within the tale, despite breaking the book into parts.*grumble*
I am looking forward to seeing where he takes this apocalyptic story next.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!!!! So can't wait for The Rock hope it comes out soon! I have so many questions! What will happen next WEE LEE UM!! I found it hard to put this book down every page made me long to find out what would be on the next. This book is broken into 5 "parts" (part 5 is called final) So if you haven't you first need to find the first 4 parts. Part one has been deemed as slow or drawn out but I felt after reading it and now after finishing the whole story it provides the base for the type of man William is. The book is written as if the man is either telling the story as it happened to him or that you have the ability to know exactly what he is thinking. I personally like the way Michael Stark tells his story.

[Justina Valentine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this book yesterday morning and finished it last night holy cow what an awesome series A total must read the first few books are free through free Nook books Ipaid .99cents a piece for the last 2 of the series money well spent

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading part 4, the final chapters was somewhat of a let down. I still liked it, and give it 4 stars, but I expected it to be better. The major action scene (that was not the very last one) was resolved too easily and quickly, and I didn't find the ending to be very satisfying. I wanted more description about Daniel, and I wanted the "shades" he described to come to something more. It felt like Stark spent less time on the final chapters than he did on the rest of it.

Overall I give the entire book 4 stars, but if I read Stark's next book I hope the ending will be more satisfying.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was the last in a five part serial. An apocalyptic novel with twists. It's solidly written and while there is a conclusion..the author is writing another series continuation. It was a fun and scary read. Characters were interesting and the horror teetered from suspense to white knuckle fear. The isolation of the island...the spread of the fever on the mainland and the boy with abilities made me plow through this on one weekend. I would easily recommend to anyone that likes some good scares.

[Sharleen Harlow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't wait to read the Rock now!! Was another terrifying installment - however agree with other reviews in that it does kick up more questions than answers!! Would have liked to have a little more in the way of proper answers, but it has left me excited to read the next book in the series!! Some really really great, chilling horror scences!! I could practically see the monsters in my back garden!! Truly spine tingling!!

[Steph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lame. Great build up through last four parts then weak ending just perfectly worded to lead you onto his next book. Guess what I won't be downloading when it's published?

[Chris Power · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice conclusion of the Island Saga. From what I hear Stark will continue with The Rock and he should be done any day now. Looking forward to it!

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining reading

The last novel in the series is a will written Sci-Fi. The characters are interesting and will developed. The story line is complicated with lots of twist and turns leading to the conclusion. I would recommend the five books in the series Enjoy reading 2019😈

[Mary Stricklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very different

At first you not sure we're the story is going. But reading from the beginning make it much more understanding.

[Robert Hofmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read

Well written and captivating, the author spins a tale that keeps your imagination at full throttle. Difficult to put down!

[Richard Upperman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Read

As always read it a little slower like savoring a great chocolate.And can't wait till the next installment. Love how he draws a reader into the story

[Dale Rosso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting conclusion to this part of the story, I was glad to see it did not follow the pattern of most of the types of books that started with the plauge.

[Sam Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cracking read.

[Michele Narramore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh man, what a wild ride

Relaxing boat trip my eye. Doesn't take long to take you on a rip roaring adventure. Full of introspection and soul searching as well. Five stars.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Satisfying to the point of wanting the next book. This is one of those stories that you can't put down and can't wait for the next volume.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the five books that make up The Island, I think I like this one the least but not enough to drop it to three stars. It got weird and religious. Which wouldn't have been bad but for the errors. St. Anthony is the patron saint of lost things, not drivers and St. Francis is the patron saint of animals, not the sea. I don't know whether the author just didn't bother to look this up of he decided to warp a religion to suit his book.

William took the group out to see the monsters he killed for themselves - so they would have some idea what they were up against. Upon arriving back at the camp, the sky filled with the creatures and a large dragon. The dragon charged them but they managed to get off a couple of shots that sent the dragon crashing into the forest. At the last minute, William thought he saw a child on the dragon's back so he headed off to save him. It wasn't a child but it appeared to be an old and very injured man so he brought him back to the camp. Once there, he realized that this was one of the creatures. It was healing at an incredible rate while at the same time, William had contracted The Fever and was getting sicker. They put the "thing" in a room and William brought Daniel in with him to aid in an interrogation. Things were starting to go bad for William when Daniel stepped in, started yelling at the creature, the room exploded and the creature disappeared.

[Michel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note: This review is for Parts One Through the Final Chapters.
This has been added to my "most favorite books" shelf. While this is not a new story idea - Virus decimates the population, then turns out to be supernatural in origin - the plot of the book definitely is. Michael Stark confines the bulk of the story to a tiny island, which somehow made the action more intense and the read became more intimate for me. The main characters are amazingly portrayed with realistic personalities and behaviors. The imagery was described so well that I actually opened my mouth to spit out when the author wrote "My mouth tasted of bile, putrid flesh, and rancid meat, the sensation so strong my stomach heaved in an immediate rejection ". Ahh...just spit it out already! SPIT!!! This book was very well written. It is not a quick read. Don't take that statement to mean boring prose that you have to read through before you get to the good stuff. It means get your mind ready, there is a lot of information in this book. I thoroughly enjoyed The Island; excitement from beginning to end.

For full review go to: Wide-Eyed Book Reviews

[BookNerdette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This being the last book I wanted more to happen. We did learn Michael’s past, and we lost a good number of people. I still don’t understand the deal with D.Little.

It just sorta ended during or after? the confrontation with Gorgol… Does Daniel have another power or is he angelic? So we do know he is a stronger version of what Elsie is and I predicted that last book.

So now Becky is dead and Jayne still alive will we go try to gather her up with us?

We ended with an epilogue and inn it they were leaving the island.. Isn’t the travel ban still in effect?

Thank goodness the young girl is not pregnant by him. I hope they go pick up Jayne and she will be the mom.

So we had the hint of another book (plus it is on the web and Michael’s page) called “The Rock”

I followed him on facebook so maybe I will get alerted when it releases… I wonder if it will be broke up in parts like this book? And will it start of free and then end with me paying for parts of it? Or will I have to pay for all the remainder books?

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having reached "the Final chapters" I was somewhat surprised to realise that, in fact, they aren't!! Silly me, hadn't realised there would be another book (possibly series?) as a sequel.

Nevertheless, thoroughly enjoyed this series - the horror hits hard from what can sometimes be the mundane routine of daily life for surviviors - one minute driving a camper, next staring at horror in the rearview... the tellling of these horror moments is very well done, and not hysterical overkill, if you see what I mean and no pun intended.

The last pages make it obvious that a sequel is in the offing - so many questions left unanswered and not enough resolution to stisfy the end of this series.

But I will look forward to reading the Rock. Though I do hope this isn't a series that will go on for ever.... no offence Mr Stark, but I did give up on other excellent books for that reason. Wavering attention span, I guess.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

It lost half a star because of confusion...got a bit wishy washy and lost me.

Enjoyed it, the whole 5 parts generally. A little descriptive at times but I loved loved the narrative.

I picked up this book thinking I was gonna get a favoured apocalyptic style but couldn't have been more wrong. Had someone described this book to me before hand I don't think I would have tried it. Goblins, devil, demons etc are not my cup of tea but I will read The Rock when it comes out so I may be a convert to the genre.

Also was novel to live through a 42 year old man, that would normal have put me off but William was a fabulously likeable character if a little "hero"esque a little too often.

I certainly have fallen in love with Starks writing style so will be eager to read anything else he does...whatever the genre.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

By the end of this book series the story seemed to big. The author threw out a huge amount of information in a matter of pages. This information made no sense, didn't correlate with the information given throughout the rest of the series, and didn't even involve people we were led to believe would play large roles (D. Little anyone?!?). My other complaint carriesover from my review of part 4. The main character, who we weresuppose to view as a hero had no characteristics of a hero. He showed little fear when he should have and always was praising himself for the sassy (that's the best his little comebacks will get from me) replies he had. Heros are suppose to act heroically DESPITE their fear and not be so amused by themselves. The ending though. My god, the ending. I'm going to stop before I lower my star rating. 2.5 stars... not 3. I couldn't help myself....

[John Welch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought I'd give it a review after reading all the sections. I've consistently given it 3 stars as it was worth a read, not a masterpiece but still not too bad. I did have some issues with the charachterisation as although the main 2 charachters were clearly defined, it was only towards the end that I could remember who was who amongst the others. I wasn't very happy with the cod philosophy of William either, it just came to often and too long winded for my liking. I also rember a couple of plot lines that were just left hanging. Would I read the sequel when it is published? I don't think so.

[Snicketts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting enough to keep me to the end of this book (sold in rather annoying chunks from Kindle) but probably not enough to get me to move on to the next in the series. Didn't like the sign off of each chapter which took the form of a kind of teaser for the next. It made me think of terrible TV adverts for stuff you don't want or need that insist "... but that's not all..." The descriptions of the settings were nice and well done, but there seemed like an awful lot going on with dragons, zombies, saints, the apocalypse, pestilence and plain old bad people all smushed in together.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This the final chapters in the book. So far the story has been pretty good. Here is where it starts to get a little confusing. All the sections are done in first person perspective, and that might have something to do with the confusion. I don't want to give anything away, and I may have to go back and reread the last few pages to figure out what the main character had been trying to explain. Good book. I devoured them all in about two days time over a weekend, couldn't put them down. Can't wait until the sequel is out.

[Jillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh, just okay. I didn't like that the book was in parts. And I didn't like where they ultimately went with the story. It just seemed so disjointed- like they took all the mythical beasts and things that go bump in the night and just lumped them together. They also threw some religion in here and there and never explained a damn thing. I mean... I think the epilogue cleared it up a little bit, but it just ended so abruptly considering the beginning was so drawn out. I probably won't pick up the next in this series.

[Fiona Watkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This final installment rounds off the series. The whole story has been leading to this point and it remained to be seen what direction Stark through his main character William would go.
Overall I enjoyed the series, although I still maintain that I would have preferred it to have been one or perhaps two books. I understand the reasons why the author chose to release the book in five installments however, as someone who likes to read the whose story to see if I've correctly guessed the plot twist, I felt it was unnecessary.

[Scotts Kindle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing ending

I stuck with it. Stayed to the end. The end was a dud. Throughout the series there was a flow to the storyline. It got slow at times but it flowed. The end of this book was a little disjointed and incomplete. It did not flow into the end. It just fizzled. There was an incompleteness to the story. "What happened?" Would be my first question. Where did the disease come from? What was Gargoyle? What did Daniel do to him?
Disappointing.

[Kimberlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the final part in this story, I was mostly pleased with the way things wrapped up. Overall, The Fever seemed to be some odd backstory to give the book just a little more eerieness. I have an idea of where The Rock is, but I'm not interested in stretching this story out any longer to find out. I liked the author's writing style, but the separate story parts was annoying.

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the changes from the last part this part picked up with no problem and stayed amazing. This book was a little slower, much like the first part, but still a very good read.

Overall the series richly painted a world for books to come. The author skillfully painted the history of a world to come and it's history.