Doomsday Diaries: The Complete Series

Doomsday Diaries

by Aaron B. Powell

The Complete Collection:
Doomsday Diaries I
Doomsday Diaries II: New World Order
Doomsday Diaries III: Luke the Protector
Doomsday Diaries IV: Luke and the Lion

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 21, 2013

Reviews

[Grampy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was already halfway through a different book when I got hold of a copy of "Doomsday Diaries: The Complete Series" by Aaron B. Powell. Out of curiosity, I went to the first page just to get an idea of what the book would be like. Well, that first page grabbed me like a jock full of fish-hooks, and didn't let go until I'd finished the entire series! Now if I could just remember what I was reading before I started this one....

This series was a multi-genre blend of supernatural, dystopian, utopian, science fiction, fantasy, sprinkled with a good dose of erotica. The erotica was, for the most part, critical to the story, but it is also somewhat unfortunate because it is graphic enough to pretty much eliminate readers younger than 18 years. That notwithstanding, "Doomsday Diaries: The Complete Series" is a four volume story that MUST be read in order, from start to finish. The individual books are NOT stand-alone novels, and if you attempt to read any of them out of order, you very likely will be disappointed and disillusioned, and will not make any sense of the story at all.

This story begins with an unexpected nuclear assault on two American military bases in the Far East, quickly followed by news that numerous other nukes had been launched toward many major US cities. Citizens were urged to head to the nearest bomb shelter, which made me wonder just how much of the US population even has a clue where "the nearest bomb shelter" might be. I know I don't have a clue.

Regardless, the story focuses on one family of three, which DOES happen to have a private bomb shelter located on property they own up in the mountains, and most of the first volume deals solely with them. Fortunately for them, they had outfitted the shelter with adequate supplies of food, water, fuel, etc., to support 20 people for a year. With only 3 people in the shelter, they stayed for roughly five years before deciding to head back to the surface. What they encounter topside is so totally out of sync with anything they had ever experienced, or might have expected, that they literally are dumbfounded.

The story continues through volumes two, three, and four, as a basic "good guys vs. bad guys" story, but with some very, very unusual and fascinating twists. The supernatural element includes a lot of hypothetical discussions of what/who God is, encompassing elements from Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and numerous other spiritual and/or new age beliefs, including some new ones invented just for this book. It was done in a way that should either not offend anybody, or offend everybody, depending on whether you think the author is trying to convert you to that sort of all-encompassing non-traditional non-religion, or just telling a fantasy story. For my part, I do not believe the author is trying to "convert" anybody to anything, but is just telling a fascinating and imaginative story of supernatural, dystopian, utopian, science fiction, fantasy, sprinkled with a good dose of erotica.

"Doomsday Diaries" is quite honestly the most outstanding and original amalgamation of supernatural, dystopian, utopian, science fiction, fantasy, sprinkled with a good dose of erotica that I've ever read! It is also the only one, but if I had read 100 such multi-genre compilations, I am absolutely certain I would still consider this to be the best and most original of the lot.

If you like supernatural stories, or dystopian stories, or utopian stories, or science fiction stories, or fantasy stories, or erotica stories, or especially all of the above, I give this book my highest and heartiest recommendation for your reading pleasure.

[Edward Wolfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I considered it an indulgent luxury to be able to read so much of Powell at one time. I even stretched it out, knowing that there isn't a lot more by him for me to read. (Next will be Benjamin, which I think is a full novel. I hope!)

The amazing thing about this book/series is that it spans multiple genres and isn't like any book I've read before. Post-apocalypse, Survival, Romance, Military Combat, Sci-Fi, Armageddon, Mysticism, Theology. All of that, and possibly more are in this book.

Another great thing about the book is that if you've read Powell's other, shorter works, there are unusual events that take place which are not explained and leave a bit of a mystical mystery in a tale where they don't really seem to belong. When you read Doomsday Diaries, every one of those weird events from other stories are recapped and their meaning is revealed. It's as if Powell dropped ingredients in every story he wrote, then later gathered them all up to bake a cake that you didn't see coming when he wrote his grand finale of the Mitchell universe.

I would have easily given the story 5 stars but there were several times when I felt certain things were off-track, or inconsistent and this is just a difference of opinion between what I think would've made a better book and obviously what the author felt was the best approach. Other readers may not have the same issues, or they may have others. I read a review by one reader who felt the story was ruined by the role that dolphins played, and by the mystical aspects of the tale. I loved those things.

Ultimately, if you're a Powell fan, you should definitely read this book. And I do recommend reading the actual book which contains all parts rather than reading it one series part at a time. Ideally, you should read it after you've read all of the other Mitchell stories so you get the full impact of all of the mysteries being resolved in one story.

As usual, I can't wait to read the next Powell book on my list. See you soon, Benjamin!

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sort of in a jam here, as the author was nice enough to get in touch with me and offer to mail me a free copy of his book. And the author seemed like a genuinely nice guy.

However, his book just wasn't for me. Don't get me wrong, I like a good post-apocaliptic as much as the next guy... but this one just didn't match up.

I understand, that a big thing in writing is to "write what you know", and I respect that... but another saying I like is "TMI"... tha author goes into his obvious experience with military equipment, but frankly, after enumerating a bunch of weapons numbers one after the other, I just kind of doze off.

Then mixing in the "elite" (illuminatti?), invisible ninja clones, a pseudo-jesus-christ and pseudo-devil... and a bunch of dolphins, not to mention navy-seals, impossibly surviving family members and the beginnings of a new (chapter? the "The All-New Testanment?") and the so cliché and over-used pedo-priest (you do know that there are actual priests out there that are actually very good people, right?), oh not to mention the over described sex scenes where I was feeling uncomfortably like a voyeur, and dont get me wrong... some voyeurism is good... just that when I get the feeling I'd be uncomfortable and apolegetic were I to "accidentally" happen upon such a scene... well, that's not the kind of voyeurism I'm into.

Add to the fact that the main character isn't even 17... and well, there's something wrong about reading of a minor's sex life... hey, I know 15-16-and-17 year olds are having sex... I just don't think it's right to read about them doing it.

This book gets its 2 stars due to the author being a nice guy and sending me his book... add to that that he is ex-military and could in all probability kick my ass :-) and well, ya know, heh.

Not at all a coincidence, but seeing as the author's own son and the book's hero are both called Luke... I was expecting the author to write himself in at any moment and give us a "Luke, I AM your father!" scene, heh

Anyway, thank you, Aaron B. Powell, for sending me your book, I started it with the hope and intention of liking it. I'm sorry I did not and wish you better reviews to come.

[Pamela Hovanec · Rating 5 out of 5]

I WAS TAKEN IN BY THIS BOOK FROM PAGE ONE! I LOVED THIS BOOK AARON AND CANT WAIT TO READ MORE ON IT.. THE POWER OF FAMILY AND WILLINGNESS TO SURVIVE IS AWESOME, EXCITING AND A WONDER TO READ, LOVED IT VERY MUCH!!

THANKS SO MUCH

PAMELA

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this. Really. The author was incredibly generous and sent me a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review, even after I failed to win the giveaway on Goodreads. This is described as a series, but more properly it’s a serial novel. There’s nothing self-contained about the individual works, and you have to read all four to get the story. There are a couple of other stories set in this same world, starring Luke’s father, but I don’t plan to track them down. I almost never leave a book unfinished, but I was strongly tempted this time. Had I not agreed to do a review, I don’t know if I would have finished. Although, all things considered, Mr. Powell may have been happier if I’d stopped… This review is for the collection, you can find the reviews for the individual installments on the appropriate pages. They should be easy to find, they were the only negative ones for some reason....

It all begins with the end of the world. Most of the Earth’s population perished instantly in the nuclear fires set off by the New World Order, the world’s elitists purging the unwashed masses from the Earth in their pursuit of a new Eden that they firmly controlled. Some, like Luke Mitchell and his family, survived in bunkers and shelters prepared against just such a day. Many did not. When Luke and his family finally emerge from hiding, they will find a world that is not at all what they expected…Can Luke find the strength within himself to do what has to be done, to meet his destiny and take down the New World Order once and for all?

Like I said, I wanted to like this, but alas, I found it to be mediocre at best. The plot was needlessly cliched, and the conspiracy theories he draws from make Mel Gibson’s character from Conspiracy Theory look sane. The characters were kind of cardboard, but not always uninteresting. At first we get a good sense of who Luke is, his wants and dreams and so forth, because everything is presented as him writing in his diary a la D.J. MacHale’s Pendragon novels, but as things move forward he becomes less and less believable as a character. Why? Because aside from his libido, Luke has not a single character flaw. He’s set up as an incredibly vanilla Christ figure, so this makes sense in a way, but that’s no excuse for a lack of inner conflict. The only thing Luke is ever conflicted about in the course of the story (at least after leaving the fallout shelter, anyway, which is where the real story starts) is his feeling for the two separate girls vying for his attention–and even that falls flat. I’ll get to that later. It’s no spoiler to tell you that Luke will die at some point, given his status as a Christ figure, but even that he meets with an even keel. Christ himself was in great turmoil over this prospect, to the point of sweating blood, while Luke calmly meets his fate without flinching. I’m all for exploring and reinventing Christ’s story if there’s something interesting to be gained from it,* but in this case it was simply hijacked to serve as a front for an uninteresting New Age parable about how the Universe itself is God, and we are all a part of that. Again, more of that later. There’s an interesting conversation to be had about why all our fictional Christ figures come out looking more like Neo than they do like Jesus, but that’s a bit outside the scope and purpose of this blog. I will grant that Mr. Powell does a little better in this regard than most, even if it does introduce an annoying inconsistency to the character. At one point Luke is revolted by the NWO’s cloning program and the “soulless creatures” it is turning out, and mercilessly guns them down as abominations. (Again, I’ll deal with this particular facet in a minute.) Fifteen pages later he and his men are pinned down by more of the clones, and he begins praying in despair at the violence on both sides. The result is a character you can’t quite accept as genuine.

I have no trouble reading stuff that comes with a different worldview than the one I embrace–in fact, I often welcome the chance to examine the ideas inherent in such narratives and the questions they raise. There’s a group of Christians that choose to wall themselves off from the parts of popular culture that conflict with their beliefs, and I understand that. I’m not a part of that group, and that attitude frustrates me, but I understand it. It’s easy. I choose to engage the culture in conversation and examine the ideas it presents–for example, the discussion Buffy The Vampire Slayer prompts about the nature of evil and the soul. Some of the characters and elements that are inherent to that show automatically disqualify it from the watch lists of many of my brethren, and that’s sad. So when I gripe about the New Age agenda presented in this book, please understand that my problem isn’t that I disagree with it or stand in firm opposition to it–though I do, unflinchingly–but that it preaches. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t tolerate that even when I agree with what you’re shoving down my throat. When I disagree with the line you’re feeding me, and especially when you’re not giving me anything interesting to engage in conversation, I just want to throw up my hands in frustration. Give me angels disobeying God for the greater good (Legion) or attempting to cause the apocalypse in order to cleanse mankind and make us worthy of God’s love (Constantine). Give me a morally complex tale of good and evil (Buffy) or the nature of personhood and identity (Dollhouse). Give me ideas to play with, don’t shove an ideology down my throat. Give me questions, not answers, and most importantly–above all else–present it in the form of an interesting story. Otherwise you’re wasting my time.

Less subtle but no less off-putting: this book is so sexually explicit it borders on pornography. The prologue is simply a graphic scene of Luke masturbating. I don’t object to sexual content when it is presented tastefully and/or to good purpose, but there’s a limit. I was prepared to forgive the prologue due to the fact that it really did a decent job of putting you inside Luke’s head and where he’s at emotionally, very much depressed and wondering how the model died even as he relieves himself. I didn’t appreciate reading about it, but I admitted it’s effectiveness in its assumed purpose. The rest of the material? It was overly detailed, even pointlessly gratuitous. I don’t deny that the characters would act the way they do in the given situations, but I don’t need details! Extra creepy since everyone involved is underage, and with an added creep factor since the main character is basically modeled on Mr. Powell’s son.** Subtlety is an art, and one it seems Mr. Powell has yet to achieve.

Other more minor issues include a “love triangle” that is less triangle than it is bait-and-switch and a complete lack of moral ambiguity on the issue of cloning. Here, clones are “soulless creatures that cannot understand the beauty in the world.” (New World Order, pg. 102) Why? In-narrative, no reason is given. Since they seem to be unquestioningly obedient, you could posit the theory that there’s some mental conditioning or mind control going on, and we know they’re being genetically engineered for certain traits (like a healing factor a la Wolverine), but to me that only makes them more of a victim and has no bearing on the “soul” as it is traditionally understood. If, as is posited here, everyone and everything in the Universe is a part of God then that should include the clones as well. They deserve help and pity, not to be mercilessly gunned down (self defense aside). I could go on for pages here about the nature of the soul and the ethics of cloning, especially if I dug into my archive from philosophy class for the paper I did on the topic, but I’ll spare you. I’ll leave it at this: the cloning factor gave Mr. Powell the chance to do something really interesting here, but he’s beat out by literally every other cloning-related story I’ve ever encountered, including Michael Bay’s The Island (which is really much better than you would expect, given Bay’s reputation. I credit the acting talent involved.) When Michael Bay, king of explosions and eye candy, tells a more morally complex tale than yours, that’s sad.

I don’t want you to think that this was completely negative with no positives. For most of the book I was at least moderately entertained, at least when I wasn’t distracted by my annoyance with the aforementioned issues. In addition, Mr. Powell definitely knows what he’s talking about in terms of military hardware, slang, and maneuvers. Was this enough to save the book for me? No. Not nearly. But it is enough to win the book a second star in its rating.

CONTENT: Hands-down the most sexually explicit novel I’ve ever read. There is graphic descriptions of masturbation, oral sex, and the main character losing his virginity, as well as multiple other acts he witnesses but does not participate in. You’ve been warned. R-rated language, occasional but still present. Strong violence. A preachy, cliched New Age agenda.

*I’m still hunting for a copy of ¡Hero!: The Rock Opera off and on….
**At least, he dedicates the book to his son Luke.

[Jeff Dawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doomsday Diaries Part I

Interesting concept

This isn’t your normal post apocalyptic story. Book one is written in the style of a journal. Luke and his family take refuge from the coming nuclear holocaust. His father Patrick and Uncle Grant built a shelter North of Austin, just in case the world goes nuts.

Is the pace a little slow at times? Yes, but that’s not a distraction. It allows the setting and players to be thoroughly fleshed out.

No heroics here, just the story of three family members trying to survive a world gone mad.

Some minor editing issues. I believe the author is going back to address them.

3.5 stars

Doomsday Diaries Part II

Of the four, this one is the slowest as the table is set for books three and four. Needs a bit of editing. Some readers have made mention they wouldn’t be moving on. Don’t be fooled. Yes, this one is a bit slow, but trust me, you will rush through three and four as everything comes together.

The prologue seems a bit out of place as we are thrust back in time. It really stumped me. Fear not, the lines will all be connected in the fourth one.

We are introduced to the NOW’s (New World Order) plans on ruling Earth and raising a new breed to carry out the evil plan of King Winthrop. Think of the Star Trek episode with Ricardo Montalban is seeking to build a master race. With over 99% of the population destroyed, Winthrop is going to create his own race which has one purpose: To Serve Him.

The core of this segment revolves around the NWO’s breeding station for teenagers. Think Logan’s Run. Now this is where it gets very steamy as the mating center is described in detail and I mean in detail. We are also introduced to Kara who Luke thinks is his true love. Nothing is as it appears.

The kids are there for one reason and one reason only: Breeding. Sounds like a Mecca doesn’t it? At first, it would be a lot of fun but as the scenes continue, Mr. Powell does an excellent job of removing the humanity from the topic and replacing the act with robotic actions. It be like a male being a guest at the Playboy Mansion. Seriously, it would be great for a while, but once the excitement of being surrounded by beautiful women everyday wears off, it would become the norm. The thrill would be gone. Paradise isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.


The connection between Luke and Moesha, for me, was a bit overdone. Granted, I know Mr. Powell enjoys writing about erotica, but in this case I felt the dehumanizing of Luke’s sexual acts with Kara and Moesha were a bit overdone. But then again, that could also be the beauty of the act.

Three Stars


Doomsday Diaries Part III

Now it’s getting good. All of the development is complete, allowing the story to rocket into a new world. This is like no other work concerning the end of the world. Even the movie “End of Days,” pales in comparison. We are realizing why Winthrop destroyed the world’s population and who he really is and what he stands for. His goal isn’t only world domination, it’s universal domination! With his clones and servants, he shall rule over everything God has built.


Four Stars

Doomsday Diaries Part IV

Who is Luke? Is he human, or a reincarnation of a vessel carrying a pure soul?

It was difficult to rate each book as each one is so short, yet they were critical to set the plate. The final episode is well worth the read as all the pieces come together tracking Luke, his father, great-grandfather, mother and Uncle’s battles through life to ensure Luke, the Protector, is armed with the proper tools and thoughts to battle once and for all, the evil which clouds our minds on a daily basis. In the end, will the world give birth to a new Eden or will evil rule the new world?

What makes this series a great work is the insertion of the bible and a true battle of Armageddon between good and evil.

A very entertaining and thought provoking series. Well done Aaron.

Four stars