What do you think?
Rate this book
Seven Days 'Til Mayhem
When a worldwide cyber-attack releases every prisoner at once, everything changes.
Kevin Richardson wrestles with the choice to help in this global crisis far beyond his training as a volunteer state guard. After he chases down and subdues a desperate murderer, however, he realizes that courage in this new chaotic world is needed now more than ever.
But as the hackers escalate their unimaginable plans, Kevin teams with other first responders who slowly realize the truth. The danger is less about the criminals—and more about the swift collapse of law and order at every level.
Kevin’s inner demons emerge as the outer world unravels.
Will he find redemption in confronting them? Or will the mayhem consume him first?
If you like collapsing societies, courage in the face of fear, and intense character struggles, then you’ll love this realistic and gripping post-apocalyptic thrill ride. Perfect for fans of Franklin Horton, Ryan Schow, Kyla Stone, Derek Shupert, and The October Fall World!
Seven Days 'til Mayhem is the intense first book in the Echoes of the Just post-apocalyptic trilogy.
Kevin Richardson wrestles with the choice to help in this global crisis far beyond his training as a volunteer state guard. After he chases down and subdues a desperate murderer, however, he realizes that courage in this new chaotic world is needed now more than ever.
But as the hackers escalate their unimaginable plans, Kevin teams with other first responders who slowly realize the truth. The danger is less about the criminals—and more about the swift collapse of law and order at every level.
Kevin’s inner demons emerge as the outer world unravels.
Will he find redemption in confronting them? Or will the mayhem consume him first?
If you like collapsing societies, courage in the face of fear, and intense character struggles, then you’ll love this realistic and gripping post-apocalyptic thrill ride. Perfect for fans of Franklin Horton, Ryan Schow, Kyla Stone, Derek Shupert, and The October Fall World!
Seven Days 'til Mayhem is the intense first book in the Echoes of the Just post-apocalyptic trilogy.
401 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 18, 2025
291 people are currently reading
1639 people want to read
About the author
Austin Chambers
31 books55 followersBe sure to find and follow me on Bookbub, too! I appreciate the help! https://www.bookbub.com/profile/austi...
Navy veteran Austin Chambers took an early retirement from a naval shipyard to grow veggies in his new raised garden beds. He hosts a video channel for emergency preparedness called crossed Cannons Readiness. He and his lovely bride of almost 29 years live in Washington State with an awesome mouser named Combat Kitty.
Navy veteran Austin Chambers took an early retirement from a naval shipyard to grow veggies in his new raised garden beds. He hosts a video channel for emergency preparedness called crossed Cannons Readiness. He and his lovely bride of almost 29 years live in Washington State with an awesome mouser named Combat Kitty.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 21, 2025
I thought it was very good, the author made the main characters very likable and kept you rooting for them through all the turmoil of the world going to crap. kinda scary and sorta believable in this day and age of technology and hackers
I need to get the second book and read it but I just have too much on my TBR shelf at the moment. Soon I hope.
I need to get the second book and read it but I just have too much on my TBR shelf at the moment. Soon I hope.
April 10, 2025
Chaos ! The thoughts that this is a very possible
Reality! Pre-ordered the next book.
Reality! Pre-ordered the next book.
March 13, 2025
Reading Journal Details
Book: Seven Days 'Til Mayhem by Austin Chambers
Format Read: Audiobook (~10 hours, 18 minutes long)
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (3.5/5)
Quick Take Review
Seven Days 'Til Mayhem is a well-written dystopian thriller with multiple POVs that intertwine in an engaging yet occasionally overwhelming narrative. Though the synopsis is somewhat misleading, the strong character development, realistic crisis reactions, and immersive narration make it a solid debut worth continuing.
Full Review
Seven Days 'Til Mayhem offers a refreshing take on the global dystopian genre, featuring a strong blend of environmental and character development. While the synopsis suggests a single-POV following Kevin Richardson, the narrative actually alternates between multiple perspectives—an engaging approach, though somewhat misleading given the blurb. The numerous characters and subplots, while well-developed, occasionally made it difficult to keep track of all the details, though they do eventually intersect in meaningful ways.
The story is well-written, capturing a chaotic, old school blue light special-esque panic as the global crisis unfolds, making readers question how they would react in a similar situation—prepare ahead of time, panic, or wing it? The characters' responses feel realistic, further grounding the narrative. While the multiple perspectives work well, the book could have benefitted from a follow-up or prequel to flesh out some of the side characters further, which I'd certainly read!
The audiobook narration by Gary Bennett was excellent, as he maintained a consistent and engaging performance that brought the diverse cast to life. Overall, this was a very solid debut and an intriguing start to a series I look forward to continuing.
I am thankful to have received a free complimentary advanced listener's copy (ALC) of this book from NetGalley and Dreamscape Media. I am voluntarily leaving this review; all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Book: Seven Days 'Til Mayhem by Austin Chambers
Format Read: Audiobook (~10 hours, 18 minutes long)
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (3.5/5)
Quick Take Review
Seven Days 'Til Mayhem is a well-written dystopian thriller with multiple POVs that intertwine in an engaging yet occasionally overwhelming narrative. Though the synopsis is somewhat misleading, the strong character development, realistic crisis reactions, and immersive narration make it a solid debut worth continuing.
Full Review
Seven Days 'Til Mayhem offers a refreshing take on the global dystopian genre, featuring a strong blend of environmental and character development. While the synopsis suggests a single-POV following Kevin Richardson, the narrative actually alternates between multiple perspectives—an engaging approach, though somewhat misleading given the blurb. The numerous characters and subplots, while well-developed, occasionally made it difficult to keep track of all the details, though they do eventually intersect in meaningful ways.
The story is well-written, capturing a chaotic, old school blue light special-esque panic as the global crisis unfolds, making readers question how they would react in a similar situation—prepare ahead of time, panic, or wing it? The characters' responses feel realistic, further grounding the narrative. While the multiple perspectives work well, the book could have benefitted from a follow-up or prequel to flesh out some of the side characters further, which I'd certainly read!
The audiobook narration by Gary Bennett was excellent, as he maintained a consistent and engaging performance that brought the diverse cast to life. Overall, this was a very solid debut and an intriguing start to a series I look forward to continuing.
I am thankful to have received a free complimentary advanced listener's copy (ALC) of this book from NetGalley and Dreamscape Media. I am voluntarily leaving this review; all thoughts and opinions are my own.
March 7, 2025
So if you read the little blurb that tells you what to expect in this book you may understand why I was a tad bit disappointed. I went in expecting the end of the world but I got a cyber attack and chaos. I think we are getting to the end of society as we know it, chaos ensues, type of situation in future books, but this one is just tipping a toe in it. I see where this is setting up the future of the series but don't call it a post-apocalyptic thriller if there is no apocalypse! Sigh, I love dystopian books. Anyway, this book description also makes it seem like we are following one character, Kevin, and we do follow Kevin, but we also follow quite a few other characters, and in the beginning, it's hard to keep up with them. All the various POVs do coalesce and their stories and lives combine some more than others, but this is a multiple-character novel. I do think it's entertaining in the end but my expectations were set for one path and the story took me to another. (This is why I prefer going in blind). I think every character has great potential with the two standouts being our bad guy and the mama bear. The mom, sorry I forgot her name already, was a standout, she is fighting not only for her life but her daughters, and she's injured and she gets brutal. Every character faces crossing lines they never thought they would have to and I like that. Do I think this story is worth reading? Yes, absolutely, it's definitely a survivalist story, one of brutality, friendship, and of course, adapting. I think the beginning was chaos and trying to understand where we were going took awhile for me, but once I got there I was invested. The narrator they have for the audio is ok. There were times when he sounded a bit artificial, like he was part bot, but ultimately he was not my favorite, but he got the job done.
March 13, 2025
I felt disappointed with Seven Days Till Mayhem. Let me explain the downfalls.
1 - It is not Sci-Fi or dystopian
2 - Too many characters thrown at the reader
3 - Too many detailed character descriptions
4 - No real protagonist
5 - No real antagonist
6 - Overloaded narrative
But its a dystopian? No, not really. So the jails get unlocked and inmates escape. Yes, it becomes a tragedy, but that will not be the downfall of society. From the heavy hand of government locking things down to society coming to a halt, it is an over-reach. The criminal would be rounded up quickly, not something that would take such a long time that everyone would cower in their homes.
There were too many characters thrown at the reader too quickly. Yes, having characters in the book is important, but when you overload a reader, they loose track of them quickly. Why overload? And the details about each character are dumped on the reader as well. It caused me to wonder why, when the character is only brought in for a short time and then disappears. Or a simple character who could have a paragraph or two of back story, turns out to have more pages of back story than the amount of pages they have in a book!
With no real protagonist, the story ran along introducing and forgetting about characters. And from the start to the end, this was the theme. And the antagonist only appeared nearer to the end with no real understanding of what they did before that. With 3rd person using multiple POV characters (but not done omnipotently), it becomes hard to keep track. The antagonist could have been introduced sooner. But alas, that did not happen.
And while I love a good narrative, this work was overloaded on such. Character interaction suffered from the narrative being over 80% of the book.
In so many ways, this book feels like an off-lance of the TV show Prison Break.
1 - It is not Sci-Fi or dystopian
2 - Too many characters thrown at the reader
3 - Too many detailed character descriptions
4 - No real protagonist
5 - No real antagonist
6 - Overloaded narrative
But its a dystopian? No, not really. So the jails get unlocked and inmates escape. Yes, it becomes a tragedy, but that will not be the downfall of society. From the heavy hand of government locking things down to society coming to a halt, it is an over-reach. The criminal would be rounded up quickly, not something that would take such a long time that everyone would cower in their homes.
There were too many characters thrown at the reader too quickly. Yes, having characters in the book is important, but when you overload a reader, they loose track of them quickly. Why overload? And the details about each character are dumped on the reader as well. It caused me to wonder why, when the character is only brought in for a short time and then disappears. Or a simple character who could have a paragraph or two of back story, turns out to have more pages of back story than the amount of pages they have in a book!
With no real protagonist, the story ran along introducing and forgetting about characters. And from the start to the end, this was the theme. And the antagonist only appeared nearer to the end with no real understanding of what they did before that. With 3rd person using multiple POV characters (but not done omnipotently), it becomes hard to keep track. The antagonist could have been introduced sooner. But alas, that did not happen.
And while I love a good narrative, this work was overloaded on such. Character interaction suffered from the narrative being over 80% of the book.
In so many ways, this book feels like an off-lance of the TV show Prison Break.
March 9, 2025
thank you to netgalley for providing me with this audiobook. Warning there is a lot of blood and violence, not just with criminal elements, but even with society itself breaking down.
This is a contemporary Thriller where cyber criminals have Incorporated themselves into pretty much every facet of our society. The book starts at these cybercriminals trigger many sectors to attack upon itself basically. It's a little far-fetched that every single prison is on the same network that they were able to open up all of the doors across the country all at once. But for the sake of the story audience disbelief and enjoy the story. The book didn't mention anything about State penitentiaries or local jail houses. So we don't know if those remain locked up or not. But military hardware, and missiles, and more have all fallen under control of these cyber terrorist. It definitely makes one stop and think even if the possibilities may be to this extreme, the damage that could be done by these bad actors could be devastating. I think the most interesting facet is how quickly society itself, who typically would obey law and care for their fellow man, seem to degrade into selfishness. And I could definitely see that happening after we saw the effects of a pandemic as well as how Black Fridays used to be. This is part of a series so it certainly ends without a completion. It says 7 Days to mayhem, but it seems like it starts out right away. And I'm not sure that we even made it through 7 days. But it sure seems like more is to come in further novels. I would definitely look forward to reading further in this series, and would recommend it to others who read this type of an apocalyptic book.
This is a contemporary Thriller where cyber criminals have Incorporated themselves into pretty much every facet of our society. The book starts at these cybercriminals trigger many sectors to attack upon itself basically. It's a little far-fetched that every single prison is on the same network that they were able to open up all of the doors across the country all at once. But for the sake of the story audience disbelief and enjoy the story. The book didn't mention anything about State penitentiaries or local jail houses. So we don't know if those remain locked up or not. But military hardware, and missiles, and more have all fallen under control of these cyber terrorist. It definitely makes one stop and think even if the possibilities may be to this extreme, the damage that could be done by these bad actors could be devastating. I think the most interesting facet is how quickly society itself, who typically would obey law and care for their fellow man, seem to degrade into selfishness. And I could definitely see that happening after we saw the effects of a pandemic as well as how Black Fridays used to be. This is part of a series so it certainly ends without a completion. It says 7 Days to mayhem, but it seems like it starts out right away. And I'm not sure that we even made it through 7 days. But it sure seems like more is to come in further novels. I would definitely look forward to reading further in this series, and would recommend it to others who read this type of an apocalyptic book.
April 29, 2025
Chillingly plausible!
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2025
Seven Days To Mayhem is about the nation struggling to survive in the wake of a terrorist attack which frees every prisoner in the country, to start with anyway. As the time goes on, we get to know Ramona, Jamar, Kevin and a group of others, from disparate first responder and prison guard backgrounds are thrown together in a fight to survive. The plot is flawlessly executed, the characters superbly written, the dialogue is realistic, given the extreme circumstances. This is a different apocalypse story, but it has all the hallmarks of the best authors in the genre. 5/5 stars! Highly recommended for anyone interested in apocalyptic survival thrillers and simply tightly constructed thrillers!
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2025
Seven Days To Mayhem is about the nation struggling to survive in the wake of a terrorist attack which frees every prisoner in the country, to start with anyway. As the time goes on, we get to know Ramona, Jamar, Kevin and a group of others, from disparate first responder and prison guard backgrounds are thrown together in a fight to survive. The plot is flawlessly executed, the characters superbly written, the dialogue is realistic, given the extreme circumstances. This is a different apocalypse story, but it has all the hallmarks of the best authors in the genre. 5/5 stars! Highly recommended for anyone interested in apocalyptic survival thrillers and simply tightly constructed thrillers!
April 30, 2025
This story follows several people during an apocalypse: Ramona Perez, a Seattle police officer; Jamar Johnsons, a corrections officer; Kevin Richardson, who belongs to the Washington state guard; Wade Curry, an escaped felon; and some others. Some mysterious hackers have hacked systems all over the world releasing prisoners, compromising military systems and generally causing mayhem and the breakdown of society. The action is confined to Washington State and the chapters rotate from character to character in POV. The story gets bogged down in details sometimes but picks up toward the climax at the Tacoma Dome stadium. This is obviously the first book in an open ended series. It did not keep my interest very well.
I received an ARC for Kindle. All opinions are my own
I received an ARC for Kindle. All opinions are my own
March 13, 2025
What happens when a cyber attack releases all the prisoners simultaneously? When Kevin a volunteer civilian soldier (similar to national guard) is called to assist local and military personnel to help round up the convicts, he must do whats the best for the country. Kevin teams up with a local police officer things go downhill quickly. What is more dangerous a convict looking to exact revenge or the greedy people who think they are above the law.
4 stars
The narrator Gary Bennett is great! High quality production.
4 stars
The narrator Gary Bennett is great! High quality production.
July 23, 2025
Austin Chambers opens a new Series with Echoes of the Just, being published by Aethon Books.
Open the Books!
Open your Brain Cells!
Someone has Opened the Doors of the Cells, and It is NOT Justice Spilling Forth!
Chaos Quickly Ensues, and as the Minutes turn into Hours, the Powers that Be begin to Crumble.
Protectors of the Humble Scramble, or become Scrambled, as Eggs are Broken, and the Omelette goes well out of the Frying Pan and into the Fiery Baptism of the Days and Weeks to come.
Open the Books!
Open your Brain Cells!
Someone has Opened the Doors of the Cells, and It is NOT Justice Spilling Forth!
Chaos Quickly Ensues, and as the Minutes turn into Hours, the Powers that Be begin to Crumble.
Protectors of the Humble Scramble, or become Scrambled, as Eggs are Broken, and the Omelette goes well out of the Frying Pan and into the Fiery Baptism of the Days and Weeks to come.
September 5, 2025
Didn’t know what to expect from this book but I turned out to be alright. Not a great book but an average one. Nothing stood out that struck me as wondering what would happen next or encourage me to be excited about the storyline. To be blunt I almost stopped reading it once but stubbornness kept me going. I’ll keep my final judgement of the series until I finish book 2. Final word at this point is I’m on the fence. We will see what we’ll see.
March 27, 2025
Wow ! Well this was definitely full on mayhem. From start to finish I was on tenterhooks wondering if our main characters, Kevin, Jamar and Ramona were going to survive in this growing violence and destruction around them. Seven Days Til Mayhem was an exciting, thrilling and violent story and I can't wait for the next book. Definitely recommend.
April 26, 2025
Interesting read
The plot is interesting and exciting but I was a bit overwhelmed with so many characters and their backstories. The storyline could have been much smoother if there was less descriptive narrative.
Kindle Unlimited
The plot is interesting and exciting but I was a bit overwhelmed with so many characters and their backstories. The storyline could have been much smoother if there was less descriptive narrative.
Kindle Unlimited
March 16, 2025
Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an early audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 stars
Kevin Richardson is part of the state volunteer guard and is called up as hackers unlock all of the prisons in the country. There is mass chaos as the prisoners escape with most of them ready for revenge.
I enjoyed Gary Bennett's narration.
3.5 stars
Kevin Richardson is part of the state volunteer guard and is called up as hackers unlock all of the prisons in the country. There is mass chaos as the prisoners escape with most of them ready for revenge.
I enjoyed Gary Bennett's narration.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews