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Broken Horizons: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Survival Thriller
When the grid mysteriously fails, their fight for survival begins...
Siena Lang's life is anything but perfect. A wretched job, a paltry salary, and the haunting void left by the loss of her parents converge into a catastrophe that defines her existence. The belief that things couldn't possibly worsen shatters when her younger brother, Max, calls her in a panic.
Then the unthinkable happens – the world descends into darkness when the Grid suddenly fails, cutting off all communication and means of travel.
Survival is now a race against time as Siena endures impossible challenges to try and save Max.
And as disaster stirs, she stumbles upon a ghost from her past whose own demons will threaten the course of their future.
Broken Horizons is a post-apocalyptic survival thriller featuring flawed characters faced with surviving a national disaster. A grid-down series perfect for fans of Kyla Stone, Bobby Akart, Jack Hunt, and Ryan Schow.
Get it now!
Siena Lang's life is anything but perfect. A wretched job, a paltry salary, and the haunting void left by the loss of her parents converge into a catastrophe that defines her existence. The belief that things couldn't possibly worsen shatters when her younger brother, Max, calls her in a panic.
Then the unthinkable happens – the world descends into darkness when the Grid suddenly fails, cutting off all communication and means of travel.
Survival is now a race against time as Siena endures impossible challenges to try and save Max.
And as disaster stirs, she stumbles upon a ghost from her past whose own demons will threaten the course of their future.
Broken Horizons is a post-apocalyptic survival thriller featuring flawed characters faced with surviving a national disaster. A grid-down series perfect for fans of Kyla Stone, Bobby Akart, Jack Hunt, and Ryan Schow.
Get it now!
278 pages, Paperback
Published November 12, 2024
250 people are currently reading
75 people want to read
About the author
Derek Shupert
245 books193 followersDerek Shupert is an avid super hero fan (Marvel over DC Universe) and lover of Science Fiction. Derek likes to spend his free time putting down on paper the stories that he has contained in his imagination. By day, he is an Inventory and Distribution Services Center Manager but by night, he writes. To date, he has published four books; two Sci-Fi, a children’s book and a technology consumer guide. He is currently working on two more books which should be available early 2016.
Derek lives in Sherman, Texas with his wife, children and various pets.
Derek lives in Sherman, Texas with his wife, children and various pets.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 25, 2025
1.5 rounded up to 2
In the first of a series, Derek Shupert show the length a man, woman and dog will go to get back to those they love:
Seina receives a call from her brother that he can no longer stand to be at home with his step parents, she is determined to go see him and set things right. Along she gets into an accident as the grid mysterious fall and now she has to travel on foot to get to him. In the forest she meets Ryan and his Dog Dutch and they want to help her to get back, get to her brother. No one knows what caused the grid to fall, but that it always the first step in the fall of civilization.
I'm a fan of dystopia and I do enjoy when I get there to be there from the beginning with the characters to see how they react and to see the fall of civilization with them. This what I thought was going to happen in this book. We have our two main characters that happen to find each other in the forest, and they realize all is not right in the world, but they do not know why or how the world has changed. And that is basically all the happens in the story. Literally nothing of interest happens in this poor. There is no suspense or terror. There is a slight mystery of how the power went out, emp would be the main guess but nothing about who the culprit was. There is an interesting aspect in the prologue but other than finding the drone, not knowing what to with the drone, there is no hint of who may be behind it. Normally there would be some sort of news report or Military official that would have one POV chapter to explain things but nope, nothing.
I'm not even joking that Nothing happens, it takes almost to 50% for them to lose power / cell service and before that the book is very much character driven, but i don’t feel really anything for the characters because for the majority of the book they are not in danger as NOTHING HAPPENS. I'm not even sure why we have Max's POV in the book, other than to make Siena a little more desperate to get to her brother, but his POV does not fill too much of a role of discovering things that Siena and Ryan could have discovered once they made it back to a town.
Dutch, the Dtuch Shepard, is the best part of the book. That dog is loyal to a fault.
This book was not for me. I think there are better dystopian books out there and even ones that use an EMP as the reason for it. I will not continue on with this series
Cheers!!!
In the first of a series, Derek Shupert show the length a man, woman and dog will go to get back to those they love:
Seina receives a call from her brother that he can no longer stand to be at home with his step parents, she is determined to go see him and set things right. Along she gets into an accident as the grid mysterious fall and now she has to travel on foot to get to him. In the forest she meets Ryan and his Dog Dutch and they want to help her to get back, get to her brother. No one knows what caused the grid to fall, but that it always the first step in the fall of civilization.
I'm a fan of dystopia and I do enjoy when I get there to be there from the beginning with the characters to see how they react and to see the fall of civilization with them. This what I thought was going to happen in this book. We have our two main characters that happen to find each other in the forest, and they realize all is not right in the world, but they do not know why or how the world has changed. And that is basically all the happens in the story. Literally nothing of interest happens in this poor. There is no suspense or terror. There is a slight mystery of how the power went out, emp would be the main guess but nothing about who the culprit was. There is an interesting aspect in the prologue but other than finding the drone, not knowing what to with the drone, there is no hint of who may be behind it. Normally there would be some sort of news report or Military official that would have one POV chapter to explain things but nope, nothing.
I'm not even joking that Nothing happens, it takes almost to 50% for them to lose power / cell service and before that the book is very much character driven, but i don’t feel really anything for the characters because for the majority of the book they are not in danger as NOTHING HAPPENS. I'm not even sure why we have Max's POV in the book, other than to make Siena a little more desperate to get to her brother, but his POV does not fill too much of a role of discovering things that Siena and Ryan could have discovered once they made it back to a town.
Dutch, the Dtuch Shepard, is the best part of the book. That dog is loyal to a fault.
This book was not for me. I think there are better dystopian books out there and even ones that use an EMP as the reason for it. I will not continue on with this series
Cheers!!!
November 20, 2024
This was a pretty easy read! I looked forward to sitting down and reading it. If I was to be picky. There were a couple of punctuation and spelling errors that I seen along the way. I believe that they must have changed a character’s name at some point while developing this book and not all changes were noticed during editing. But those are minor things and I did enjoy the book and I have preordered the next one.
November 13, 2024
I absolutely loved this book! I couldn't put it down, can't wait for New Dawn to be released!❤❤❤❤
May 11, 2025
This series could use a good editor. Lots of grammatical errors and repetitive word usage (how many times can Dutch "chomp his food?"). It's distracting though not terrible. Worse are the characters. None of them are particularly endearing, with the main female character having no personality other than being particularly snotty and sarcastic (except for her devotion to her brother, whom she's uncharacteristically attached to somehow). Her brother isn't developed that well either, and lives with an almost comically cliche evil stepfather, who really just seems kind of gruff and strict moreso than unreasonable, but apparently is the devil for telling him to clean up and be quiet when he's sleeping.
It doesn't come across as an apocalyptic novel because there's not really any discussion in the book regarding what's going on, other than some vague discussion of the power being out and occasional military vehicles being seen. In fact, the main characters honestly don't seem super concerned and are kind of like, oh well, maybe terrorists, but we've got things to do. We never have any story or insight as to what is actually going on whatsoever, it's mostly just the characters making snide comments to each other while they try to figure out how to get gas, snacks and energy drinks without getting shot by looters on their road trip.
That being said, it's a quick and easy read, and it keeps you hooked because you figure at some point, they'll tell you what's going on and maybe start doing something interesting, but I'm three books in and it's all been the same so far so..... we shall see.
It doesn't come across as an apocalyptic novel because there's not really any discussion in the book regarding what's going on, other than some vague discussion of the power being out and occasional military vehicles being seen. In fact, the main characters honestly don't seem super concerned and are kind of like, oh well, maybe terrorists, but we've got things to do. We never have any story or insight as to what is actually going on whatsoever, it's mostly just the characters making snide comments to each other while they try to figure out how to get gas, snacks and energy drinks without getting shot by looters on their road trip.
That being said, it's a quick and easy read, and it keeps you hooked because you figure at some point, they'll tell you what's going on and maybe start doing something interesting, but I'm three books in and it's all been the same so far so..... we shall see.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 14, 2024
Most promising EMP thriller in a long time!
In a literary landscape club with EMP/CME disaster novels, Broken Horizons stands out with superb writing, flawed, believable and relatable characters, excellent plot structure and is, on the whole, absolutely excellent! This book deserves the #1 rating in not just disaster fiction, but fiction as a whole. And as a first foray into Derek Shupert's writing, it leaves me wanting more. Much more. If his other writing is this good, I know what I'm reading while I wait for some Bruno Miller, Mike Kraus and Joshua Calvert books to come out. 5/5 stars with my highest recommendation!
In a literary landscape club with EMP/CME disaster novels, Broken Horizons stands out with superb writing, flawed, believable and relatable characters, excellent plot structure and is, on the whole, absolutely excellent! This book deserves the #1 rating in not just disaster fiction, but fiction as a whole. And as a first foray into Derek Shupert's writing, it leaves me wanting more. Much more. If his other writing is this good, I know what I'm reading while I wait for some Bruno Miller, Mike Kraus and Joshua Calvert books to come out. 5/5 stars with my highest recommendation!
January 1, 2025
Just OK
Okay this book is referred to as an “EMP Survival Thriller” but it isn’t an EMP. Or at least it doesn’t seem like an EMP. The power grid was attacked. That isn’t an EMP. But besides that, the author has done a mostly good job and that’s why I kept reading. He needs a good editor strong in grammar and literacy though. Lots of words used in the incorrect context, subject-verb issues, misplaced participles and modifiers, etc. Some readers won’t be bothered by it. Many others will abandon the book before too long. It has potential. However, since the next one is already ready for me to download, I am expecting just as many issues.
Okay this book is referred to as an “EMP Survival Thriller” but it isn’t an EMP. Or at least it doesn’t seem like an EMP. The power grid was attacked. That isn’t an EMP. But besides that, the author has done a mostly good job and that’s why I kept reading. He needs a good editor strong in grammar and literacy though. Lots of words used in the incorrect context, subject-verb issues, misplaced participles and modifiers, etc. Some readers won’t be bothered by it. Many others will abandon the book before too long. It has potential. However, since the next one is already ready for me to download, I am expecting just as many issues.
March 10, 2025
I’m very excited for the next book in the series. While this book is fairly slow, I feel like it is a very realistic progression of what would happen if the end of the world was coming, so that was something I enjoyed but that might not be for everyone. I did listen to the audiobook, and I thought the narration was pretty good. I appreciated the different narrators for the different characters.
April 3, 2025
Vague story
I’m not one to give bad reviews but this story was very poorly edited and I generally don’t notice editing errors until they are numerous.
The story wasn’t that captivating and the FMC was very annoying and TSTL.
The only interesting character was Dutch the dog.
I’m not one to give bad reviews but this story was very poorly edited and I generally don’t notice editing errors until they are numerous.
The story wasn’t that captivating and the FMC was very annoying and TSTL.
The only interesting character was Dutch the dog.
November 16, 2024
Great start to this new series. Mr Shupert has the knack for getting you hooked from the start. Great storyline and great characters. Looking forward to the next book.
November 28, 2024
Broken Horizons
Well written enjoyed reading it looking forward to book 2 sounds like the town is a little behind in the times.
Well written enjoyed reading it looking forward to book 2 sounds like the town is a little behind in the times.
December 8, 2024
Nothing super surprising or original here. Too much character development and planning for a series without enough happening.
February 13, 2025
Good but slow
The story was good, but it was slow, with not much fast paced action and day by day things didn't change much.
The story was good, but it was slow, with not much fast paced action and day by day things didn't change much.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews