Jeremy's Run: L.A. Dark, Book 1

Jeremy's Run #1

by G.F. Gustav

Five friends. West L.A. The power goes out, and everything with it. Civilization as they know it has ended. And they are in the worst place they could be - surrounded by looter gangs and millions who will soon be desperate and dying.

Young, fit, but ill prepared, their choices are few and stark.

Jeremy's L.A. Dark is the first installment of a serial story that chronicles an epic struggle of the human spirit to survive, to prevail over the odds, to retain one's humanity, and to keep alive the hope for a new and better future.

Genres: Apocalyptic, Fiction, Dystopia, Action, Survival, Post Apocalyptic, Suspense

Audible Audio

First published May 1, 2013

About the author

Thank you for taking a few minutes to drop by.

Don't you just hate writing bios about yourself?

What matters is whether or not you, dear reader, enjoy reading the books and feel you got great entertainment value for your dollar and your time. If you do, we've succeed together.

My sole objective is to deliver that.

I'm an engineer by training, but I've been writing for years. Finally decided to put stuff out there. I hope you enjoy it!

Reviews

[carol. · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I'm feeling fine...

L.A. Dark was a quick little freebie, my 2 a.m. Twix bar of temptation. Although truthfully not a fabulous read, it was entertaining enough, greatly assisting in wakefulness during a dreadfully dull night shift.

A trio of male roommates, two girlfriends and a dog are hanging out in their L.A. apartment when reports about international warfare start to trickle in. Before long there are a number of startling flashes across the L.A. skyline. Moments later, the power goes out. They're left with the decision to stay and hope for help, or to leave.

I appreciated the set-up that seems to examine the psychology of both the individual and the group. The beauty of a multi-character format is that an author can use different characters to explore the range of possible reactions as people adjust to their new reality and the changes in the city around them. The evolution of coping and societal breakdown is reflected in deliberately paced timeline, which I liked. People will be nice at first in a disaster, but unfortunately, the people most able to cope in a war-zone may not be the most compassionate.

I also found it had a generally satisfactory plot to description ratio. It is always interesting to see how an author creates and mitigates the doomsday scenario, but there is a common tendency to get bogged down in details.

Unfortunately, this free segment ends on a cliffhanger. If this is the sort of thing that bothers you, don't pick it up. The sequel was $3.50, so I figured it averaged out to acceptable cost to distraction ratio. There's a third section due out in September, but I'm on the fence as to whether I'd pick it up. The sequel required enough skimming that it seems unlikely.

More problematically, the characterization could use development. There's an L.A. pseudo-punk stoner with an odd degree of aggression and faith in the system (a living oxymoron), a woman with Aspergers who keeps track of time, a white-bread dude that's a faceless stand-in for the reader, a pilot, and an ex-ghetto/ex-military guy. Within short order, I had them mostly confused, and I couldn't tell you much about them except the above traits. The ex-ghetto guy is the most fleshed out, although he has the tendency to sprinkle his sentences with "ese" which helps identify him. It didn't annoy me as much as it could have--when I was in college in L.A., it was "homes" for the pseudo-ghetto so I'm familiar with the verbal tic. My guess is that he's modeled on someone the author knows, and the females were modeled on women who were girl-friends.

I was neutral about Gustav's tendency to info-dump, particularly about the electro-magnetic pulse. The information barrage takes the form of one character educating the others, so it's not as annoying as it could be for me, as I skimmed over the dialogue. I'm pretty sure the rest of the cast was attempting to refrain from pelting him with blue M&Ms.

I recognize that in most books, there's a certain amount of baseline coincidences and exceptions that help create the book, but here there is a preponderance of convenience. A pilot character who has the unusual quirk of being fascinated with old-style aircraft? An army guy who's hobby is electronics? A very smart, military-style trained dog? A family who is extensively prepping for doomsday? 20s somethings with headlamps but lacking camping gear and bicycles? 50% of the people in the story knowing how to use a gun (including the stoner)? Helpful coincidences are a given, but the author needs to integrate them to seem natural, not just drop it in as a helpful skill/solution when needed.

Ultimately, I'd say sure, go ahead and read, if it's 2 in the morning and you have nothing else to do, or you need to get your apocalypse fix on. It's on par with Extinction Point, another one of those doomsday books that reads well enough until you actually think about it for five minutes. I read this one for the plot (because 2 a.m. is a lousy time for slow and thoughtful reads) and so wasn't disappointed. Two and a half stars rounding up because, well, I'm a softie.

[Nick Susie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, just wish they didn't all have the super stud ex-military dude that leads the group. But I guess normal folk like me would end up dead quickly in reality anyway. Now I have to get book two in the series.

[Katherine Decker · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a series start!

After several recommendations from people, I decided to start this series and I am so glad that I did. While not something I would “normally” pick up, I was intrigued by the premise and happy I stepped beyond my usual genre go-to’s and into the post apocalyptic world. I was hooked from the very beginning and will definitely be continuing to read the series to see how Jeremy and his friends make out in their struggle to survive.

[Lucas Hamasaki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, so. This is a very interesting book. I think I like all the characters. It's hard to tell.

Kade is BADASS. And he thought about tampons for the ladies, so he's "sweet". I guess it's safe to say this book was written by a man.

Jeremy is a wimp. They go through a bunch of trouble to get resources to survive. First person who comes knocking on their door and gives stuff away. Jeremy would not survive on his own at all. There's being a "good person", and then there's surviving under those circumstances.

Matt is smart. And dumb. He can think well when it comes to survival. And then he's stupid as hell when it comes to women - especially his girlfriend.

Then we have the ladies, who didn't do much.

Sarah is the "weird" one, who can see colours on people (?) and taste M&Ms colours too. I believe there's a name for this condition, but all they mentioned was autism and Asperger's. She's quite smart, though, and was the only one taking it all seriously before the... ahem, crap hit the fan. However, it's not like she made any important decisions. Important decisions are only made by MEN.

Karina. Oh, boy. She spent 90% of the book drunk and high. She was the annoying one, just giggling and being as unhelpful as possible.

Women can do much more than be weird, annoying and unhelpful, you know?

Other than that, as I said, it was an interesting book. It all happened so fast and it was fun to see them reacting. It was a short book, though. But it does have lots of potential.

EDIT: after having read the next three books, I'm changing my rating from three to two stars. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THESE BOOKS.

[ShingetsuMoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a series that has potential. An EMP event is a real scenario much like the Yellowstome super volcano or New York mega earthquake. Basically meaning it is supported by real world science but most people either ignore it or dismiss the fact that it would ever happen.

EMP events HAVE actually happened before both in America and South Africa as is mentioned at the back of the book. Most of the characters in this book have little to no idea of what is going on and believe the power will be back on soon. There is one character/military man/engineer(?) who immediately takes action to help his friends prepare.

Overall I think this was a fairly believable scenario and the author did a pretty good job. However the drug use felt unnecessary and it was a bit difficult to keep up with who the characters were. It would have been better if they were introduced a bit more gradually instead of all at once.

This is more of a book designed to get you interested in the series rather then a standalone novel. Still for a free Kindle download I'd say it did pretty well.

Recommended.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well...this was a cut above most of the other free kindle fiction I've seen. Like others, though, it ended abruptly. The author clearly intended to entice the reader to purchase subsequent novels, rather than finding a way to make this one a stand alone book in a trilogy or series. My preference is the latter...cliffhangers don't work for me. If I like the author's style and the story line, I will look for subsequent books. If I don't, a cliffhanger ending is not going to change my mind. It just annoys me.

Jeremy's Run begins L.A. Dark, a series of apocalyptic fiction. Five friends hanging out together in an apartment are thrown into survival mode when EMP bursts blacken the coast (and perhaps the rest of the countryside). Engaging, and I can see the potential for not just survivalist themes, but interpersonal conflict, economic issues, and other interesting sub-topics showing up in future books. I hope it doesn't devolve into a standard "first person shooter" type novel...some of that fits the story line, but there needs to be more to keep my attention.

[Kristi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I don't want to give too much away, but it is a realistic (?) apocalypse novel. The characters in it are great. They're 'real' enough that you believe them without going 'oh well -that- was fortunate for them that this guy just happened to be Rambo' or whatever. The author has done his research so that the details seem realistic and makes you believe that this story could have happened, or at least he fooled me.

I've already gotten started on the sequel. It ends in a very tense situation that (if you enjoy the book) makes it agonizing not to continue.

[Autumn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Updating my reviews here. You can find the dates I started and finished this book and the review for this book on my BookLikes.

This book is honestly only worth half a star, but you can't do half stars here.

I would suggest that a reader avoid this book and this author, based on the poor quality of this story, and trying to fleece readers by not giving the reader a full story for their money.

[Mad-robot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another book where the author has a significant amount of real-world knowledge to share, but not a very good platform to share it with. I really wish these guys would team up with a more experienced author, the result would be so much more fun-to-read. While this book was a quick read, the characters are so one-dimensional that they're interchangeable with one another.

Worth a glance if you get it for free through the Kindle, otherwise I would take a pass.

[Carol Daniels · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, great book. Loved every minute of it. I could visualize the apartment, the garage, the freeway, nearby stores, the people they encountered, the book was very descriptive, yet very fast moving. It kept my attention therefore I almost finished the book the first day I started it. Highly recommended. I can't wait to read the next book. I've recommended it to my book club.

[RJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little hesitant at first on choosing this series since it involves a group of five young people. I was concerned that it would be more young adult than survival action-thriller. Turns out the writing is quite good, the characters likable, and the story plausible. I like Kade. He is one cool dude. Three.point.five

[Brad Theado · Rating 3 out of 5]

not your typical EOTW story. usually you get these over muscled army types and although there is one in this story, most of the characters are making things up as they go along. How i think most people will handle the end of the world.

[Fiona Hopkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only reason for the 2 star is that I felt it was more of a preppers manual at times rather than story. This didn't mean I didn't like it, just that I wasn't really invested in the characters - still am reading book 2 so not too bad!

[Diane T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a well written story. I just had trouble getting into it because it is one of those that has 4 or more parts to it. I like my story to end at the end of the book.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read, very well written. I would recommend read.