What do you think?
Rate this book
Jack Emery #2
State of Emergency
What is the true cost of security?
Amid a wave of unprecedented terrorist attacks on American soil, a panicked and inexperienced president declares a state of emergency and hands over control of the country to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The quiet and unassuming Administrator Hall soon becomes the most powerful man in America. Determined to stop the attacks, Hall enforces his order across the US, using a newly empowered State Guard to deal with anyone who gets in his way.
As totalitarianism descends across the country, battle-weary reporter Jack Emery is faced with a terrifying new reality when friends, colleagues, and sources are imprisoned before his eyes. Among weekly terrorist attacks, FEMA atrocities, and the clamp tightening on every element of society, Jack becomes one of the few struggling to stop the madness.
This time though, he's on the wrong side of the law and fighting the very government he's trying to save.
ebook
First published June 11, 2015
454 people are currently reading
251 people want to read
About the author
Steve P. Vincent
32 books92 followersSteve P. Vincent lives with his wife in a pokey apartment in Melbourne’s north-west, where he’s forced to write on the couch in front of an obnoxiously large television.
When he’s not writing, Steve keeps food and flat whites on the table working for the man. He enjoys beer, whisky, sports and dreaming up ever more elaborate conspiracy theories to write about.
He has a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Political Science and History. His honours thesis was on the topic of global terrorism. He has travelled extensively through Europe, the United States and Asia.
The Foundation is his first novel.
When he’s not writing, Steve keeps food and flat whites on the table working for the man. He enjoys beer, whisky, sports and dreaming up ever more elaborate conspiracy theories to write about.
He has a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Political Science and History. His honours thesis was on the topic of global terrorism. He has travelled extensively through Europe, the United States and Asia.
The Foundation is his first novel.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
May 27, 2015
I received a copy of this from Netgalley in exchange for my review. I love the idea of this book and Steve Vincent needs to be given credit for attempting such a drastic scenario in the United States. In fact, the plot points kept me reading far longer than I should have one night.
I wanted to love it--it's just the kind of escapist thriller that calls to me every summer. Unfortunately, my inner editor kept intruding into my fantasy.
First of all, I'm sick of profanity--I'm sick of the obligatory "F" word. It seems lazy to me that everyone uses it now. John Grisham doesn't use it and his novels are better than this. Anyway, personal preference.
More importantly, the writing shows great potential but needs finessing. I kept noticing Writing 101 mistakes, like too many sentences starting with the same word (pronoun) or using the same descriptive adjective more than once in the same sentence. I also caught some non-American colloquialisms in this very American book. I know the main character is Australian, but I'm not sure from where the omniscient narrator selected his words. His editor should have caught this.
In the end, I just couldn't suspend my disbelief. As a rule, I'm pretty forgiving with my escapist fiction. However, I kept saying "yeah, but" as the plot events constricted the characters. Knowing the checks and balances of the American political system, everything happened too fast and too completely. What about Congress? The Supreme Court? State governors and state legislatures? Texas would have seceded from the union before letting any of this take root. Hackers would have been way more involved sabatoging everything. The shift was too neat and tidy.
Which is a bummer, because as I said before, I love the idea of this book. Maybe it just needed a couple more re-writes before being released.
I hope Vincent keeps writing. He definitely has potential. He just needs a little more practice.
I wanted to love it--it's just the kind of escapist thriller that calls to me every summer. Unfortunately, my inner editor kept intruding into my fantasy.
First of all, I'm sick of profanity--I'm sick of the obligatory "F" word. It seems lazy to me that everyone uses it now. John Grisham doesn't use it and his novels are better than this. Anyway, personal preference.
More importantly, the writing shows great potential but needs finessing. I kept noticing Writing 101 mistakes, like too many sentences starting with the same word (pronoun) or using the same descriptive adjective more than once in the same sentence. I also caught some non-American colloquialisms in this very American book. I know the main character is Australian, but I'm not sure from where the omniscient narrator selected his words. His editor should have caught this.
In the end, I just couldn't suspend my disbelief. As a rule, I'm pretty forgiving with my escapist fiction. However, I kept saying "yeah, but" as the plot events constricted the characters. Knowing the checks and balances of the American political system, everything happened too fast and too completely. What about Congress? The Supreme Court? State governors and state legislatures? Texas would have seceded from the union before letting any of this take root. Hackers would have been way more involved sabatoging everything. The shift was too neat and tidy.
Which is a bummer, because as I said before, I love the idea of this book. Maybe it just needed a couple more re-writes before being released.
I hope Vincent keeps writing. He definitely has potential. He just needs a little more practice.
June 14, 2022
STATE OF EMERGENCY (Book 2 in the rip-roaring, globetrotting, Jack Avery Series, exemplifies the bullet-train pace often touted for bestselling Thrillers! Literally a one-session, heart-in-mouth, breathless no -stop suspense experience. This novel doesn't slow even when the characters need a break. Lots of violence, lots of "collateral damage" to civilians; but at the foundation are individuals who will not lose their drive and idealism, their vaunted human spirit which is often credited to POWs and to interment camps survivors.
The plot thread is strong, the damages unspeakable, the premise incredibly and painfully realistic. Looking for a "it could happen" Thriller? You've got it right here.
The plot thread is strong, the damages unspeakable, the premise incredibly and painfully realistic. Looking for a "it could happen" Thriller? You've got it right here.
May 2, 2024
Decent idea for a book, but it didn’t quite work for me. There were some situations that were just a little too hard to believe and it was a bit rushed in spots.
July 5, 2022
***Spoiler Alert****
This book started out as a great read. I enjoy reading a good thriller, especially when it is about a resistance formed against a tyrannical government. In this case, it was the ever growing power of FEMA that sneaked its way into slowly taking away the freedoms of American citizens under the guise of "protection against terrorism."
I really enjoyed the simplicity of the writing as, even though there were many characters and different stories going around, it was easy to follow along and not get confused or lost. This, I believed, was a strong point in the book, but the more I started reading it, I came to the conclusion that this wasn't by any kind of genius design, but more because the author wasn't that great in describing emotional scenes.
After a while (and after MANY "F**k you's") it seemed that the characters would only say this because the author couldn't describe feelings of anger in more descriptive ways.
Towards the end, there was a very climatic scene where Jack, one of the main characters in the story, was horribly betrayed by a person in his own circle that he had trusted. One of those said friends had betrayed him leading the death of a great friend "he'd been to hell and back with". And at the scene of the this person's death, all the author could describe that as he held his dying friend in his arms, that there was "no point... there was a hole in the back of Peter's head." No inner dialogue? No anguish and despair described AT ALL. Simply a basic "Why?" to the betrayer and then, YET ANOTHER "F**k you." I was done at that point.
Also, I pictured Jack to be this bad a$$ burly resistance leader, but when this happened, the author described him as "screaming help" and that was it. I'm sorry, but that's the best way you can describe Jack's response to this betrayal and climatic/emotional scene? All I can picture is a high-pitched school girl scream. No. Just no. It was has hard to finish and take this book, and the character of Jack Emery, seriously after that.
This book started out as a great read. I enjoy reading a good thriller, especially when it is about a resistance formed against a tyrannical government. In this case, it was the ever growing power of FEMA that sneaked its way into slowly taking away the freedoms of American citizens under the guise of "protection against terrorism."
I really enjoyed the simplicity of the writing as, even though there were many characters and different stories going around, it was easy to follow along and not get confused or lost. This, I believed, was a strong point in the book, but the more I started reading it, I came to the conclusion that this wasn't by any kind of genius design, but more because the author wasn't that great in describing emotional scenes.
After a while (and after MANY "F**k you's") it seemed that the characters would only say this because the author couldn't describe feelings of anger in more descriptive ways.
Towards the end, there was a very climatic scene where Jack, one of the main characters in the story, was horribly betrayed by a person in his own circle that he had trusted. One of those said friends had betrayed him leading the death of a great friend "he'd been to hell and back with". And at the scene of the this person's death, all the author could describe that as he held his dying friend in his arms, that there was "no point... there was a hole in the back of Peter's head." No inner dialogue? No anguish and despair described AT ALL. Simply a basic "Why?" to the betrayer and then, YET ANOTHER "F**k you." I was done at that point.
Also, I pictured Jack to be this bad a$$ burly resistance leader, but when this happened, the author described him as "screaming help" and that was it. I'm sorry, but that's the best way you can describe Jack's response to this betrayal and climatic/emotional scene? All I can picture is a high-pitched school girl scream. No. Just no. It was has hard to finish and take this book, and the character of Jack Emery, seriously after that.
March 30, 2016
I really enjoyed this book. The second in the series and I really like the twists and turns of the plot. Its an action packed political thriller and it also has really good characters.
In this one Australian journalist Jack Emery has to foil a plot to take over control of the U.S.
It has plenty of drama and suspense and I have really enjoyed this series.
A great read for lovers of action thrillers and tense political drama.
In this one Australian journalist Jack Emery has to foil a plot to take over control of the U.S.
It has plenty of drama and suspense and I have really enjoyed this series.
A great read for lovers of action thrillers and tense political drama.
July 17, 2019
I wanted to like this book more than I did. To be honest I had to force myself to finish it. It was not poorly written but the fact that it was about journalists made it feel slow and boring not to mention the plot was completely unrealistic to the extremes. Not the quality of the Mitch Herron series by the same author.... I love that series!
April 25, 2023
I would like to say this would never happen in the U.S. but never say never, right? What I will say is this book is not a fast paced thriller. I picked it up several times hoping it would catch my interest and because I try to finish what I start. It sloughed along and was boring to me, perhaps because the plot was not plausible. Does anyone think our President and two political parties would relinquish control of the U.S. to one agency, particularly FEMA? Plus have one person at that agency have total control of its actions and decisions? Not gonna happen!
I won't be reading anything else by Mr. Vincent. The two stars are for his bravery in publishing this story.
Can't believe I downloaded this, hope it was free.
I won't be reading anything else by Mr. Vincent. The two stars are for his bravery in publishing this story.
Can't believe I downloaded this, hope it was free.
August 7, 2022
i gotta see if i have read anything from Steve before?? i am not sure ...gotta check that out asap!! series. 4 books "Jack Emery" series. i need to get back on Bookbub and get some more free reads. thank goodness they do exist. are you a member? way fun!! got this for FREE. came out December 29, 2017. financial thrillers. political fiction. pulp thrillers. at the time of doing this review, there are 2 of Steve's reads that are free. check those out asap!! you never know how long that will last. go on. check them out!! i will read more soon, i hope??!
August 20, 2022
I abandoned this book because the plot became too preposterous to believe. A series of (seemingly unconnected) major systemic infrastructure failures almost brings the country to its knees. The President chooses to put the FEMA director in charge of everybody else. I assume this plotline was intended to be satirical and the President in the novel is dumb and indecisive. The satire is shoveled on a little too thick and the story became incredible, which caused me to stop reading it...too many other things I'd rather spend my time doing!
Read
November 14, 2021Steve Vincent has a prescient theme in the two books that I have read. The first involves China starting a war to take over Taiwan (2015), and the second book, State of Emergency (2017), has government bureaucracy turning the US into a dictatorship by faking an emergency (terrorism) and using the Emergency to gag media, and to imprison and murder Citizens who demand their constitutional freedoms. Eerie how both Taiwan and Bureaucratic control are todays news.
October 29, 2022
I wanted to love this more than I did. The blurb reads brilliantly, and I genuinely enjoyed the first part of the novel. It was simply a case of it all becoming too farfetched for me. The language I could handle, right up until he dropped the 'c' word. I know it was within the context of the storyline, but another word or phrase could have been used instead.
Not a bad book, just not a book for me.
Not a bad book, just not a book for me.
March 22, 2020
What appears to be terrorists hitting random sites is in fact a government official that wants to control America. The government enforces curfews, takes control of all news outlets, and sets up detention camps. Pioneering journalist Jack Emery leads a revolt to bring America back to it's democratic roots. There is no down time in this action thriller. I was gifted this from the author.
June 19, 2022
Jack Emery fights for freedom for America at great personal cost losing his best friends and almost the love of his life to beat a man who wants to be the dictator of America. It's a good story with a well thought out premise but it's a bit depressing to think of it ever happening, too many security agencies coming under one mantle is a dangerous concept.
June 22, 2022
Really enjoyed reading this book. Jack Emery, a journalist, is fighting to keep America in one piece. Lots of turns and twists and loss of life. Too many security agencies under one roof which is showing us that it is very dangerous and gives the story a realistic turn. Could this happen in these times? Keep up with your writing Steve.
November 27, 2022
In the name of protecting America, she loses her liberty
Aside from the fact that FEMA doesn't do anti-terrorism, the book was interesting. The premise of the book is that a totalitarian takes charge of controlling America to fight terrorism. And takes away liberties we enjoy. He takes active measures against those who resist his controls. It's not a pretty ending for anyone.
Aside from the fact that FEMA doesn't do anti-terrorism, the book was interesting. The premise of the book is that a totalitarian takes charge of controlling America to fight terrorism. And takes away liberties we enjoy. He takes active measures against those who resist his controls. It's not a pretty ending for anyone.
November 27, 2022
I can only say… Wow!
This is not my usual genre, but I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was an adventure and examined the dangers to freedom in this country and remained apolitical which was greatly appreciated. The characters were complex and the situation quite realistic and the entire story top notch. Now I need a nap, because I was up all night reading!
This is not my usual genre, but I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was an adventure and examined the dangers to freedom in this country and remained apolitical which was greatly appreciated. The characters were complex and the situation quite realistic and the entire story top notch. Now I need a nap, because I was up all night reading!
February 17, 2018
Great concept for a story. Just enough action. Love the characters and found I wanted more.
Just enough action. Love the characters. Wonder what they are doing in the next book. Like the story concept. Would like more constitutional background.
Just enough action. Love the characters. Wonder what they are doing in the next book. Like the story concept. Would like more constitutional background.
February 26, 2018
Excellent Book
When I first started reading this book I didn't think I would like it. Boy was I wrong. This is an excellent read. I didn't read book one, but I think I will read it next. I really like Jack Emery.
When I first started reading this book I didn't think I would like it. Boy was I wrong. This is an excellent read. I didn't read book one, but I think I will read it next. I really like Jack Emery.
July 5, 2018
I had the pleasure of narrating this book recently, nice political intrigue novel. I think if you like political action novels without too much politics and policies this one will be right up your alley. Look for it soon at Audible.com, iTunes, and Amazon.com.
September 2, 2019
Seriously terrifying! This scenario is way to possible. It could happen. Yikes! Same great characters and action packed story full of twists and surprises as the first book. Definitely worth a read!
April 22, 2021
Relevant for today
Very well written. After seeing how our Democrat Govenors took advantage during the pandemic to have more control over us this story is very relevant today. Good story.
Very well written. After seeing how our Democrat Govenors took advantage during the pandemic to have more control over us this story is very relevant today. Good story.
August 14, 2022
Really makes you think
At first it would be easy to say this is just an action story. But events lately really make you think about the possibility of this happening. Very disturbing to realize how easy this fiction could become fact.
At first it would be easy to say this is just an action story. But events lately really make you think about the possibility of this happening. Very disturbing to realize how easy this fiction could become fact.
January 5, 2023
Good read ...
Terrifyingly possible.... totally accurate in what's going on in our country today, with our government. Oh the possibilities if the conspiracy theorists get a hold of this one.
Terrifyingly possible.... totally accurate in what's going on in our country today, with our government. Oh the possibilities if the conspiracy theorists get a hold of this one.
April 22, 2023
Right from today’s headlines!
Intriguing- interesting- insightful
With the way the world seems to be going these days, this was a little too close to reality but showed how easy it would be implement
Read with caution!
Intriguing- interesting- insightful
With the way the world seems to be going these days, this was a little too close to reality but showed how easy it would be implement
Read with caution!
March 23, 2024
Slow and steady
First you must read the first book in the series to gain some context. The book starts slow and provides an easy but steady build up. In the later chapters the action build and pulls the reader along. Overall a solid story line and a good read.
First you must read the first book in the series to gain some context. The book starts slow and provides an easy but steady build up. In the later chapters the action build and pulls the reader along. Overall a solid story line and a good read.
March 23, 2025
I didn't enjoy this. The events and actions were just unbelievable, even for fiction, and it was so incredibly predictable. Everything goes wrong, right up to the last second where it all works out. The stupidity of some of the people is beyond belief.
March 15, 2018
The scenario Vincent lays out in this thriller seems uncomfortably possible. . .
August 21, 2018
Really fast paced and a page turner. Wow! This was even better than the first one.
June 13, 2022
Emergency
If you like f-bomb flying faster than than the speed of sight, this book might be for you. I’ll go elsewhere.
If you like f-bomb flying faster than than the speed of sight, this book might be for you. I’ll go elsewhere.
June 19, 2022
.
.
In my expert opinion this book STINKS!!!!
I MEAN: it STINKS !!!!
.
.
.
In my expert opinion this book STINKS!!!!
I MEAN: it STINKS !!!!
.
.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews