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Slow Fall: The Green Beret Survival Series
The lights don’t go out all at once. They flicker.
When civilization collapses it will be slow and brutal.
Five groups in Knoxville, Tennessee must recognize the signs, survive the journey to a possible new beginning, and forge an alliance. From bestselling author and former Green Beret Bob Mayer and survival instructor—a survival thriller grounded in real tactics, real terrain, and the hardest who do you save when you can’t save everyone?
Dave is a retired Green Beret who has spent years studying the terrain around Knoxville, Tennessee—mapping every bridge, every supply route, every vulnerability. His wife Elena has spent those same years tolerating his obsession. When 911 stops answering and three people draw concealed weapons in a hardware store parking lot, Jack knows the flickering is about to stop.
Sarah runs the greenhouses at the University of Tennessee. When the campus goes dark and the deliveries stop coming, she grabs her seeds and the veterinary student who’s the closest thing to a doctor she can find, and heads for the mountains.
Lily is seventeen. When desperate families overrun her subdivision, her parents freeze. Lily doesn’t. Something switches on inside her—a hyperawareness she can’t turn off—and she walks out of the suburbs and into a world where the person who sees everything might be the most valuable person alive.
Cole reads people the way other men read books. From downtown Knoxville, he watches the supply chains collapse and sees what others not a disaster, but a market. He loads a truck and heads south, carrying leverage.
And Pop—Lily’s grandfather—sees what’s coming and says nothing. His silence will cost more than anyone knows.
• • •
Five groups. Five timelines. A collapse that nobody can explain and nobody can stop. Rumors of a virus make every stranger a threat. Or was it AI and/or a computer virus? Or was it just a lot of things coming together? No one knows for sure. Nashville goes dark. The internet dies in pieces. The news spreads falsehoods until it disappears. A
But the greatest danger isn’t the collapse. It’s other people. And one of them has already been turned away.
• • •
Slow Fall is the first book in the Green Beret Survival Series from bestselling author and former Green Beret Bob Mayer. Grounded in real survival principles from Mayer’s Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide and set in meticulously researched East Tennessee terrain, it combines the tactical authenticity of a military thriller with the character depth of literary fiction. Every chapter dramatizes a real survival lesson. Every decision has a cost. And in a world where civilization didn’t end with a bang but with a slow, vicious fall—the people who prepared have a leg up but they need more.
The Green Beret Survival Series: Slow Fall • Hold Fast • No Man’s Land • Long Watch • New Ground
Cover not final
When civilization collapses it will be slow and brutal.
Five groups in Knoxville, Tennessee must recognize the signs, survive the journey to a possible new beginning, and forge an alliance. From bestselling author and former Green Beret Bob Mayer and survival instructor—a survival thriller grounded in real tactics, real terrain, and the hardest who do you save when you can’t save everyone?
Dave is a retired Green Beret who has spent years studying the terrain around Knoxville, Tennessee—mapping every bridge, every supply route, every vulnerability. His wife Elena has spent those same years tolerating his obsession. When 911 stops answering and three people draw concealed weapons in a hardware store parking lot, Jack knows the flickering is about to stop.
Sarah runs the greenhouses at the University of Tennessee. When the campus goes dark and the deliveries stop coming, she grabs her seeds and the veterinary student who’s the closest thing to a doctor she can find, and heads for the mountains.
Lily is seventeen. When desperate families overrun her subdivision, her parents freeze. Lily doesn’t. Something switches on inside her—a hyperawareness she can’t turn off—and she walks out of the suburbs and into a world where the person who sees everything might be the most valuable person alive.
Cole reads people the way other men read books. From downtown Knoxville, he watches the supply chains collapse and sees what others not a disaster, but a market. He loads a truck and heads south, carrying leverage.
And Pop—Lily’s grandfather—sees what’s coming and says nothing. His silence will cost more than anyone knows.
• • •
Five groups. Five timelines. A collapse that nobody can explain and nobody can stop. Rumors of a virus make every stranger a threat. Or was it AI and/or a computer virus? Or was it just a lot of things coming together? No one knows for sure. Nashville goes dark. The internet dies in pieces. The news spreads falsehoods until it disappears. A
But the greatest danger isn’t the collapse. It’s other people. And one of them has already been turned away.
• • •
Slow Fall is the first book in the Green Beret Survival Series from bestselling author and former Green Beret Bob Mayer. Grounded in real survival principles from Mayer’s Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide and set in meticulously researched East Tennessee terrain, it combines the tactical authenticity of a military thriller with the character depth of literary fiction. Every chapter dramatizes a real survival lesson. Every decision has a cost. And in a world where civilization didn’t end with a bang but with a slow, vicious fall—the people who prepared have a leg up but they need more.
The Green Beret Survival Series: Slow Fall • Hold Fast • No Man’s Land • Long Watch • New Ground
Cover not final
388 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 28, 2026
About the author
Bob Mayer
223 books47.8k followersBesides my own interests, I read whatever my wife tells me to read-- she's a voracious reader and has wide-ranging tastes as my reviews show (she also always has the TV remote and she's always right about what to watch). I read a lot of nonfiction, mostly for research. Some of my favorite books are Lonesome Dove, Mystic River, LOTR, and an array of science fiction classics including the Foundation series. Our house is covered with books, although I finally broke down and started reading eBooks, strangely enough on my iPhone. Since I carry it pretty much everywhere, it means I always have an entire library of books with me.
I'm a West Point graduate, former Green Beret and a New York Times Bestselling Author. I've sold over five million books. My newest series begins with New York Minute, a thriller set in New York City in 1977.
I love using history and science in my books. My Area 51 series pretty much had me rewriting our entire history of civilization.
I'm a West Point graduate, former Green Beret and a New York Times Bestselling Author. I've sold over five million books. My newest series begins with New York Minute, a thriller set in New York City in 1977.
I love using history and science in my books. My Area 51 series pretty much had me rewriting our entire history of civilization.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 3, 2026
The start of a new series and once again bob mayer delivers. As the world around them collapses a disparate group finds themselves coming together. This is a great novel and genuinely disturbing. The characters are well drawn and the plot superb. I can't wait for book two.
May 31, 2026
Damn.
This is going to be a good story. Can’t wait for the next book, love how the whole story line is written.
This is going to be a good story. Can’t wait for the next book, love how the whole story line is written.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews