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The Worst Survive
An Englishman, a freedom fighter and a scientist walk into a bar.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one.
It’s 2042 and this Englishman, he’s been through the wars. Scully just wants a drink and enough coin for another round. He doesn’t care for New Industry politics, gang wars or science projects that could change the world.
But this bar’s special. It’s the sort of place people go to hire help with those things.
People promising a lot of drinking money.
The sort of money that might get your average lout tearing up the American Remnant, cussing from one violently hungover encounter to another, to hell with the consequences.
And the consequences of this particular encounter – they’re big. Soil-your-pants big.
See, there’s a mark who needs protecting, Laine Faergrowe, and he’s no typical scientist. And this ain’t like other jobs. With every man fighting for himself in this corrupt wasteland, here’s a guy offering a little piece of hope. Shame so many people want him dead.
Our Scully, drunk and/or irritable and with barely a noble bone in his vicious body, is the only one who can save him.
Lucky for us, he knows how to put the punch in punchline.
The Worst Survive is a frenetic ride through a retro-future dystopia rife with colourful gangs, a madcap mystery and ever-mounting stakes. It’s Mad Max meets Blade Runner meets Dredd and whatever other action-packed horror-show of a future you can think of. Strap yourself in for a bloody good/bad time!
Stop me if you’ve heard this one.
It’s 2042 and this Englishman, he’s been through the wars. Scully just wants a drink and enough coin for another round. He doesn’t care for New Industry politics, gang wars or science projects that could change the world.
But this bar’s special. It’s the sort of place people go to hire help with those things.
People promising a lot of drinking money.
The sort of money that might get your average lout tearing up the American Remnant, cussing from one violently hungover encounter to another, to hell with the consequences.
And the consequences of this particular encounter – they’re big. Soil-your-pants big.
See, there’s a mark who needs protecting, Laine Faergrowe, and he’s no typical scientist. And this ain’t like other jobs. With every man fighting for himself in this corrupt wasteland, here’s a guy offering a little piece of hope. Shame so many people want him dead.
Our Scully, drunk and/or irritable and with barely a noble bone in his vicious body, is the only one who can save him.
Lucky for us, he knows how to put the punch in punchline.
The Worst Survive is a frenetic ride through a retro-future dystopia rife with colourful gangs, a madcap mystery and ever-mounting stakes. It’s Mad Max meets Blade Runner meets Dredd and whatever other action-packed horror-show of a future you can think of. Strap yourself in for a bloody good/bad time!
317 pages, ebook
Published July 28, 2026
About the author
Phil Williams
26 books140 followersPhil Williams is an author of fantasy, horror and dystopian fiction, including the Blood Scouts epic military fantasies, the Ordshaw urban fantasy thrillers and the post-apocalyptic Estalia series. He also works as a fiction editor and writes reference books to help foreign learners master the nuances of English, two of which are regular best-sellers on Kindle. As a long-term teacher and tutor of advanced English, he runs the popular website “English Lessons Brighton”.
Phil lives with his wife by the coast in Sussex, UK, and spends a great deal of time walking his impossibly fluffy dog, Herbert.
Phil lives with his wife by the coast in Sussex, UK, and spends a great deal of time walking his impossibly fluffy dog, Herbert.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 30, 2026
Plot Summary:
Scully has been a soldier who has fought in a war in the relatively near future, forced beyond the limitations of PTSD, into working as a mercenary. Staying alive is nice but it’s no longer essential, life is shit so why hang around? He’s drawn in to protecting a scientist whose invention has enormous potential to help this dystopian world but too many violent, corrupt commercial organisations want to get their hands on it, so they can maintain their stranglehold over the general public. Keeping the scientist alive, working out what to do with the invention, falls to Scully – who’s too drunk to make any truly informed decisions.
The Worst Survive is a combination of violent dystopian landscape of Mad Max and cast of characters where not a single one of them can be described as Good, rather like Bladerunner. Like both films, the action is relentless, the pace breathtaking. There’s never a good moment to set the book down because each chapter leads on to the next disaster.
And disasters happen thick and fast because, and this is not a spoiler, the protagonist never considers the implications of what he’s doing – and the trouble he’s leading everyone into. The cast list is a collection of mercenaries, where Scully finds himself in the middle of events with world changing consequences. Except Scully has a drink problem – he can’t get enough of it. A favourite moment in the story is when, getting dangerously close to being sober, he goes in search of booze, finds a bottle of bleach, shrugs and downs it. That illustrates this story’s hero.
There are other mercs who assist Scully in his chaotic attempt to save the world. There’s Penitent Sam Rutledge, Nitt Carmer and the technological whizzkid and only decent person in the whole story, Docket. The minor characters are no different, this is a world filled with disillusioned, bitter and violent ex-soldiers who’ve suffered through a war and never had chance to recover because the world became a hundred times worse after it. The only exceptions are the enterprise-driven clan chieftains of their own violent organisations, who keep the public under their commercial boots, thereby ensuring the rich stay rich. The analogy – let’s face it – the warning, is obvious here.
This story has a wealth of clearly defined characters, each with a distinct role to play. Not bad for a large cast. Even more impressive when each one is little more than a violent killer. The world building is equally as impressive. There is no info dumping here – details emerge as events demand explanation. An emphasis ensuring that vital symbiotic connection between world building and characterisation. Each new character imparts more about the world as it affects them and what they bring to the story.
What I love most? The tone of the story. With a first person narrative, it takes the form of Scully’s voice. Here’s an example: “It was generous to call all that’d gone on since the war “rebuilding”. Our survival as a species was yet to be guaranteed. It could have gone any number of ways with who’d finally take control and lay down the law… But you can make up your own mind on whether they should be (different) when I’m done.”
It’s this wonderfully cynical, world-weary tone that pervades the story and yet, in such nuanced ways, there remains slivers of hope buried deep within the dialogue.
I love this story. It’s going to be a favourite because there is so much to like and respect about it. I found myself repeatedly snorting my appreciation and shaking my head in wonder at the tightness of the writing, whilst creating engaging characters and a world so detailed, you’re in the middle of it all the time. Phil Williams has done it again! I recommend it very highly indeed!
Scully has been a soldier who has fought in a war in the relatively near future, forced beyond the limitations of PTSD, into working as a mercenary. Staying alive is nice but it’s no longer essential, life is shit so why hang around? He’s drawn in to protecting a scientist whose invention has enormous potential to help this dystopian world but too many violent, corrupt commercial organisations want to get their hands on it, so they can maintain their stranglehold over the general public. Keeping the scientist alive, working out what to do with the invention, falls to Scully – who’s too drunk to make any truly informed decisions.
The Worst Survive is a combination of violent dystopian landscape of Mad Max and cast of characters where not a single one of them can be described as Good, rather like Bladerunner. Like both films, the action is relentless, the pace breathtaking. There’s never a good moment to set the book down because each chapter leads on to the next disaster.
And disasters happen thick and fast because, and this is not a spoiler, the protagonist never considers the implications of what he’s doing – and the trouble he’s leading everyone into. The cast list is a collection of mercenaries, where Scully finds himself in the middle of events with world changing consequences. Except Scully has a drink problem – he can’t get enough of it. A favourite moment in the story is when, getting dangerously close to being sober, he goes in search of booze, finds a bottle of bleach, shrugs and downs it. That illustrates this story’s hero.
There are other mercs who assist Scully in his chaotic attempt to save the world. There’s Penitent Sam Rutledge, Nitt Carmer and the technological whizzkid and only decent person in the whole story, Docket. The minor characters are no different, this is a world filled with disillusioned, bitter and violent ex-soldiers who’ve suffered through a war and never had chance to recover because the world became a hundred times worse after it. The only exceptions are the enterprise-driven clan chieftains of their own violent organisations, who keep the public under their commercial boots, thereby ensuring the rich stay rich. The analogy – let’s face it – the warning, is obvious here.
This story has a wealth of clearly defined characters, each with a distinct role to play. Not bad for a large cast. Even more impressive when each one is little more than a violent killer. The world building is equally as impressive. There is no info dumping here – details emerge as events demand explanation. An emphasis ensuring that vital symbiotic connection between world building and characterisation. Each new character imparts more about the world as it affects them and what they bring to the story.
What I love most? The tone of the story. With a first person narrative, it takes the form of Scully’s voice. Here’s an example: “It was generous to call all that’d gone on since the war “rebuilding”. Our survival as a species was yet to be guaranteed. It could have gone any number of ways with who’d finally take control and lay down the law… But you can make up your own mind on whether they should be (different) when I’m done.”
It’s this wonderfully cynical, world-weary tone that pervades the story and yet, in such nuanced ways, there remains slivers of hope buried deep within the dialogue.
I love this story. It’s going to be a favourite because there is so much to like and respect about it. I found myself repeatedly snorting my appreciation and shaking my head in wonder at the tightness of the writing, whilst creating engaging characters and a world so detailed, you’re in the middle of it all the time. Phil Williams has done it again! I recommend it very highly indeed!
Review of advance copy received from Author
The Worst Survive by Phil Williams
Some books ease you in. This one drops you straight into the wreckage and dares you to keep up. New Oak City, 2042, everyone's out to screw you, and Scully's one of the ones getting paid to do the screwing. He's a hired gun with a drinking problem and zero patience for gang politics or science projects that might save the world, and his body count would make most heroes blush. He's not a good man. He's not the villain either. That line is exactly where this book lives, and it's a mean, bruising place to sit for a while.
Laine, the scientist he's meant to protect, is really just the parcel here. The story is Scully, his ragtag bar-family, and a widening circle of people he can't quite work out are friends, enemies, or victims yet. That uncertainty runs through basically everyone in this book. Lena, kidnapped and dragged along for the ride, might be a hostage, an ally, or running her own game entirely, and nobody gets to sit still in one box for long.
It took me a while to warm to Scully. He's got a mouth on him, and his running commentary on women isn't something I have patience for in general, that's more a me thing than a book thing. But it's his voice, not the author's, and once you push past it there's a loyal, sharp, protective man underneath the swagger. Protective of those he likes that is. The rest can get a bullet to the head.
The pace barely lets up, hard-boiled and looking-back-on-it-all in exactly the right way. The fight scenes came thick and fast, maybe a touch too thick for me since I don't read action scene by scene, but it'll probably land better for readers who do.
By the end the job's done and the bigger picture's cracked wide open. This is a frenetic, foul-mouthed ride through a world that won't let you get comfortable, and Scully's the kind of bastard you end up rooting for anyway.
Some books ease you in. This one drops you straight into the wreckage and dares you to keep up. New Oak City, 2042, everyone's out to screw you, and Scully's one of the ones getting paid to do the screwing. He's a hired gun with a drinking problem and zero patience for gang politics or science projects that might save the world, and his body count would make most heroes blush. He's not a good man. He's not the villain either. That line is exactly where this book lives, and it's a mean, bruising place to sit for a while.
Laine, the scientist he's meant to protect, is really just the parcel here. The story is Scully, his ragtag bar-family, and a widening circle of people he can't quite work out are friends, enemies, or victims yet. That uncertainty runs through basically everyone in this book. Lena, kidnapped and dragged along for the ride, might be a hostage, an ally, or running her own game entirely, and nobody gets to sit still in one box for long.
He gave me a quote and removed the tarp to better see the project. For a guy who flinched at me getting out of a vehicle, he was remarkably unmoved by the four corpses with dish-sized bullet-holes. The car dropped on the ground and shook all the carnage up, fresh splatters on the windows.
It took me a while to warm to Scully. He's got a mouth on him, and his running commentary on women isn't something I have patience for in general, that's more a me thing than a book thing. But it's his voice, not the author's, and once you push past it there's a loyal, sharp, protective man underneath the swagger. Protective of those he likes that is. The rest can get a bullet to the head.
This shifted into the usual degenerate broader argument of tits vs arse and we were getting increasingly louder as we adopted our relative positions with impassioned arguments.
The rest of the bar went quiet as I shouted, “You don’t even deserve balls!”
The pace barely lets up, hard-boiled and looking-back-on-it-all in exactly the right way. The fight scenes came thick and fast, maybe a touch too thick for me since I don't read action scene by scene, but it'll probably land better for readers who do.
By the end the job's done and the bigger picture's cracked wide open. This is a frenetic, foul-mouthed ride through a world that won't let you get comfortable, and Scully's the kind of bastard you end up rooting for anyway.
July 29, 2026
The Worst Survive is a thrilling post-apocalyptic adventure set in the ashes of a corporation controlled world.
Englishman Scully ekes out a living in the American Remnant using his considerable skills for violence. Every job funds his insatiable need for alcohol in his beloved Shack alongside fellow mercenaries and murderous. The death of a close friend places him in the crosshairs of warring corporate factions vying to control a secret power in the wastelands of what was once America.
Overall, this was a fantastic, fast-paced and well written story. Scully is violent, devoid of empathy and clearly traumatised from the previous war, but unwavering in his commitment to the few allies he has left. Plenty of action and adventure in a dark setting with twists and turns thrown in for good measure.
Highly recommended!
Englishman Scully ekes out a living in the American Remnant using his considerable skills for violence. Every job funds his insatiable need for alcohol in his beloved Shack alongside fellow mercenaries and murderous. The death of a close friend places him in the crosshairs of warring corporate factions vying to control a secret power in the wastelands of what was once America.
Overall, this was a fantastic, fast-paced and well written story. Scully is violent, devoid of empathy and clearly traumatised from the previous war, but unwavering in his commitment to the few allies he has left. Plenty of action and adventure in a dark setting with twists and turns thrown in for good measure.
Highly recommended!
July 15, 2026
I completed this one in record time.
I’ll post my full thoughts shortly but I’d highly recommend this high octane, whisky fuelled bulldozer of a story.
Hard drinking mercenaries, shady corporations and world struggling to rise from the ashes all combine to give a really enjoyable first book in the series. Can’t wait to see where this goes next
I’ll post my full thoughts shortly but I’d highly recommend this high octane, whisky fuelled bulldozer of a story.
Hard drinking mercenaries, shady corporations and world struggling to rise from the ashes all combine to give a really enjoyable first book in the series. Can’t wait to see where this goes next
July 30, 2026
A truly thrilling book that is chock-full of Williams's signature intricate worldbuilding and impeccable character voice. The story plucks along at breakneck speed, but not without allowing us ample time to get to know this cast of characters. There is a ton going on here, and Williams's work is always highly entertaining. Excited to see where the ending of this leads!
Review of advance copy received from Author
Wow, this kicks off at high velocity & it just keeps going! Fast fight scenes, action on nearly every page! Well written, great pace, a really enjoyable adventure!
August 3, 2026
Crude, wasteland eloquence, pros that reek of the rusted, wayward decline of civilisation with an aftertaste of cyberpunk.
Full review to follow
Full review to follow
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews