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The Prey #3
The Release
The Release is the thrilling YA conclusion to Tom Isbell’s suspenseful post-apocalyptic Prey series, perfect for fans of The Maze Runner. Two months have passed since Book, Cat, Hope, and the others rescued the remaining Less Thans from Liberty, but they aren’t safe yet, and soon they’ll have to risk everything in order to defeat their enemies.
The group must leave the camp for good and escape the wolves, the Brown Shirts, and the Hunters. Most important, they need to stop Chancellor Maddox before she executes her Final Solution and grows even more powerful.
While the others are seeking freedom, for Hope, the battle has become personal. She wants revenge, no matter what the cost—and she’s willing to sacrifice anything standing in her way. The group may still be weak, but they don’t have time to wait. They must overthrow the Chancellor, even if it means joining forces with those who once betrayed them.
The group must leave the camp for good and escape the wolves, the Brown Shirts, and the Hunters. Most important, they need to stop Chancellor Maddox before she executes her Final Solution and grows even more powerful.
While the others are seeking freedom, for Hope, the battle has become personal. She wants revenge, no matter what the cost—and she’s willing to sacrifice anything standing in her way. The group may still be weak, but they don’t have time to wait. They must overthrow the Chancellor, even if it means joining forces with those who once betrayed them.
373 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 14, 2017
20 people are currently reading
707 people want to read
About the author
Tom Isbell
7 books91 followersA graduate of the Yale School of Drama and the University of Illinois, Tom Isbell spent his professional career acting in theatre, film and TV, working opposite Robert DeNiro, Ed Harris, Helen Hunt, Lynn Redgrave, Rosemary Harris, Hal Holbrook, Anne Bancroft, Sarah Jessica Parker, John Turturro, Angela Bassett and others. TV credits include Designing Women, L.A. Law, Golden Girls, Murder She Wrote, Coach, Family Ties, Columbo and recurring roles on Jake and the Fat Man and Sisters. Film credits include 84 Charming Cross Road, Jacknife, Clear and Present Danger, The Abyss and True Lies. He was also the subject of a PBS documentary, Starting in Innocence.
He has written and performed three one-person plays, including Me & JFK, which has been produced in New York, Los Angeles and Egypt. With John Ahart, he co-authored Walt Whitman and the Civil War, which premiered at the Great American People Show in 1995.
As a director, Isbell has taken two productions to the Kennedy Center as part of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF): Dear Finder, a documentary play about the Holocaust, and The Movie Game, written by Adam Hummel. He is the former National Playwriting Program chair for Region V of KCACTF.
An associate professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth, he was recently named the Albert Tezla Scholar/Teacher of the Year, as well as a Horace T. Morse Distinguished Teacher, the highest undergraduate teaching honor given within the University of Minnesota. He is happily married to Pat Isbell, who is both an actress and elementary school teacher.
He has written and performed three one-person plays, including Me & JFK, which has been produced in New York, Los Angeles and Egypt. With John Ahart, he co-authored Walt Whitman and the Civil War, which premiered at the Great American People Show in 1995.
As a director, Isbell has taken two productions to the Kennedy Center as part of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF): Dear Finder, a documentary play about the Holocaust, and The Movie Game, written by Adam Hummel. He is the former National Playwriting Program chair for Region V of KCACTF.
An associate professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth, he was recently named the Albert Tezla Scholar/Teacher of the Year, as well as a Horace T. Morse Distinguished Teacher, the highest undergraduate teaching honor given within the University of Minnesota. He is happily married to Pat Isbell, who is both an actress and elementary school teacher.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
February 14, 2017
(I received an advance copy of this book for free. Thanks to HarperCollins and Edelweiss.)
This was a YA dystopian, and the end of the series.
Book and Hope were strong characters in this, but they were also quite separate for most of the book, with Hope’s dislike of her scars causing a rift between them.
The storyline in this was about rescuing the remaining Less Thans, running from wolves and hunters, and also about Hope getting revenge on Chancellor Maddox. We did get some action, but it felt like there was quite a lot of travelling going on as well, and the pace was quite slow because of it.
The ending to this was pretty good, and I was happy with the way things were resolved.
6.5 out of 10
“Any final words of advice?” Book asks Goodman Dougherty.
“Yeah, don’t piss anyone off.”
This was a YA dystopian, and the end of the series.
Book and Hope were strong characters in this, but they were also quite separate for most of the book, with Hope’s dislike of her scars causing a rift between them.
The storyline in this was about rescuing the remaining Less Thans, running from wolves and hunters, and also about Hope getting revenge on Chancellor Maddox. We did get some action, but it felt like there was quite a lot of travelling going on as well, and the pace was quite slow because of it.
The ending to this was pretty good, and I was happy with the way things were resolved.
6.5 out of 10
February 7, 2017
If you are a fan of this series, I do not think that you will be disappointed with this final sequel. It has the same tone and layout as the previous two books and if I’m going to be somewhat nice, I can say that I admire Isbell’s consistency in this series. I wish I could say that I enjoyed this series as a whole enough for a consistent finale to appease me but unfortunately, I could never claim to be a fan of Isbell’s writing, let alone this series.
The plotline suffers from so many plot holes it is beyond being funny. The ease of which Book and his crew were able to overcome the unfeasible logistics of feeding and moving a group of nearly 200 people - the majority of which consisted of malnourished POWs - during a heavy winter made the entire premise of this book felt weak. There were too many moments where I had to sigh with defeat and pretend the events of the story were somewhat reasonable. Both Book and Hope are notorious for taking unnecessary risks which jeopardize their entire group and they continued that sort of reckless behaviour throughout this entire book. It got tiring. If you have read Gabrielle Lord’s 365 Conspiracy think Cal’s antics time by at least a hundred. I still have no idea how they managed to keep the Less Thans and Sisters alive for so long.
I wish I could say that I finally warmed to Book or Hope but I still cannot say that I enjoy them as protagonists. Hope’s moodiness did nothing for me. I was frustrated with her the entire book. I understand she felt self-conscious about her scars but I did not think it warranted such dramatic behaviour nor did I have the energy to put up with her drama. Book felt like a milder version of himself in this sequel. Maybe because the plotline was more of a focus than the characters themselves? Either way, I am not complaining!
Isbell’s writing still gets on my nerves. I cannot - for the life of me - figure out why he changes between third person, present tense for Hope’s POVs and first person, past tense for Book’s POVs, especially since the chapters don’t have headings. It is confusing and disorientating to read a story told in this way, even knowing this was Isbell style from the earlier sequels. It also affected the pacing of the plotline, making the story seem more jumpy and disjointed. I liked Book’s POV slightly more than Hope’s POV because we got to be inside of his head, hearing his thoughts, unlike Hope’s POV where we essentially just followed her around.
The diversity representation in this series could also be expanded on. While I admire that there was hardly a single nondiverse character in this series, some of the character’s physical disabilities - particularly Book’s clubfoot, Cat’s amputated arm and Twitch’s loss of vision - could have been elaborated on. I never felt that were really got the chance to explore how the LTs’ disabilities affected them, especially because of the conditions they were in. Book, in particular, should have been affected by the long walks with his limp and Twitch adjusted to his new vision impairment remarkably quick. I think bringing these topics to light would have been a good idea.
Overall?
I struggled with the first book in this series and it has only gone downhill from there. Hope is such an unlikable protagonist with her mood swings and drama. I didn’t think Book was as bad he had previously been but I still struggled to connect with him. I also had problems with the unbelievable and ridiculous plotline, the disability rep and Isbell’s writing style. I would not recommend this series to anyone really, and would instead steer you more towards Mark Smith’s A Road to Winter - a similar but better written dystopian.
Review copy provided by the publisher for an honest review.
The plotline suffers from so many plot holes it is beyond being funny. The ease of which Book and his crew were able to overcome the unfeasible logistics of feeding and moving a group of nearly 200 people - the majority of which consisted of malnourished POWs - during a heavy winter made the entire premise of this book felt weak. There were too many moments where I had to sigh with defeat and pretend the events of the story were somewhat reasonable. Both Book and Hope are notorious for taking unnecessary risks which jeopardize their entire group and they continued that sort of reckless behaviour throughout this entire book. It got tiring. If you have read Gabrielle Lord’s 365 Conspiracy think Cal’s antics time by at least a hundred. I still have no idea how they managed to keep the Less Thans and Sisters alive for so long.
I wish I could say that I finally warmed to Book or Hope but I still cannot say that I enjoy them as protagonists. Hope’s moodiness did nothing for me. I was frustrated with her the entire book. I understand she felt self-conscious about her scars but I did not think it warranted such dramatic behaviour nor did I have the energy to put up with her drama. Book felt like a milder version of himself in this sequel. Maybe because the plotline was more of a focus than the characters themselves? Either way, I am not complaining!
Isbell’s writing still gets on my nerves. I cannot - for the life of me - figure out why he changes between third person, present tense for Hope’s POVs and first person, past tense for Book’s POVs, especially since the chapters don’t have headings. It is confusing and disorientating to read a story told in this way, even knowing this was Isbell style from the earlier sequels. It also affected the pacing of the plotline, making the story seem more jumpy and disjointed. I liked Book’s POV slightly more than Hope’s POV because we got to be inside of his head, hearing his thoughts, unlike Hope’s POV where we essentially just followed her around.
The diversity representation in this series could also be expanded on. While I admire that there was hardly a single nondiverse character in this series, some of the character’s physical disabilities - particularly Book’s clubfoot, Cat’s amputated arm and Twitch’s loss of vision - could have been elaborated on. I never felt that were really got the chance to explore how the LTs’ disabilities affected them, especially because of the conditions they were in. Book, in particular, should have been affected by the long walks with his limp and Twitch adjusted to his new vision impairment remarkably quick. I think bringing these topics to light would have been a good idea.
Overall?
I struggled with the first book in this series and it has only gone downhill from there. Hope is such an unlikable protagonist with her mood swings and drama. I didn’t think Book was as bad he had previously been but I still struggled to connect with him. I also had problems with the unbelievable and ridiculous plotline, the disability rep and Isbell’s writing style. I would not recommend this series to anyone really, and would instead steer you more towards Mark Smith’s A Road to Winter - a similar but better written dystopian.
Review copy provided by the publisher for an honest review.
February 9, 2022
Hi everyone, Its Christopher the reader here and the book we are here to talk about tonight is The Release. This book is the 3rd in the series. I read this book for the first time in February and it took me a day to finish reading. I am now going to talk about some of the book details. It was rated for readers aged 12 and up, and was first published on the 14th of February in 2017. It was told using 1st and 3rd person with it being in Book's and Hope's point of view. The book had 62 chapters. with each chapter being around 2-8 pages long. All together the book had 356 pages which also includes an prologue at the start and an epilogue at the end.
- When I was reading this book I was in a reading binge, I read the whole series within a few days. I just couldn't put them down with each of the story. I loved that the book was set in parts, which mentioned a title and a famous quote. Part of me does feel like this story could be read as a stand-alone as it re-caps us on a bit of information from the other two books but I do think that it's best to just read the full series. I thought that the pacing of the book was alright but I do feel like this one felt a little slow compared to the other two books. I do feel that all of the disabilities could have been explored a little more than it was like with how they affected them, especially because of the conditions they were in within the story. This book starts about two months after the 2nd book in the series, To be honest I am not a huge fan of, I do find time gaps annoying but it dose kind of make sense for the book to have start there or I would have think It would have made the story drag a lot especially around the Re-feeding, helping to improve the well being of the characters a bit before the book started rolling and diving back into the action. I do think that the book did well in re-capping on most of the things that we missed because of the time gap.
I like the action and I loved all the scenes were the characters all worked together as a team and the funny scenes that the book had, I feel like it helped balance things out a bit. I feel like we discovered a lot of answers to the questions that we as readers was asking after reading book 1 and two, I liked that we got to know about some of the characters family history within the book and I liked that we got to met a few more new characters near the middle of the book as well as some old faces. I also liked that in this book that the characters got to sit down and talk a little bit with the hunters. I would have liked it more if things had ended up going a bit differently from what happened.
- I was happy that we got to read more about the characters again. I really liked the characters that were on the journey with book. They felt realistic especially with the character called Hope and the things that she went through and how she acted afterwards. I Just loved the friendship that Book and cat had, I would have loved to have read more scenes of them two in.
- I didn't find this book predictable. There was some characters that I would have thought that they wouldn't make it until the end but did there was also a character that didn't make it that I had thought have would. I do think that the ending could have been a little better, To me It felt kind of rushed. I think I felt that because we the ending and also the epilogue didn't include much of the others that has been in all three of the books with us. I would have liked to have read about about a meeting with the people in charge now and for the main characters to have been included. For them to have walked in or even just mentioned and it maybe been broadcasted and the two point of views watching. I don't know for me the transitions felt a bit jumpy. I would have also liked it if we had been able to have got more of a feel of the world that they were living in at the end of the story. I loved that this book was turned into an audible book as personally when I listen and read along I find that I gain a deeper experience with the book. I would like it if it was turned into a TV Show, If it ever does I would definitely go and watch it.
For each book that I read, I rate it out of 10, so for this I'm going to give it 9.2. Remember this was what I thought about the book personally and I suggest that you give it a go for yourself.
September 18, 2020
2019
All of these books had so much traveling. And, I'm sorry, but I can only be interested in camping and scavenging for food, and group disagreements so much. I feel like so much more world building could have been done. Or at least shown. Unfortunately, I felt like we only saw from the LTs perspectives, but that they (as children) never understood enough to explain it to us (the readers).
All of these books had so much traveling. And, I'm sorry, but I can only be interested in camping and scavenging for food, and group disagreements so much. I feel like so much more world building could have been done. Or at least shown. Unfortunately, I felt like we only saw from the LTs perspectives, but that they (as children) never understood enough to explain it to us (the readers).
July 4, 2018
A great conclusion to an incredible dystopian series. This book certainly did not disappoint. The pace was rightfully fast all the way up until the end, which is probably why I was able to finish this book in two days. I had an incredible time reading it and I can’t be happier that I picked up this series.
July 27, 2017
Ugh...thank goodness that's over.🙄
June 25, 2021
A decent sum up of a trilogy based on a dystopian world suffering from the after-affects of atomic bombs.
Book was an okay guy. His devotion to Hope was sweet, if not a little baffling.
Hope kinda annoyed me with her wishy washy attitude towards Book.
Cat was legend. RIP you brilliantly one armed archer.
The main star of the series was obviously Argos. He was always taking on enemies over twice his size, getting kicked in the stomach by stupid boys *cough* dozer *cough* and being bitten by wolves. Despite it all, Argos survived and protected his team and if he had died I might have boycotted this series completely.
Yes this turned from a book review to a 'Argos is amazing' review. You're welcome.
Book was an okay guy. His devotion to Hope was sweet, if not a little baffling.
Hope kinda annoyed me with her wishy washy attitude towards Book.
Cat was legend. RIP you brilliantly one armed archer.
The main star of the series was obviously Argos. He was always taking on enemies over twice his size, getting kicked in the stomach by stupid boys *cough* dozer *cough* and being bitten by wolves. Despite it all, Argos survived and protected his team and if he had died I might have boycotted this series completely.
Yes this turned from a book review to a 'Argos is amazing' review. You're welcome.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 9, 2022
.
The Release
by Tom Isbell, pub. in 2017.
Book 3 of The Prey trilogy.
Edited Book Blurb & Synopsis - fair warning if you don't want to know ALL the details:
The Release is the YA conclusion to Tom Isbell’s post-apocalyptic Prey series...
The Omega nuclear war (20 years ago) left the world in ruin and the former USA is now the Republic of True America (RTA). 20 years ago the vice president happened to be away from the Capital when the bombs destroyed Washington D.C. and our seat of government and so he became president of this new country, the RTA. The country is divided into about 8 territories. The Western Federation Territory is controlled by the dictatorial Chancellor Maddox, a former beauty queen turned congresswoman with evil plans to be dictator of the RTA.
After the Omega war, a group of 16 year old guys known as LTs discover their overseers are raising them not to be lieutenants in the Brown Shirts (RTA soldiers) as promised, but to be sold as prey because of their Less Than status and hunted for sport. They escape and join forces with a girls' camp of all twins (the Sisters), who have been imprisoned and experimented on for the “good of the Republic,” by a government eager to use twins in their dark research. These heroes embark on a quest for freedom and plan to vanquish their enemies.
Two months have passed since the teen named Book (he loves books), Cat (who was in training to be an actual Brown Shirt, but quit over the emphasis on killing), Hope (a twin who lost her sister to the experiments), and the others, rescued the remaining Less Thans (LTs) from Camp Liberty, but they aren’t safe yet...
The LTs are the misfit kids of parents who are enemies of the Republic. The boys may have deformities, or the wrong skin color, or religion or have parents who rebelled against the new totalitarian government, etc. The boys are raised in the camp till age 17 when they're sold to professional Hunters for sport killing.
Our group of teenage heroes also rescued the 60+ surviving girls (the Sisters) from Camp Freedom where Dr. Gallingham experimented on them, attempting to find the most effective concoction for germ warfare / mass extermination. Most of the Sisters have lost their twin to the Doc's cruelty.
The group must leave the camp for good and escape the wolves (now especially vicious & preferring human flesh), the Brown Shirts (the Chancellor's private army), and the Hunters (expert killers for hire). Most important, they need to stop Chancellor Maddox before she executes her Final Solution and grows even more powerful.
The "Solution" seems to have several steps: clean up the 2 death camps, dispose of the remaining teens, eliminate the dissident groups like the Crazies who occupy towns and enjoy mayhem and the Skull People who have created a faux reputation as the most vicious of killers, but are actually scholars & political opponents who are hiding in a huge elaborate cave and tunnel system.
While the others are seeking freedom, for Hope, the battle has become personal. She wants revenge, no matter what the cost. Hope will see the Chancellor and doctor death (Dr. Gallingham) dead even if it means her own life. The group may still be weak, but they don’t have time to wait. They must overthrow the Chancellor, even if it means joining forces with those who once betrayed them.
.
The chapters alternate between Book and Hope narrating the story from their own perspective. It's been about two months since the end of book 2 and it seems Hope has forgotten all about her declaration of love for Book. Of course he still loves her, but she's keeping herself secluded and her scars hidden. When she's not out hunting, she wears a hoodie in camp so no one can see the X scars the Chancellor carved into her cheeks and in the past eight weeks she has completely avoided seeing and speaking to Book.
The LTs, about 70 teen boys and two Sisters, Hope and Diana, have a makeshift camp at the avalanche-covered Camp Liberty where they're waiting out the winter. The LTs were starving and are still recuperating in order to make the long trek to join the survivors of the girl's camp, then cross the country to a safe territory. The problem is the cold and snow and the circling wolves.
Hope motivates everyone to leave, now, since the wolf pack is ever-increasing, seems to prefer people as food and soon the pack will have finished eating all the dead soldiers killed in the Camp Liberty battle at the end of book 2. They quickly pack up and head for the lodge lake where the 50 plus Sisters are camped. Along the way two small groups go exploring. Book and 2 pals head to the Skull peeps cave to look for food, but only find hundreds of dead bodies and the place wired to explode. The Brown Shirts are blowing up all traces of the former Skull People.
Hope, Cat and 1 other follow some Humvee tracks which lead to an old missile silo where Brown Shirts are loading up supply boxes labeled as small arms (M-16s etc). They commandeer the Humvee and force the soldier to drive to the destination, the Eagle's Nest. It's the Chancellor's HQ, a converted ski resort high on a mountain cliff and accessible by an aerial tram, a sky tram. Hope, at times as versatile as 007, stows away on top of the tram and infiltrates the HQ undetected. It's like a little fortress city and she spots one of the Sisters taken prisoner at the Camp Liberty battle. She's now an abused slave, but Hope isn't able to rescue her, yet.
Soon enough the whole group reaches the rundown log lodges at the lake. Helen and the Sisters have fortified the area with hidden pits, snares and boobytraps. Book finally confronts Hope and her obvious hostility. He assures her of his unconditional love, which she dismisses as the past and continues sulking over her facial scars.
Then the Hunters attack, about 50 of them, riding across the frozen lake on their ATVs, armed with high powered rifles, pistols, knives etc. And this is where the author (Tom Isbell) truly shines. Throughout the series (all 3 books) Tom has the consistent and unique ability to produce fight scenes that are ridiculous, so unbelievable and such impossible nonsense you can't stop yourself from eye-rolling or laughing with derision.
The teens are armed with bows and arrows, slingshots and Molotov cocktails. The Hunters, coming across the lake, I think, only manage to shoot one of the kids. They were hired to kill them all, ASAP. The teens have time to walk out on the lake with rocks and smash holes thru the ice, then throw Molotov cocktails past the ATVs trapping them from retreat and then the whole group of teens jump on the ice, breaking it along the holes caused by the rocks. The fire from the Molotov cocktails melts the ice and so creates a large floating island of ice which traps the Hunters and their vehicles. They are marooned offshore on the ice island and can do nothing but beg the kids for food. After days trapped on their island of ice, the Hunters surrender and agree to throw their guns in the lake and push their ATVs in as well, so the teens lay down a ladder across the gap allowing the Hunters to reach the shore where they are frisked and tied up.
Now the group of teens (about 120 or more) and their 50 prisoners head out on their trek toward the new territory, but they're being pursued by wolves, an ever-increasing pack of hundreds. Book has an impromptu meeting with the head wolf and using gestures and a brief speech he communicates that the wolves can have the Hunters (more than enough to feed the pack) and the teens will leave unmolested. The wolf leader seems to agree and steps aside, allowing the group to leave the area safely.
A moment of kindness from Hope as she takes Book into the woods, to the site of her childhood home where her mom was murdered by the Brown Shirt soldier Sergeant Dekker who proudly wrote his name in blood on the cabin wall and they visit mom's grave. Hope and her twin sister had been about six at the time, hiding in a log and dad was away hunting. Later dad dug the grave for his wife and went on the run with his two kids.
As they travel past towns they see dozens of newly dead bodies and plenty of crows. Even when they reach the fence at the new territory where they saw the family- friendly town in book 1, everyone's dead, somehow killed en masse.
Before long the huge wolf pack shows up and just as things look hopeless a couple hundred horsemen ride up and dispatch the pack with alacrity. These are the remnants of the Skull People who held Book and company prisoner in book 2 and where he discovered the old woman from his dreams was actually his grandmother, founder of the Skull People and so now their ally.
There's an inauguration to take place soon at the new capital city with high-ranking officials from around the country all in attendance. A new president has been elected in a landslide. Yes, Chancellor Maddox is to be the new president of the Republic. Book, Hope and Cat try to meet with the current president and warn him about the Chancellor's evil past, but instead they're accused of treason and sentenced to death. The leader of the Skulls breaks them out of jail and they plot to stop Maddox. A presidential aide is eventually convinced of the Chancellor's evil plan and troops (the good Brown Shirts) are on the way to the Eagles Nest.
Eventually the whole plan is revealed. Chancellor Maddox and company started the Omega nuclear war that destroyed cities and countries around the world, but when the dust settled she wasn't the highest ranking person in government left alive and so the VP became president. She's waited 20 years to become supreme ruler and this time she'll get it right. As Thomas Jefferson said, "Liberty Must Be Refreshed From Time to Time With the Blood of Patriots and Tyrants" and so Maddox is just trying to make things better. With Omega the hell holes around the world were destroyed and we were given a chance to start over, to make a better world this time.
With the help of Dr. Gallingham who developed some type of germ warfare bomb, the Chancellor will launch her poison bombs from the Eagles Nest to land at the new capital during the inauguration and so kill off all high-ranking government officials. She and her minions of course will not be in attendance.
Hope, doing her 007 impression, again infiltrates the Eagles Nest and first confronts the torture doctor (Gallingham) and learns her dad refused to help the doc with his death experiments, was labeled a traitor and had to hide with his family. Hope doesn't check if the doc is armed and just as he's about to shoot her, the slave girl shows up a kills the doc. Okay lesson learned. Nope, this is a Tom Isbell novel and characters who should know better do the ridiculous as we've seen in so many movies when the hero confronts the evil boss.
Hope bursts in on the Chancellor and does not immediately shoot her. They talk. The Chancellor takes out a gun and threatens to shoot Cat and Hope who she's captured. Not wanting to be responsible for getting her friends killed, Hope drops her gun, but Cat isn't ready to give up and die. He swings his prosthetic arm at the Chancellor's gun which discharges twice, 1 round hitting Hope in the leg and the other giving Cat a lethal wound. She launches her missiles, but they don't go off. Instead there's the sound of gunfire - the president's troops have arrived. The Chancellor takes off, running across the snow to a distant waiting vehicle with Hope hobbling along in pursuit. For some reason it's an incredibly long distance or the Chancellor runs really slow. At any rate Hope is able to drop exhausted into the snow, be located and revived by Book and still she's running toward the getaway car. Finally the whole gang of teens arrive, forming a circle, closing in as the desperate Chancellor tries to break through the circle.
The kids will have a good and proper school to attend, Hope has a job offer with the presidential guard and Book makes plans to go to the burned out ranch of Frank, the old man in book one who taught them how to build and use weapons like the bow. Book wants to rebuild the place and restock it with all kinds of books just as Frank had done. And so it seems the 2 loves are parting for good and go their separate ways. Then in the short epilogue the ending is revised. As Book and his dog travel someone approaches in the night, Hope has come back to be with him and they run together and apparently will stay together.
.
The story is very hitlerian with references to racial purity, the final solution, ethnic cleansing, the brownshirts etc. It's an entertaining tale, that suffers from boughts of indecisive filler and impossible events, but mostly keeps your interest.
..
.
The Release
by Tom Isbell, pub. in 2017.
Book 3 of The Prey trilogy.
Edited Book Blurb & Synopsis - fair warning if you don't want to know ALL the details:
The Release is the YA conclusion to Tom Isbell’s post-apocalyptic Prey series...
The Omega nuclear war (20 years ago) left the world in ruin and the former USA is now the Republic of True America (RTA). 20 years ago the vice president happened to be away from the Capital when the bombs destroyed Washington D.C. and our seat of government and so he became president of this new country, the RTA. The country is divided into about 8 territories. The Western Federation Territory is controlled by the dictatorial Chancellor Maddox, a former beauty queen turned congresswoman with evil plans to be dictator of the RTA.
After the Omega war, a group of 16 year old guys known as LTs discover their overseers are raising them not to be lieutenants in the Brown Shirts (RTA soldiers) as promised, but to be sold as prey because of their Less Than status and hunted for sport. They escape and join forces with a girls' camp of all twins (the Sisters), who have been imprisoned and experimented on for the “good of the Republic,” by a government eager to use twins in their dark research. These heroes embark on a quest for freedom and plan to vanquish their enemies.
Two months have passed since the teen named Book (he loves books), Cat (who was in training to be an actual Brown Shirt, but quit over the emphasis on killing), Hope (a twin who lost her sister to the experiments), and the others, rescued the remaining Less Thans (LTs) from Camp Liberty, but they aren’t safe yet...
The LTs are the misfit kids of parents who are enemies of the Republic. The boys may have deformities, or the wrong skin color, or religion or have parents who rebelled against the new totalitarian government, etc. The boys are raised in the camp till age 17 when they're sold to professional Hunters for sport killing.
Our group of teenage heroes also rescued the 60+ surviving girls (the Sisters) from Camp Freedom where Dr. Gallingham experimented on them, attempting to find the most effective concoction for germ warfare / mass extermination. Most of the Sisters have lost their twin to the Doc's cruelty.
The group must leave the camp for good and escape the wolves (now especially vicious & preferring human flesh), the Brown Shirts (the Chancellor's private army), and the Hunters (expert killers for hire). Most important, they need to stop Chancellor Maddox before she executes her Final Solution and grows even more powerful.
The "Solution" seems to have several steps: clean up the 2 death camps, dispose of the remaining teens, eliminate the dissident groups like the Crazies who occupy towns and enjoy mayhem and the Skull People who have created a faux reputation as the most vicious of killers, but are actually scholars & political opponents who are hiding in a huge elaborate cave and tunnel system.
While the others are seeking freedom, for Hope, the battle has become personal. She wants revenge, no matter what the cost. Hope will see the Chancellor and doctor death (Dr. Gallingham) dead even if it means her own life. The group may still be weak, but they don’t have time to wait. They must overthrow the Chancellor, even if it means joining forces with those who once betrayed them.
.
The chapters alternate between Book and Hope narrating the story from their own perspective. It's been about two months since the end of book 2 and it seems Hope has forgotten all about her declaration of love for Book. Of course he still loves her, but she's keeping herself secluded and her scars hidden. When she's not out hunting, she wears a hoodie in camp so no one can see the X scars the Chancellor carved into her cheeks and in the past eight weeks she has completely avoided seeing and speaking to Book.
The LTs, about 70 teen boys and two Sisters, Hope and Diana, have a makeshift camp at the avalanche-covered Camp Liberty where they're waiting out the winter. The LTs were starving and are still recuperating in order to make the long trek to join the survivors of the girl's camp, then cross the country to a safe territory. The problem is the cold and snow and the circling wolves.
Hope motivates everyone to leave, now, since the wolf pack is ever-increasing, seems to prefer people as food and soon the pack will have finished eating all the dead soldiers killed in the Camp Liberty battle at the end of book 2. They quickly pack up and head for the lodge lake where the 50 plus Sisters are camped. Along the way two small groups go exploring. Book and 2 pals head to the Skull peeps cave to look for food, but only find hundreds of dead bodies and the place wired to explode. The Brown Shirts are blowing up all traces of the former Skull People.
Hope, Cat and 1 other follow some Humvee tracks which lead to an old missile silo where Brown Shirts are loading up supply boxes labeled as small arms (M-16s etc). They commandeer the Humvee and force the soldier to drive to the destination, the Eagle's Nest. It's the Chancellor's HQ, a converted ski resort high on a mountain cliff and accessible by an aerial tram, a sky tram. Hope, at times as versatile as 007, stows away on top of the tram and infiltrates the HQ undetected. It's like a little fortress city and she spots one of the Sisters taken prisoner at the Camp Liberty battle. She's now an abused slave, but Hope isn't able to rescue her, yet.
Soon enough the whole group reaches the rundown log lodges at the lake. Helen and the Sisters have fortified the area with hidden pits, snares and boobytraps. Book finally confronts Hope and her obvious hostility. He assures her of his unconditional love, which she dismisses as the past and continues sulking over her facial scars.
Then the Hunters attack, about 50 of them, riding across the frozen lake on their ATVs, armed with high powered rifles, pistols, knives etc. And this is where the author (Tom Isbell) truly shines. Throughout the series (all 3 books) Tom has the consistent and unique ability to produce fight scenes that are ridiculous, so unbelievable and such impossible nonsense you can't stop yourself from eye-rolling or laughing with derision.
The teens are armed with bows and arrows, slingshots and Molotov cocktails. The Hunters, coming across the lake, I think, only manage to shoot one of the kids. They were hired to kill them all, ASAP. The teens have time to walk out on the lake with rocks and smash holes thru the ice, then throw Molotov cocktails past the ATVs trapping them from retreat and then the whole group of teens jump on the ice, breaking it along the holes caused by the rocks. The fire from the Molotov cocktails melts the ice and so creates a large floating island of ice which traps the Hunters and their vehicles. They are marooned offshore on the ice island and can do nothing but beg the kids for food. After days trapped on their island of ice, the Hunters surrender and agree to throw their guns in the lake and push their ATVs in as well, so the teens lay down a ladder across the gap allowing the Hunters to reach the shore where they are frisked and tied up.
Now the group of teens (about 120 or more) and their 50 prisoners head out on their trek toward the new territory, but they're being pursued by wolves, an ever-increasing pack of hundreds. Book has an impromptu meeting with the head wolf and using gestures and a brief speech he communicates that the wolves can have the Hunters (more than enough to feed the pack) and the teens will leave unmolested. The wolf leader seems to agree and steps aside, allowing the group to leave the area safely.
A moment of kindness from Hope as she takes Book into the woods, to the site of her childhood home where her mom was murdered by the Brown Shirt soldier Sergeant Dekker who proudly wrote his name in blood on the cabin wall and they visit mom's grave. Hope and her twin sister had been about six at the time, hiding in a log and dad was away hunting. Later dad dug the grave for his wife and went on the run with his two kids.
As they travel past towns they see dozens of newly dead bodies and plenty of crows. Even when they reach the fence at the new territory where they saw the family- friendly town in book 1, everyone's dead, somehow killed en masse.
Before long the huge wolf pack shows up and just as things look hopeless a couple hundred horsemen ride up and dispatch the pack with alacrity. These are the remnants of the Skull People who held Book and company prisoner in book 2 and where he discovered the old woman from his dreams was actually his grandmother, founder of the Skull People and so now their ally.
There's an inauguration to take place soon at the new capital city with high-ranking officials from around the country all in attendance. A new president has been elected in a landslide. Yes, Chancellor Maddox is to be the new president of the Republic. Book, Hope and Cat try to meet with the current president and warn him about the Chancellor's evil past, but instead they're accused of treason and sentenced to death. The leader of the Skulls breaks them out of jail and they plot to stop Maddox. A presidential aide is eventually convinced of the Chancellor's evil plan and troops (the good Brown Shirts) are on the way to the Eagles Nest.
Eventually the whole plan is revealed. Chancellor Maddox and company started the Omega nuclear war that destroyed cities and countries around the world, but when the dust settled she wasn't the highest ranking person in government left alive and so the VP became president. She's waited 20 years to become supreme ruler and this time she'll get it right. As Thomas Jefferson said, "Liberty Must Be Refreshed From Time to Time With the Blood of Patriots and Tyrants" and so Maddox is just trying to make things better. With Omega the hell holes around the world were destroyed and we were given a chance to start over, to make a better world this time.
With the help of Dr. Gallingham who developed some type of germ warfare bomb, the Chancellor will launch her poison bombs from the Eagles Nest to land at the new capital during the inauguration and so kill off all high-ranking government officials. She and her minions of course will not be in attendance.
Hope, doing her 007 impression, again infiltrates the Eagles Nest and first confronts the torture doctor (Gallingham) and learns her dad refused to help the doc with his death experiments, was labeled a traitor and had to hide with his family. Hope doesn't check if the doc is armed and just as he's about to shoot her, the slave girl shows up a kills the doc. Okay lesson learned. Nope, this is a Tom Isbell novel and characters who should know better do the ridiculous as we've seen in so many movies when the hero confronts the evil boss.
Hope bursts in on the Chancellor and does not immediately shoot her. They talk. The Chancellor takes out a gun and threatens to shoot Cat and Hope who she's captured. Not wanting to be responsible for getting her friends killed, Hope drops her gun, but Cat isn't ready to give up and die. He swings his prosthetic arm at the Chancellor's gun which discharges twice, 1 round hitting Hope in the leg and the other giving Cat a lethal wound. She launches her missiles, but they don't go off. Instead there's the sound of gunfire - the president's troops have arrived. The Chancellor takes off, running across the snow to a distant waiting vehicle with Hope hobbling along in pursuit. For some reason it's an incredibly long distance or the Chancellor runs really slow. At any rate Hope is able to drop exhausted into the snow, be located and revived by Book and still she's running toward the getaway car. Finally the whole gang of teens arrive, forming a circle, closing in as the desperate Chancellor tries to break through the circle.
The kids will have a good and proper school to attend, Hope has a job offer with the presidential guard and Book makes plans to go to the burned out ranch of Frank, the old man in book one who taught them how to build and use weapons like the bow. Book wants to rebuild the place and restock it with all kinds of books just as Frank had done. And so it seems the 2 loves are parting for good and go their separate ways. Then in the short epilogue the ending is revised. As Book and his dog travel someone approaches in the night, Hope has come back to be with him and they run together and apparently will stay together.
.
The story is very hitlerian with references to racial purity, the final solution, ethnic cleansing, the brownshirts etc. It's an entertaining tale, that suffers from boughts of indecisive filler and impossible events, but mostly keeps your interest.
..
.
June 28, 2017
This was. . . good. Not even close to the best book, kinda close to the worst, but it was okay. The ending was good up until the epilogue, then it slid really, reallyfar. I found I was actually secretly happy with Hope and Book as a couple, but the epilogue changed that for me. In my opinion, it was one of the most unrealistic things in the book. I just found it kind of. . . stupid. Sorry, Tom, but it just didn't work. Too cheesy and fake.
I love the Skull People. This one part one page 169 made me laugh:
I loved Goodwoman Marciniak. . .
This was probably my favorite book out of the series, but I'm not rating it very high because,
#1: The wolves once again made an appearance. Except this time, they didn't eat what they killed , and that freaked all the characters out. Sound familiar from my review of the first book? Yeah, because there were freaking piles of uneaten carcasses scattered everywhere when they first met the wolves. We're not stupid, Mr. Isbell.
#2: My only remaining favorite character dies. WHY? He was, in my opinion, the only smart person--besides Twitch--in the whole darn story!
#3: The author played the "weapons out of nowhere" trick again, assuming the readers wouldn't notice. I noticed.
#4: Hope kept pushing poor Book away, then kissing him again. It drove me CRAZY. I've had to suffer through that stupid romance through the first two books. Finally, Book sorta, kinda, not really put an end to it, and I cheered out loud when he did. But of course, he went back to being a blind idiot because he just thinks Hope is too great and smart*cough, cough* not in my opinion *cough* to stay away from. And eventually, it works out in his favor.
The inauguration of Cynthia Maddox reminded me a lot of D.T.'sIf you understand who I mean. . . She even acted like him. I don't think I would be surprised if these events started happening in real life though I pray they won't.
Pretty good book overall, , but I don't think I will be rereading it in this lifetime.
I love the Skull People. This one part one page 169 made me laugh:
I loved Goodwoman Marciniak. . .
This was probably my favorite book out of the series, but I'm not rating it very high because,
#1: The wolves once again made an appearance. Except this time, they didn't eat what they killed , and that freaked all the characters out. Sound familiar from my review of the first book? Yeah, because there were freaking piles of uneaten carcasses scattered everywhere when they first met the wolves. We're not stupid, Mr. Isbell.
#2: My only remaining favorite character dies. WHY? He was, in my opinion, the only smart person--besides Twitch--in the whole darn story!
#3: The author played the "weapons out of nowhere" trick again, assuming the readers wouldn't notice.
#4: Hope kept pushing poor Book away, then kissing him again. It drove me CRAZY. I've had to suffer through that stupid romance through the first two books. Finally, Book sorta, kinda, not really put an end to it, and I cheered out loud when he did. But of course, he went back to being a blind idiot because he just thinks Hope is too great and smart
The inauguration of Cynthia Maddox reminded me a lot of D.T.'s
Pretty good book overall, , but I don't think I will be rereading it in this lifetime.
June 30, 2023
Wowza!!!! This was quite the conclusion to the trilogy that was The Prey. I was on edge the entire time. Book, Hope and Cat's final trek to take down the evil Barbie that is Chancellor Maddox.
I thought this was a installment was a great way to answer some of the questions left over in the second book. Book's character development is that he begins to be more of a leader where as the The Capture he was in a leader role but wasn't taking the reigns towards the very end. He fights for the freedoms of the less thans and sisters. Hope, in this book starts out stand off-ish becoming super self conscious about her scars that the Chancellor gave her. Which I was sad because she was opening up more after the ending of the previous book. Cat, in this book is back to himself but even better, with Book's help is not letting the loss of his arm hinder him living and learning to use his arm.
There are so much I want dive in but could be considered spoilers. So here is my semi small breakdown of the book and some pivotal moments. I'll list them as spoilers:
All in All, this book was really good! The series was very exciting and filled with suspense and thrills. I recommend anyone read this book if you like Apocalyptic Dystopian type books. It's quite a trilogy! The character development and the adventures they had just trying to stay alive. I hope that Tom Isbell makes more books like this!
Also to end it on a quote that I will remember from the book: "Live Today, Tears Tomorrow" - Hope
I thought this was a installment was a great way to answer some of the questions left over in the second book. Book's character development is that he begins to be more of a leader where as the The Capture he was in a leader role but wasn't taking the reigns towards the very end. He fights for the freedoms of the less thans and sisters. Hope, in this book starts out stand off-ish becoming super self conscious about her scars that the Chancellor gave her. Which I was sad because she was opening up more after the ending of the previous book. Cat, in this book is back to himself but even better, with Book's help is not letting the loss of his arm hinder him living and learning to use his arm.
There are so much I want dive in but could be considered spoilers. So here is my semi small breakdown of the book and some pivotal moments. I'll list them as spoilers:
All in All, this book was really good! The series was very exciting and filled with suspense and thrills. I recommend anyone read this book if you like Apocalyptic Dystopian type books. It's quite a trilogy! The character development and the adventures they had just trying to stay alive. I hope that Tom Isbell makes more books like this!
Also to end it on a quote that I will remember from the book: "Live Today, Tears Tomorrow" - Hope
July 11, 2020
Stars: 3 / 5
Recommendation: Hope & Despair; Friendships & Betrayals; Love & Hatred; Cruelty & Revenge; Rulers & Subjects; Captures & Escapes; every page gives you a variety in characters, emotions, plans, mishaps and terrors. A recipe for a dystopian novel successfully executed.
The Release is the conclusion to The Prey Trilogy by Tom Isbell published in February of 2017. The plot begins n Camp Liberty two months after where it ended in previous book, The Capture (https://inspirethoughts.livejournal.c...), with Book, Cat and Hope, rescuing the surviving Sister and Less Thans, but stuck there for now.
The series is set in post-apocalyptic United States after the world was destroyed by nations who go on nuclear war against each other - an event called Omega. One enormous burst of electromagnetic radiation and everything electronic gets destroyed - no modern amenities left for common man to use. The US becomes the Republic Of The True America and divided into different Resettlement Camps and Territories. The Camps are handled by Military Sergeants, Colonels and Majors and myriads of Soldiers called Brown Shirts. The specific territory that this plot takes place in is the Western Federation Territory.
With Camp Liberty liberated from the people who run them and the Brown Shirts, the only course of action that Cat, Hope, Book & the remaining Sisters and Less Thans have is to go on a full frontal attack at the people who have caused so much ruin and harm in their lives. However, they have unexpected new enemies; surprising allies; and heartache that is again too heavy to carry for such young'uns.
Being teenagers, one would expect them to do mistakes before they have a successful path. Tom doesn’t disappoint us in showing that trait. However, these are survivors and we see more grit and strength in them than normal teenagers. I liked that Tom showed their failures and successes on equal ground.
Again I am frustrated with one of the protagonist who is so consumed by revenge that even when needed they reject the help they have close-hand. Why couldn’t they accept help and work together better than struggle alone, even if it meant for the good of the other person?
I have read a lot of articles and fictional novels that involved wolves. It always amazed me about how organized the wolf packs are, how they strategize their plan of attacks and how well they take care of their families. I think they are more better than humans. Tom gives us first hand experience of the wolf pack dynamics in this book.
Tom also touches on the various warfare that countries engage in whether a battle is needed or not - biochemical agents; guns; and any means that can be used. He shows the mind of fanatics so vividly that it gave me shudders. Reminded me of Hitler and also a pair of leaders from our current world.
The book is written in 3 parts - Part One titled Enemies; Part Two titled Allies; Part Three title Release - each subtitled with famous quotes. Each part's title inadvertently giving a concise of what we would find in just one word. Ingenious, I say. The entire plot is written in first person narration when the story is told from Book's perspective and normal manner when it is told from Hope or other's perspective.
Contrary to the previous two books, I found quite a lot of errors by the author in this book. Although the plot wasn’t written hurriedly or no where concluded in a quick finish, but perhaps the editing was too faster and who ever did the editing missed them.
The conclusion to the series comes with heartbreaks; consequences of the battle against the evil; and eventual win. But it also comes with resolution of past; blending of hearts and minds; and a brave new world for the survivors of the apocalypse and the battles they faced. I would have preferred a little more into the life of the characters in the new world that is formed after the antagonists are vanquished.
Hope & Despair; Friendships & Betrayals; Love & Hatred; Cruelty & Revenge; Rulers & Subjects; Captures & Escapes; every page gives you a variety in characters, emotions, plans, mishaps and terrors. A very good conclusion to the series, despite my misgivings on the first book.
Spoiler Alerts:
1. Plot reveals:
a. Hope was looking to find her childhood home in the previous book. Tom gives a closure to that in this book.
b. It was unknown if Miranda betrayed the protagonists in the end of Book 2, even though she had helped once. In this Tom makes it clear that she did try to help at the cost of her life.
c. Dr. Galingham claimed that Dr. Uzair Samadi, Hope's father was known as the Butcher of the West and had been an active participant in the experiments conducted on girls. Tom gives a closure to Hope regarding her father in this book.
d. Media, Books and Music that are referenced in the book - Book quotes from John Dunne's No Man is an Island; A Tale of Two Cities; Nathan Hale, the Revolutionary War hero; Shakespeare's Rome and Juliet.
2. Sub-Plots:
a. Various Territories:
i. Current President of the Republic of The True America & his aides - President Vasquez; James Heywood; Jocelyn Perrella;
ii. Western Federation Territory - lead by Chancellor Cynthia Maddox
iii. The Heartlands Territory -
iv. Skeleton Ridge
v. No Water
vi. Eagle's Nest
vii. The Skull People - The founder of The Skull People, Goodwoman Olvera, is Book's grandmother. His mom was Maria who died giving birth to him. Others - Goodman Dougherty; Goodwoman Marjorie Marciniak;
b. Less Thans other than Book who have escaped Camp Liberty - Cat; Flush; Twitch; Red; Book's dog Argos follows them.
c. Sisters other than Hope Samadi who have escaped Camp Freedom - 19 of them escape; Diana; Scylla; Helen; Angela; Lacey. Hope's mother was Charlotte Patterson Samadi.
d. Various groups the Less Thans and Sisters face - Crazies; Brown Shirts; Colonels; Sergeants; Mayors; Hunters (lead by a Man in Orange vest)
e. Camp Liberty - Boys are kept here who are called as Less Thans. A total of sixty-eight survived at the start of this book.
f. Camp Freedom - run by Dr. Joseph Gallingham who have been experimenting on the girls in the camp. All girls are twins by birth and are called as Sisters. A total of fifty-five survived in this book. Other Sisters - Sarah;
3. Grammatical / Factual / Location / Historical / Character Errors:
a. On Pg. 12, Line 7 from bottom, shouldn’t it be "…she would cloak herself…"
b. In Chapter 2, author Tom shows that Hope has accepted that her father was actively participating in the experiments conducted at Camp Freedom. Again in Chapter 31, he has her thinking about her dad again as if she hadnt accepted his role in the experiments. Nowhere in book 1 or 2 did author give any inclination about that. In fact he had showed Hope not believing it and trying to find the truth. I wonder what chapters had been cut from the books to have this disconnect.
c. On Pg. 16, Line 6, it should be "…what do I tell him…"
d. On Pg. 183, Line 7, it should be "…wasn't one of us…"
e. On Pg. 314, Line 15, it should be "…we're not going to worry about…"
Recommendation: Hope & Despair; Friendships & Betrayals; Love & Hatred; Cruelty & Revenge; Rulers & Subjects; Captures & Escapes; every page gives you a variety in characters, emotions, plans, mishaps and terrors. A recipe for a dystopian novel successfully executed.
The Release is the conclusion to The Prey Trilogy by Tom Isbell published in February of 2017. The plot begins n Camp Liberty two months after where it ended in previous book, The Capture (https://inspirethoughts.livejournal.c...), with Book, Cat and Hope, rescuing the surviving Sister and Less Thans, but stuck there for now.
The series is set in post-apocalyptic United States after the world was destroyed by nations who go on nuclear war against each other - an event called Omega. One enormous burst of electromagnetic radiation and everything electronic gets destroyed - no modern amenities left for common man to use. The US becomes the Republic Of The True America and divided into different Resettlement Camps and Territories. The Camps are handled by Military Sergeants, Colonels and Majors and myriads of Soldiers called Brown Shirts. The specific territory that this plot takes place in is the Western Federation Territory.
With Camp Liberty liberated from the people who run them and the Brown Shirts, the only course of action that Cat, Hope, Book & the remaining Sisters and Less Thans have is to go on a full frontal attack at the people who have caused so much ruin and harm in their lives. However, they have unexpected new enemies; surprising allies; and heartache that is again too heavy to carry for such young'uns.
Being teenagers, one would expect them to do mistakes before they have a successful path. Tom doesn’t disappoint us in showing that trait. However, these are survivors and we see more grit and strength in them than normal teenagers. I liked that Tom showed their failures and successes on equal ground.
Again I am frustrated with one of the protagonist who is so consumed by revenge that even when needed they reject the help they have close-hand. Why couldn’t they accept help and work together better than struggle alone, even if it meant for the good of the other person?
I have read a lot of articles and fictional novels that involved wolves. It always amazed me about how organized the wolf packs are, how they strategize their plan of attacks and how well they take care of their families. I think they are more better than humans. Tom gives us first hand experience of the wolf pack dynamics in this book.
Tom also touches on the various warfare that countries engage in whether a battle is needed or not - biochemical agents; guns; and any means that can be used. He shows the mind of fanatics so vividly that it gave me shudders. Reminded me of Hitler and also a pair of leaders from our current world.
The book is written in 3 parts - Part One titled Enemies; Part Two titled Allies; Part Three title Release - each subtitled with famous quotes. Each part's title inadvertently giving a concise of what we would find in just one word. Ingenious, I say. The entire plot is written in first person narration when the story is told from Book's perspective and normal manner when it is told from Hope or other's perspective.
Contrary to the previous two books, I found quite a lot of errors by the author in this book. Although the plot wasn’t written hurriedly or no where concluded in a quick finish, but perhaps the editing was too faster and who ever did the editing missed them.
The conclusion to the series comes with heartbreaks; consequences of the battle against the evil; and eventual win. But it also comes with resolution of past; blending of hearts and minds; and a brave new world for the survivors of the apocalypse and the battles they faced. I would have preferred a little more into the life of the characters in the new world that is formed after the antagonists are vanquished.
Hope & Despair; Friendships & Betrayals; Love & Hatred; Cruelty & Revenge; Rulers & Subjects; Captures & Escapes; every page gives you a variety in characters, emotions, plans, mishaps and terrors. A very good conclusion to the series, despite my misgivings on the first book.
Spoiler Alerts:
1. Plot reveals:
a. Hope was looking to find her childhood home in the previous book. Tom gives a closure to that in this book.
b. It was unknown if Miranda betrayed the protagonists in the end of Book 2, even though she had helped once. In this Tom makes it clear that she did try to help at the cost of her life.
c. Dr. Galingham claimed that Dr. Uzair Samadi, Hope's father was known as the Butcher of the West and had been an active participant in the experiments conducted on girls. Tom gives a closure to Hope regarding her father in this book.
d. Media, Books and Music that are referenced in the book - Book quotes from John Dunne's No Man is an Island; A Tale of Two Cities; Nathan Hale, the Revolutionary War hero; Shakespeare's Rome and Juliet.
2. Sub-Plots:
a. Various Territories:
i. Current President of the Republic of The True America & his aides - President Vasquez; James Heywood; Jocelyn Perrella;
ii. Western Federation Territory - lead by Chancellor Cynthia Maddox
iii. The Heartlands Territory -
iv. Skeleton Ridge
v. No Water
vi. Eagle's Nest
vii. The Skull People - The founder of The Skull People, Goodwoman Olvera, is Book's grandmother. His mom was Maria who died giving birth to him. Others - Goodman Dougherty; Goodwoman Marjorie Marciniak;
b. Less Thans other than Book who have escaped Camp Liberty - Cat; Flush; Twitch; Red; Book's dog Argos follows them.
c. Sisters other than Hope Samadi who have escaped Camp Freedom - 19 of them escape; Diana; Scylla; Helen; Angela; Lacey. Hope's mother was Charlotte Patterson Samadi.
d. Various groups the Less Thans and Sisters face - Crazies; Brown Shirts; Colonels; Sergeants; Mayors; Hunters (lead by a Man in Orange vest)
e. Camp Liberty - Boys are kept here who are called as Less Thans. A total of sixty-eight survived at the start of this book.
f. Camp Freedom - run by Dr. Joseph Gallingham who have been experimenting on the girls in the camp. All girls are twins by birth and are called as Sisters. A total of fifty-five survived in this book. Other Sisters - Sarah;
3. Grammatical / Factual / Location / Historical / Character Errors:
a. On Pg. 12, Line 7 from bottom, shouldn’t it be "…she would cloak herself…"
b. In Chapter 2, author Tom shows that Hope has accepted that her father was actively participating in the experiments conducted at Camp Freedom. Again in Chapter 31, he has her thinking about her dad again as if she hadnt accepted his role in the experiments. Nowhere in book 1 or 2 did author give any inclination about that. In fact he had showed Hope not believing it and trying to find the truth. I wonder what chapters had been cut from the books to have this disconnect.
c. On Pg. 16, Line 6, it should be "…what do I tell him…"
d. On Pg. 183, Line 7, it should be "…wasn't one of us…"
e. On Pg. 314, Line 15, it should be "…we're not going to worry about…"
March 4, 2019
The Release is the third and final book in The Prey trilogy. Without a doubt Tom Isbell is one of the most consistent writers I have read. He keeps the tone and pacing the same throughout the trilogy.
Even though the story is split between Hope and Book I still feel like Book was more of the main character. I had hoped for more growth for Book he remained the same in a lot of ways, he continued to trust people no matter what and always seemed to come up with last minute plans that miraculously saved everyone. I wanted Book to fail and learn from his failure but that never seemed to happen on a large scale. Also the love triangle aspect had too easy of an ending.
Hope never really opened up, she could never come to terms with the death of Faith or her mother. She seemed to accept the death of her father a little better but maybe that was due to him dying from natural causes. Overall I was more disappointed in Hope's development then Books.
Since the writing was so consistent I never really felt like I went from one book to another, it just seemed one big book I was reading. I adore that about Tom Isbell since that is not easy to do. Not sure I would read more of Tom Isbell's work since I was not a huge fan of how the series ended.
Even though the story is split between Hope and Book I still feel like Book was more of the main character. I had hoped for more growth for Book he remained the same in a lot of ways, he continued to trust people no matter what and always seemed to come up with last minute plans that miraculously saved everyone. I wanted Book to fail and learn from his failure but that never seemed to happen on a large scale. Also the love triangle aspect had too easy of an ending.
Hope never really opened up, she could never come to terms with the death of Faith or her mother. She seemed to accept the death of her father a little better but maybe that was due to him dying from natural causes. Overall I was more disappointed in Hope's development then Books.
Since the writing was so consistent I never really felt like I went from one book to another, it just seemed one big book I was reading. I adore that about Tom Isbell since that is not easy to do. Not sure I would read more of Tom Isbell's work since I was not a huge fan of how the series ended.
May 28, 2021
Ok Maze Runner meets Hunger Games. This was one of those books you don't really know what you are getting into till you start reading. It flips back and forth between Hope and Book, so you get both sides of their story and details into how they see their relationship. The relationship between them is typical to say the least, but the story is truly action packed. I loved every minute, it had me on the edge of my seat constantly telling the family to "leave me alone, I'm reading." Great job with this one.
June 10, 2017
Started off strong like the first two books, then got VERY cheesy towards the end. Stuff like: "a chop to the neck, and they're out cold". Then the epilogue is on a whole other level of cheesy (Kraft might sue).
But, if you can look past all the liquid gold, it's actually a pretty solid ending to the trilogy.
But, if you can look past all the liquid gold, it's actually a pretty solid ending to the trilogy.
September 13, 2017
Hope finally redeems herself in this final battle between the Sisters, LT's, and the Browm Shirts. She was not one of my favorite characters throughout this story. There were so many twists in the finale to this series!! Some were expected and some were not but this was a great way to tie up the series.
March 14, 2018
3.5 stars - probably would have been higher if I'd read the other books in the series first...
This is the conclusion to the series and appears to wrap up all the loose ends in an action-packed thriller. For those looking for a dystopian series, this seems to be one that has some unusual twists and interesting characters within the standard tropes. I'd go back and read the first two books, just based on this one.
This is the conclusion to the series and appears to wrap up all the loose ends in an action-packed thriller. For those looking for a dystopian series, this seems to be one that has some unusual twists and interesting characters within the standard tropes. I'd go back and read the first two books, just based on this one.
January 28, 2023
It seems like a different author wrote this book and it was geared towards 8 year olds instead of 14 and above. It's embarrassing I'm I'm angry that I had to read this and I put it down for weeks at a time because it was so basic and embarrassing. Obviously the publisher made this guy alter things to fit their will. But ffs
September 1, 2025
Διχάστηκα αρκετά για το αν έπρεπε να βάλω 2 ή 3 αστέρια, αλλά επειδή το τελευταίο βιβλίο της σειράς δεν είναι τόσο κακό όσο το πρώτο, είπα να μην είμαι παντελώς άδικη μαζί του. Σίγουρα, το χτίσιμο του κόσμου της σειράς θα μπορούσε να ήταν πολύ πιο καλοδουλεμένο και δομημένο, αφού είχε προοπτικές να δώσει πολλά περισσότερα.
September 29, 2017
I thought this was a good ending to the series it really leaves it open ended for what can happen for the future but not really leaving you with to many questions unanswered. Also love that Argos lived through the entire series I really expected the dog to die.
December 11, 2017
Oh dear god.
1. The two protagonists were just beyond dumb. Hope's moodiness was starting to get on my nerves, and Book was just plain gullible.
2. THEY KILLED OFF THE ONE SMART AND DECENT CHARACTER IN THE WHOLE SERIES!!! WHY, CAT, WHY! AND ONLY 50 PAGES AWAY FROM FREEDOM, TOO.
1. The two protagonists were just beyond dumb. Hope's moodiness was starting to get on my nerves, and Book was just plain gullible.
2. THEY KILLED OFF THE ONE SMART AND DECENT CHARACTER IN THE WHOLE SERIES!!! WHY, CAT, WHY! AND ONLY 50 PAGES AWAY FROM FREEDOM, TOO.
August 8, 2017
I thought this was a good, satisfying ending to the trilogy. I really enjoyed following these characters on their journey
October 27, 2017
Did not like this one as much as the other two.
March 16, 2018
thought it was a pretty decent book never left you bored overall a good read
March 20, 2018
All three books are 4 star but the endings bring it down in each one.
August 31, 2018
Solid ending with some twists and turns.
January 28, 2019
The shortest of the trilogy but it still packs a punch. Great way to end the series that will keep you wondering till the very end!
July 23, 2019
The only thing I have to say is the ending could have been better but it was very satisfying the way it ended overall.
February 10, 2022
Good book. I really liked it. Hope dragging Book along got a little tedious. But I am not sure it could have went any other way. I'd certainly read more from this author. I do love post-apocalyptic.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 29, 2022
My heart is in so many pieces. I'm not all the way happy with the ending because I feel so sad with the many deaths but still loved the ending at the same time. Great way to end this trilogy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 5, 2022
Lots of violence. Good ending to the story but sad and hard to get into the story world.
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