I don't think I'm going to continue on from this series. I enjoyed the first three books, but there are a few key reasons why I will not be moving along with this particular series. This one is a good one to end on.
1. Started getting longer by the 3rd book and full of unnecessary filler as a result.
The first two books were about half the length of the third one, which meant everything going on had a purpose and had to count. Nearly doubling the length of the third book didn't add anything of value, in my opinion. It simply forced the author to add more undesirable content which I will mention in a sec.
2. Sanctimonious and or simply preachy. Sweet Jesus. I am not a religious person. I did not realize just how heavy-handed in Jesus Christ our Lord this book was going to be. No disrespect, but give a reader a heads up and I will happily go elsewhere. I don't need to be beaten with a holy speech each and every time a character in the book is faced with a difficult decision to make or is trying to justify something horrible they are about to inflict on another person. Each and every time. Wow. I got to the point where I started skipping through (audible) the biblical judgment and chatter so I could get back to the story. So instead of a spoiler warning, I would appreciate if books provided a "yes, this is going to be religious-heavy." There are a few other EMP books read by Kevin P. that provided this heads up in the reviews so I didn't read those. Well, I'll correct myself, I tried to, but found the content to in fact be just too much for me to take and stopped. This book didn't have the same trigger warning.
3. So much violence against women (mostly in the misguided name of the Lord). I'm really starting to hate this trope in the end of the modern world (EMP, zombies, virus) story plots. Invariably, there is some megalomaniac, or several, who have decided women need to be enslaved and punished. We're "not good for much else" other than to be punished, or degraded, or mounted, and are then told we should like it. Sick. We are relegated to a submissive group of slaves who can "trade on" our bodies in order to eat or survive or our kids eat and survive. How about you consider our input and abilities. Instead, through threats of violence or direct violence, we are given no other choice but to be whores. We are told we were being uppity before (the outbreak or war or whatever), for simply having standards and free will, and have to be humbled.
We really need to ask ourselves what the hell is wrong with society when women are almost immediately enslaved for sex and violence the moment the bottom falls out. I've never once read an end of the world series where this didn't happen. Always starts out with a band of roughnecks taking down one poor woman, using her kid or threatening her directly to succumb or else, for her own good. When she is finally taken into the fold of "good people" it is usually after she's been rescued from the aforementioned scenario. So now she is jaded and damaged and will distrust the intentions of men for the rest of her life. Never read stories about a band of women completely dehumanizing a man for kicks. Makes me sick, and I'm sicker knowing it is completely accurate. This sort of things happens in supposedly civil society, so why not worsen with the lack of governing authority and punishment?
4. Women are written to be less confident and have to be built up by a man, recused by a man, etc. At no point does a woman stand tall and strong in this book without having to have some guy help build up her self-confidence; aiding her in making hard decisions; rescuing her from her rapist or band of rapists.
5. A lot of shoot first, never ask questions later, make horrible assumptions about people attitudes.
This volume seems to wrap up the key points of the previous volumes nicely for me. I don't wish to continue listening - per the above-mentioned reasons. Depressing, upsetting, sexist, violent, preachy, etc. People suffer, I get it. It happens. But these stories are dark and, at times, hopeless.