Ember

by Brock Adams

Three years ago, the sun began to die. In a desperate attempt to reignite the failing star, the United States had joined the rest of the planet in unloading its nuclear arsenal at the flickering ember. The missiles burst from silos in Wyoming and Bangladesh, cocooning the earth in tendrils of smoke as they began their two-and-a-half year journey into space. When they finally reach their target, it’s thirty degrees in July and getting colder. Lisa and her husband, Guy, sit shivering on a Southern hilltop, watching as humanity’s last hope at survival shimmers faintly...and then disappears below the horizon. A group of militant rebels called the Minutemen take advantage of the ensuing chaos to knock out power grids, cloaking the freezing earth in near darkness. Seizing control. To escape this ruthless new world order, Lisa and Guy join a reluctant band of refugees crossing the snow-covered South in search of shelter and answers. From an icy parking lot in Atlanta to the Minutemen’s makeshift headquarters at Asheville’s Biltmore Estate, only one thing is certain: in a world with little light, nothing is guaranteed—least of all survival. Ember is the 2016 winner of the South Carolina First Novel Prize as judged by novelist Bridgett M. Davis.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Dystopia, Audiobook, Post Apocalyptic

318 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2017

Reviews

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I pay careful attention to the winners of the SC First Novel Prize, because it is a good way to know of new local authors, and it supports an independent press, Hub City. I really enjoyed an earlier winner of this prize, Minnow.

I would say this novel felt more like a first novel. I have read better books about apocalypse through an ice age or the sun dying - The Sunlight Pilgrims wasn't perfect but had more going on, for instance. Adams takes a chance here by making the book completely about the people attempting to survive. Because of this, the story of how they got here and how everything happened needs to make sense. But in those crucial moments, the reader isn't told enough.

The sun is dying, and the earth is getting colder. This much we know, and they refer to the sun as "ember." The American government has sent nuclear bombs to the sun to force some kind of heat reaction, and the public statement is that it was successful (I can almost hear it now, "We send the best rockets, our rockets beat the sun, it was yuge.") But the other part of the story, that there are these secret Minutemen (former "Bunker Boys," the preppers that emerged after previous signs of collapse) organizing to overthrow the government all along, and something that they did ruined electricity forever - well, I'm sorry but I'm going to need a better explanation than "something that they did." Apart from that issue, electricity wouldn't be a longterm solution if the sun were dying anyway.

The lack of preparation is not surprising. We see through ongoing climate based disasters how quickly a local area can devolve into chaos. But what about the technologies that don't require electricity? Where are the battery powered short-wave radios, at least for communication? How did the American-based Minutemen manage to disrupt the electric grid of the entire world? And what is the reason for a terrorist act later in the novel? A lot of facts like this, that seem central to the world building of the novel, are left unanswered, and it makes it a less satisfying read because of them. Another convenience is that characters are finding themselves surprised to be "good at" animal butchering or killing others, despite no training in these areas. It's a bit of a stretch. And if you're magically going to find a talent, why isn't anyone learning how to build fires?

I was also annoyed by the naivete of the main characters. Nobody knew not to leave their stuff unmonitored and nobody seemed to think twice about trusting strangers, and this lack of common sense led to most of the terrible things in the novel. Not everyone needs to be a trained soldier but they are adults who have taken care of themselves thus far, including two of the characters working in Africa!

That reminds me that the National Guard is portrayed pretty pitifully here too. I'm not pro-military but it was hard to believe that the minute the power grid goes down, they don't have training or abilities to that end. Especially if, as we're told, they've had three years of warning that this is coming. Perhaps a badly funded National Guard, with a leader who doesn't know about these things.

As a local, though, I have to say it is quite satisfying to read about the locations I know being used as the setting - Lake Hartwell and its one highway, Clemson, the upstate, Atlanta, Asheville, and the Biltmore Estate. I also kind of liked that there is a character who is a librarian and ends up taking charge, however I feel like I would probably go for a park ranger or nature guide over a librarian, personally (and I am a librarian!)

Thanks to the publisher for providing early access to this title through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. The title is available September 21, 2017.

[Sadie Domingues · Rating 5 out of 5]

We read this book for my book club. Without knowing much about it, I settled down to read at 9:30 p.m....and then didn’t look up from the pages until 3 in the morning when I finished the book. I’m
a picky reader. I give a book about 50 pages to grab my attention, and if it’s not happening I have no issue setting it down and never picking it up again. This book grabbed and didn’t let go. The story is well paced and thrilling. The characters are flawed, but intentionally so. The “end of the world” scenario, while not realistic from a scientific standpoint (it’s fantasy, it doesn’t have to be), is realistic from a human standpoint. You can put yourself in the characters shoes in a way that will make you question yourself, how you might behave if it were you. It’s so easy to put yourself in the place of these characters. My book club unanimously agreed that this was our favorite book that we’ve read in the group. I highly recommend, even if survivalist or dystopian lit isn’t your thing (I wouldn’t consider it my typical choice) because the core values of what our humanity means and what we would do if it were to be compromised, can resonate with anyone and everyone.

[Kristina Robbins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eerie. Even more so considering the familiar locations of Spartanburg and Asheville.

[marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. I made list of post-apocalyptic I like better while finishing:

Handmaid’s Tale
Station Eleven
Hunger Games
Life As We Knew It
Divergent... maybe that’s not necessarily better.

Only one I’ve read that was definitely worse would be The Forest of Hands and Teeth. Damn that’s baaaad.

[Nathaniel Delk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely enjoyed this book. It puts you into a world where you question what you would do in the same situation. Would you be a good samaritan? A cold blooded killer out for yourself? A member of a powerful group of ultra nationalists? Perhaps just a confused and lost soul latching onto anyone confident enough to lead. I found myself unable to put this book down, having finished it in a day or so. Although there were a few scenes I found hard to stomach toward the end, mainly just due to my passion for animals.

Adams has painted a visceral picture of his characters in a post apocalyptic world. When he literally killed his main character halfway through the book, I'll admit I was a bit floored. For all his NUMEROUS flaws, I found Guy to be relatable, perhaps due to my own flaws. I could see myself in his position through several scenes up to his death. I was happy to see Lisa take up the mantle of responsibility afterward, and prove herself to be the real badass of the couple. I also found it believable that she and Heather stayed together for some time, even though under NORMAL circumstances they would never have this sort of connection, but the world of Ember is anything but normal. I will say that this book is a bit depressing, but then again, I would also say that this fits the world nicely. There are definitely some missing elements of the story, but I think that's due to the characters themselves not knowing the answers to these questions. (What actually happened to the power? Why did someone nuke Miami?) I will also say that I'm not used to reading novels written in the present tense, but I found it easy to follow.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a more character driven romp through a post apocalyptic southern USA. As long as you're willing to suspend a bit of disbelief over the sun dying (we're good on that for quite a long time haha) and perhaps a few other minor points, I believe you'll enjoy it.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the pleasure of presenting with Brock at the Decatur Book Festival, and got myself a copy of Ember to read.

It's a full-throttle thrill ride of a book, with characters leaping from one predicament to the next with wild abandon. The sun is going out! Aieee! No, wait, the earth has been hit by a massive coronal mass ejection and all power is out! Aieee! No, wait, a group of half-mad fascist nationalists are plotting to take over the world! Aieee!

Throw in a trio of main characters who are prone to making some really remarkably shortsighted life choices, and a lesser writer could easily make a hash of it. But in Brock's hands, the book leaps and surges along, utterly readable and entirely engrossing.

Is it pure and rigorous hard science fiction? No. But it isn't trying to be. It's just a well written and immensely entertaining read, one that I'd find myself sneaking back to whenever I had a few spare moments.

[Irene Grumman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A natural disaster combines with survivalist, isolationist politics to create a nightmarish, brutal world. Our protagonists cope, improvise, reach personal turning points, and learn to survive - maybe - by working together. The situations seem believable. It's jolting that characters die, just when the reader is beginning to invest in them.

Winner of 2016 South Carolina First Novel Prize.

[Caroline · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'll just leave my blog link here. Read on for some real honesty:
https://adventuresinnonsense.com/book...

[Joan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Over the past three years, the sun has weakened to an ember, resulting in long, cold winter-like weather, even in South Carolina. Long-married librarian Lisa and teacher Guy watch the government’s last-ditch effort to “re-ignite” the sun by hurling a nuclear arsenal into its center.

They’ve seen the power disrupted by solar auroras before and know that restoring it won’t take long; this time, however, the power doesn’t return. And although the government has announced success in their attempt to re-kindle the sun, it doesn’t seem to be getting any warmer.

And then the Minutemen come.

This self-serving survivalist group takes advantage of the chaos surrounding the lack of power and the dying sun and claims governing power in this New America. Murdering without provocation, they raid homes and stores to take whatever supplies and valuables they want. Against this brutal force, Lisa, Guy, and the other refugees must fight for survival . . . even as the sun is dying and nothing is certain.

Despite its flowing prose and the building tension and suspense as the story unfolds, this dystopian tale ultimately disappoints. Marital rift and infidelity, an over-used literary device, fails to add any complexity to a narrative that gives readers an account of two women dealing with the unexpected events in their lives and choosing what they will do in order to survive in an antagonistic environment created by bellicose militants.
If this weakening of the sun has been happening over the past three years, why are the people so naïve, so ill-equipped for the coming apocalypse? The country does seem to be slipping into anarchy, but the improbability of the situations in which the characters continually find themselves may leave many readers feeling as perplexed as the characters who are discovering just what they will . . . or won’t . . . do to survive.

Readers are apt to wonder about the story’s basic premise. In this science fiction narrative, the sun began to die three years ago. Yet scientists tell us that, if the sun were to weaken in this way, people on Earth would not even notice it for ten thousand years. After that, it would appear to those on Earth that the sun was gradually cooling. It would take some one hundred seventy thousand years for the sun to get progressively dimmer and to fade out of the visible spectrum.

And that would surely seem to be more than enough time for everyone . . . even the ill-prepared South Carolinians in this tale . . . to figure out what to do about it.

But for readers, the insurmountable obstacle in this science fiction narrative is likely to be the fact that the science isn’t even close to being right.

[Brayton Cole · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, one day the sun ... stops burning as hot as it used to. No, we don't know why, it just does. It got tired of the whole nuclear-fusion induced by gravitational compression thing, decided to try inexplicably cooling off instead. Our planet rapidly becomes less hospitable, but not enough to cause a significant breakdown in society for some time. Climate is badly disrupted, but civilization carries on for two years while we, uh, try to jumpstart the sun by throwing all our nuclear missiles at it. When that doesn't work, the government is overthrown by a million rabid right-wing militia members, who organize in secret on the internet and mount a coup to take over the country basically overnight. This coup involves destroying the country's vital electronic and communications infrastructure, permanently. It goes off without a hitch, and afterwards the militia members are very busy looting TVs and other large, grid-dependent electronics.

If you read all that without saying "what?", then congratulations, you're this book's target audience. Bonus points if you like morally repulsive protagonists. This book has three, and two of them survive while less flawed (albeit cardboard) characters drop like flies. I gave it two stars because it was fun to dive down and explore the illogic rabbit-hole. Am very glad I only checked it out from the library.

[Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sun began to die three years ago, causing the leaders of the world to come together to try to find a solution. That solution was to launch the entire world's nuclear weapons stock in an attempt to kick start the glowing ember into some sort of rebirth. But when the day comes when they should have reached their target, there are no signs that anything has changed. Lisa and her husband, Guy, have been hanging on to hope, though they are unsure how long they should hold on. And when a group of militants calling themselves the Minutemen emerge with weapons and begin taking over various cities, Lisa and Guy set out on the run, hoping they might find a safe place to settle down and continue to hope for the future.

I found myself intrigued by the concept of this story. Yes, end-of-the-world stories have been told time and time again. And many times we see the plight of the protagonists against whatever natural disaster is responsible for bringing everything down. But there is a strong human element to this story that is compelling and stands out as unique. Lisa's journey is one that takes her to some unexpected places and brings readers right along with her.

[Mark Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was an amazingly gripping and expertly crafted novel. Hard to believe it is his first published novel.

The plot unfolds in unexpected and surprising ways, making it clear early on that the reader is in for a lot of twists. The main plot point of the sun dying is handled with perfect balance. Not so full of scientific jargon that it leaves the reader confused but just enough to feel scientifically plausible.

The real strength here is the character work. The characters are three dimensional and complex, full of strengths and weaknesses, virtues and flaws.

I also loved the episodic nature of the tale, our characters encountering a series of adventures that keep upping the stakes and surprising the reader.

Adams has really delivered an astounding post-apocalyptic novel here that thrills and satisfies.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good, following three characters in a dying world, there are casualties. The story set within the framework of the fading of the sun is good insofar as it goes, but the greater plot of the fading sun becomes merely background as the inter-play and adventures progress. Yet at the end of the book, the plot isn't resolved, and the sun is still fading leading to the inevitable ball of ice scenario.

There are things which the author neglected to cover, such as where is the promise of the future within this book. The characters struggle to survive, seemingly without hope, which does make some sense in that they are trapped in the struggle to live out the day. However, the book leaves with no real described, or even barely alluded to, hope for survival within the apocalypse the author has created. I don't think this a completed book, and I do wish it was.

[Andy Hesselbrock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. It actually was a pretty entertaining read with interesting characters, but there were a few major things that annoyed me. First, the Sun would never evolve in such a manner as to create the entire premise of the novel, but that fact is not too hard to get over. Second, the use of snow storms to basically just randomly kill people off felt lazy. But mainly, I HIGHLY doubt the two main characters, Lisa and Heather, would actually maintain the relationship that they do in real life.

But it is an interesting premise for a story, and I think does a good job portraying how events would likely unfold in America as people figure out how to survive.

[Ginger Eager · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keep reading! That's my advice. I bought this book shortly after it was released, and I kept starting it and then setting it aside because I really disliked the narrator. But the narrator changes after the first 100 pages! This novel progresses like a baton run, with the story switching between three narrators. Two of them I loved and one of them I would follow anywhere. I always enjoy a good dystopian read, and this one is set in the southeastern US--the Biltmore in NC plays a role that made me laugh. I also enjoy a kick ass female protagonist, and this book has that too. Glad for last night's insomnia that finally led me deeper into this good book!

[Christy ofthewoods · Rating 1 out of 5]

Whether it’s fair or not, I could not finish this book. I didn’t even get a quarter through it in fact. With the amount of books in this world and so little time, I must choose wisely. I was immediately annoyed by his writing of females. A seemingly hysterical wife from the lack of ability to have kids which inevitably threw her husband into the arms of one of his students.....gross. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes and return the book. She may have went on to be the hero of the book for all I know, but ....meh.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once I got passed the first section, after Guy’s perspective, I really enjoyed this book. I could not stand his smug, entitled, and overly critical thought process. The constant metaphors and similes just did not seem genuine and really grated my nerves. However, Lisa’s adventures captured me and I could barely put her story down. I just love strong fighter females, and the twists and turns made for a quick enjoyable read. I like books that make me think about how I would handle the same situation and this one definitely does that.

[Anthony Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was an interesting story that was recommended to me by Foggy Pine Books. It really hits close to home, especially with us just surviving a pandemic and the Jan 6 riots. While it had an interesting concept, it kind of dragged on in some places, especially talking about the character's personal lives. The ending was also left with alot of loose ends that hopefully will be addressed in a sequel. That is probably the most disappointing part. The ending kind of fizzled.....like the sun in this book.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

The missiles were a last ditch effort to relight the ember. The sun had begun dying, giving less light and heat each day. The missiles arrived, striking the sun, the signal for the Minutemen to attack. In a country already weakened by years of struggles, the Minutemen began their bid to take over. Lisa and her husband Guy flee, hoping to find somewhere safe. What they soon realize is there is no where safe anymore.

Parts of the story were a solid 4 stars, but some sections just didn’t hold up. Worth the read. Enjoyable. Just nothing very special.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book piqued my interest from page 1. I love how you heard from each character's point of view and (spoiler alert!!!) killing off the main character not even halfway through was really interesting and unexpected. It reminded me a lot of The Walking Dead but I loved that it was set in the south also and loved imagining cities I know well in a post-apocolyptic time. This book has it all and I hope Brock will write a sequel!!! It would also make a great movie!

[Jennifer Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Confession: I love books about the end of the world. I've read many but given 5 starts to few. I really loved this novel - I loved the switch of point of view and I loved the complicated relationship of Lisa, Guy and Heather.
And the dog! If you love dogs, you will appreciate this.
I suspect there will be a follow up book and I intend to read it!!!

[Erin Templeton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this novel to be engaging and gripping. The characters are flawed, but that’s what makes them relatable. The world of the novel is disturbingly familiar, and all the more so given it’s setting (my neck of the woods).

If you like the Southern Reach Trilogy or the MaddAdam trilogy, chances are you’ll like Ember too.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly peculiar post-apocalytpic novel in a few ways. The cause is the dying of the sun and there's a sort of far right revival militia group that rises up to take control. The narration follows a few different characters, which is kind of odd. Some interesting elements, but not as compelling as it could have been.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. There was a lot going on and the characters where likable. I had a few moments where I was surprised by the turn of events. For a first novel this was really great and I hope the author write a second.

[Tiara · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a science teacher who had just finished a unit on the life cycle of a star when I started reading this, I found some of the science setting up the story to be very amusing (and inaccurate). Putting that aside, I felt it was an engaging and entertaining read.

[Marilyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very suspenseful treatment of an catastrophic event. This book is more about how people respond to a life changing event that threatens their very survival, than it is a science fiction novel. Very thought provoking.

[RL · Rating 4 out of 5]

I almost gave up on this book before Part 2 set in: I’m so glad I stuck with it. This story moves fast and spares almost no one. A startling look at a world unknowingly surging forward- no neat ending to wrap it up, and I am good with that. Really looking forward to more of Adams’ future work.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent novel for a debut. Loved the concept where the sun stops giving out as much heat and is apparently dying. Civilisation is collapsing, along with the national power grid. This story had the promise of being great but never really got into top gear.

Ray Smillie

[Cassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ember was decent. Just like any war/post-apocalyptic book, there's a decent amount of action and detailedly written action and fight scenes. Unfortunately, Ember lacked the character development and the emotional bonding needed to turn a science fiction book from decent to great.

[Jessica Woofter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book and thought the author did a good job of avoiding the predictable...BUT I wish I had read it instead of listening to it...the reader who does Lisa's part makes every man sound like a character from King of the Hill...truly terrible. I wish there was a sequel to this!