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Forsaken World #1

Innocence Lost

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Ian and Lance are typical All-American teenagers: good at sports, martial arts, smart, and girl crazy. Best of friends, they are inseparable, when suddenly their lives are shattered.

A meteor lands in Greenland with no warning, and with it comes new life. Ian and Lance's parents are stuck in Hawaii when the riots close in on their home. With their parents halfway across the world, the boys are abruptly forced to forsake their childhood in order to survive. As the dead rise, hungry for flesh, the boys lose their innocence as they must fight their way to their parent's cabin, a lone place of safety in the dangerous new world.

Without an adult to guide them, will Ian and Lance survive, or will they succumb to the plague of the undead?

452 pages, Paperback

First published October 27, 2015

155 people are currently reading
77 people want to read

About the author

Thomas A. Watson

54 books209 followers
Thomas A Watson was born in Bossier City, Louisiana, in 1970, and grew up in Doyline, Louisiana and Grenada, Mississippi. He was the assistant manager of W.C. Plastics in Grenada Mississippi for several years before joining the U.S Army, he was stationed at Bad Hersfeld, Germany. After serving fours years in the Army, he returned to W.C. Plastics where he was the acting manager for four years.

He attended Holmes Community College in the evenings while working at W.C Plastics, taking core classes. He moved back to Bossier City area to be closer to his and his wife's family and attended Northwestern State University in Shreveport, Louisiana, earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. After working 10 years as an emergency room nurse in and around Shreveport, he and his wife and two children, moved to Missoula, Montana.

Watson, meet his wife Tina in Grenada, Mississippi, they will celebrate 25 years of marriage in May of 2015. They have three children, Nicholas, Khristian and Phillip. Watson, penned his first book in January of 2012, after moving to Missoula, Montana. His parents, Larry Watson and Kay Boykin, instilled the love of reading at a very early age. He has read and enjoyed most genres. His first published book Blue Plague: The Fall was released on Amazon and Createspace in August 2012.

Watson, signed a publishing contract with Winlock Press a division of Permuted Press in December of 2014. His Blue Plague series and Dark Titan series will be re-released in 2015 under Winlock Press.

Also in 2015 from Amazon self-publishing, his newest Thanos: Dawn of Man, a fantasy series.

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5 stars
316 (65%)
4 stars
99 (20%)
3 stars
52 (10%)
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5 (1%)
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7 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
Profile Image for Sabrina.
452 reviews10 followers
December 3, 2016
What a great story! Mr. Watson impresses me again with his creativity and his very real characters.

Lance and his best friend, Ian, do everything together. Sports, martial arts, pranks....all that's normal for two thirteen-year-old boys in Tennessee.

After an asteroid is discovered holding new life from space, the world is rocked with trepidation. Riots begin and chaos descends. At least the boys are surrounded by their families in a safe quiet town....oh wait. All of the parental figures are in Hawaii, and only a housekeeper and an eighteen-year-old brother are around.... Until they're not.

The boys must find their way through the chaos and create a place of safety for themselves and a few of their friends. Will their sports, Boy Scout training, and endurance help them to survive? And what about their parents?

An excellent story and I couldn't stop. This was a one-night book and I fully enjoyed the antics of the main characters. Who knew teenage boys could be so funny? Well done!
8 reviews
June 27, 2020
Great survival fiction

Very thought provoking. You will go out and start on your bunker after reading this. Just what I like! All of the other series are just as good.
35 reviews
February 23, 2021
This is for the six books in the series. Middle of the road attempt.

There's some good, some bad, some really bad stuff in here.

First, the good. The books, and a lot of the characters are a lot of fun. They have no grounding whatsoever in reality, but they're pretty fun. The story evolves over time, a bit too easily for the main characters, but it does evolve. The description of hardware in the book is pretty accurate, both the firearms and military equipment. The main characters like to read and learn, so it provides the reader with information as well. I actually wanted to know what happened next, until the last few books.

The bad. These kids are supposed to be 13, but they're pretty obviously not. No kid is as smart, tough, driven, well adjusted and awesome as the author pretends these are. It's just not in the realm of possibility.

The only real allusion to their age is that sometimes they throw temper tantrums and break stuff. Or the sophomoric jokes that run on WAY too long. An example of this is when they run into the tigers. From then on, it's a multi book spanning joke about calling the tigers "big (slang word for vagina)" I can't put the word in here cuz Amazon will censor my review, but it's thoroughly beaten into the ground by the time book six rolls around.

In the beginning of the books, resources are fairly strained, but as the books trend onwards, their numbers grow, but somehow resources become less constrained. It makes zero sense.

There's more, but on to the really bad stuff. First off, the pedophilia. Let's start there. One of the main characters, keep in mind he's 13, is hooking up with a 24 year old, and it's all rationalized away with, "Oh, he's really mature for his age." Completely disregarding the double standard that if the genders were reversed, the outcry would be loud and well deserved, that's the kind of logic a pedophile would use to justify their actions. "Oh, he's really mature for his age." That's gross, dude. The book could have worked just as well if the characters were 17-18 years old, since they act way older than that anyway, and there wouldn't have been any of the creepy kid touching going on here. Which means the author kept it in on purpose, for whatever reason.

Lastly, the main characters are complete psychopaths. The author rationalizes it all away as childhood shenanigans, but wow is it not that. Some of the earlier examples are charming and hilarious, some of the later ones are anything but that.

They bulldoze anyone in their path with violence, and everyone is happy to bow down and worship them. They murder innocents on multiple occasions, and show no real remorse. Several characters comment, "If the apocalypse hadn't happened, they'd have ruled the world." and they DON'T seem to think it's such a bad thing. It would have been. They're way off the reservation.
Profile Image for Wendy.
2,371 reviews45 followers
August 22, 2019
“Forsaken World: Innocence Lost” opens with a meteor landing in Greenland with a bacterium that quickly invades Earth attacking the living and changing them into the walking dead aptly nicknamed “stinkers” because of their sulfurous odour. With their parents in Hawaii; the stinkers roaming the streets smelling out new victims; and Ian’s eighteen-year-old brother Jason Wilkerson changed; inseparable best friends thirteen-year-old Ian Wilkerson and Lance Carver, Ian’s sister Allie, her friend Carrie and neighbor Jennifer escape their neighborhood and set out on a cross country journey to their parents’ secure cabin. Trusting no one, armed with deadly weaponry, and with stinkers at every turn, the boys quickly lose their youthful innocence as they fight to survive and protect those they care about.

Slow at first as the boys prepare for their road trip the tempo quickly picks up when the journey begins, and they encounter not only stinkers but are attacked by those willing to kill to get their Hummer and trailer. Intensity and suspense quickly mount, and the action escalates as Lance’s attitude changes and he barrels into the stinkers, old and young alike, never stopping even when cops and bikers try to run him off the road. Yet Thomas A. Watson has a unique gift of downgrading the blood and violence with Ian and Lance’s amusing banter, the parents' loving relationship with their children, and Jennifer’s desperation to be useful.

The characters are compelling and complex as their fear and anxiety mounts. Personalities change especially Ian and Lance’s from smart, athletic, tender-hearted, questioning teens whose pubescent hormones spark constantly when faced with porno magazines and videos, to swearing, tense and dangerous teens who trust no one, and become immune to killing stinkers. Jennifer is their pretty, clever, caring neighbor who wants to fit in and be part of the boys’ close-knit relationship while young eight-year-old Allie and her friend Carrie, afraid of this new environment struggle to adapt.

Well-written and fascinating the newest addition to the Zombie Apocalypse genre “Forsaken World: Innocence Lost” moves all too quickly to a cliff-hanger that promises an exciting sequel.
Profile Image for Jessalyn.
Author 2 books12 followers
January 22, 2019
First off, this is not a bad story, or a bad book. That being said, I found issues that weren't easy to ignore. The heroes of our story are teenagers and that's where our relatability with them ends. They're rich, have far too many resources at their disposal, and conveniently over-prepared parents. It makes for a great story, but not a believable one. And yes, before you get into the whole "but it's a zombie book" argument, I'm aware. But there are zombie books that are believable. Have you read the Zombie Survival Guide? I swear you could use that if it really happened. THAT book is believable. Not to compare Mr. Watson's book to that, just using it as an example.

I read one review where there was too much cursing, and for someone who curses like a sailor personally, I actually kind of agree. Even if they are teenagers, when every other line has a curse word in it, it becomes a distraction. Just food for thought, really. There were parts of the book that were spent so much on their preparation that it became a drag to get through. Especially by the end of the book. There was little action and plenty of how they set up their base. Which...is kind of interesting?? But I was bored. I really didn't care about how they were setting up the perimeter, that information could have been summarized. It didn't make for a good narrative or plot point to go into THAT much detail. And sure, someone can disagree, that's fair, maybe it's just the execution of the information.

But regardless of its flaws, this story has promise. I liked the spin, and I found myself wanting to know how everything turned out. I am totally not opposed to picking up the next one, and here's to hoping some of these issues are kinked out and it'll be even better. Kudos, Mr. Watson. It's not a bad book by any means!
Profile Image for Kit.
1,517 reviews16 followers
June 13, 2021
Read : June 14, 2021
Rating : 1 Star


I saw a lot of 4 and 5 Star reviews and I thought, wait, did is somehow read a completely different story than everyone else but nope.

It started out pretty good, I liked the idea of the meteor causing the zombies since that's fairly rare, more often used is the virus or even some weird food thing.

That got my hopes up about it, untill we get to really know the main characters since that's where for me the story broke down.

They're in their early teens and I think the author wanted them to feel like "just normal teen boys", they are obviously not.

There's a part where they describe all the things they did before shtf and it gets casually mentioned that they killed a dog.. Like whut?

Now, I nearly put it down then and there but persevered and sadly it did not improve, if anything it got worse.

Both guys are at times acting terribly immature,and then suddenly turn into adults that know all the things..
They also have no issues with killing anyone.

Yeah even for a zombie book this was way too unbelievable for me.

I can't even call it campy so yeah.. I gave up around 65% of the book.


Profile Image for Sara.
492 reviews
June 12, 2020
Innocence Lost, the first book in the Forsaken World Series, is a well-written, gripping post-apocalyptic thriller with excellent character development. The story is geared toward adults, even though the main protagonists are in their teens. The dialogue is witty; there is profanity, which I found authentic, given the genre.

Ian and Lance embark on the journey to their parent's cabin, the road travelled is brimming by the violent and rancid flesh-eating infected, "Stinkers," that would stop at nothing to get to them. The Stinkers are not the only threat, the dangerous and desperate humans, are just as, or even worse. The boys have no choice but to grow-up fast and survive, facing impossible odds and terrifying situation. Ultimately, losing their innocence.

Terrific narration by Eric A. Shelman, capturing the characters' personalities and intensity of the scenes, bringing the story to life. Overall, this was an entertaining and well-narrated audiobook, and I look forward to listening to the next book in the series.
Profile Image for Louise Feagans.
228 reviews7 followers
April 1, 2018
Forsaken World

Wow! What a story! I have really enjoyed reading this book by Thomas A Watson. Two boys off on their own and of course there would be a zombie apocalypse. When trying to get away, they help a friend and her sister to get away with them as they head to a family cabin where hopefully they will meet their parents. I recommend this book for all, find out if Ian, Lance, Jennifer and the girls make it.
Profile Image for Brandon.
556 reviews37 followers
September 22, 2020
Made me feel like I was listening to an actual account of teenagers in a zombie apocalypse. There was far too much unneccessary cursing, immature outbursts, poor decision making and some stupid rebeliousness. All that said, it was pretty realistic. The rest basically turns into a no-budget wet dream for every prepper in the world. It's fun to pretend, and I don't care if people think it's over-the-top, the "cabin" is badass.
Profile Image for Rebecca Larsen.
413 reviews6 followers
May 6, 2017
5 Stars


Fast paced, action packed story that will hook you and keep you on the edge of your seat. This book is geared more for teenagers, but post-apocalyptic readers of all ages will love this book. My son loves this book as well and says it is the best zombie book he has read recently.
137 reviews2 followers
August 24, 2020
Good book

This arthur is new to me but I found his writing full of believable action. His characters are engaging and you quickly become invested in the storey. I will buy the series. I advise you to try this author you won't regret it.

194 reviews3 followers
April 13, 2021
When shit hits the fan...

Thomas A Watson is a favorite of mine and I enjoyed this book but...it was hard to read all of the cussing of 13 year old boys. If he had used half of the cussing that he used, I would have given it 5 stars.
1 review
July 28, 2024
Awesome

The book was very a very fun read. Loved the characters and the story line. It had action and horror, but the boys came through. I felt sorry for them because their parents weren't there. They lost Jason and Doug. It will make you cry and laugh good read.
46 reviews
January 12, 2025
Good read

Mostly believable, predictable that all the parents were away, but character building kept me reading. I was will continue the series. Enjoying the resilience of Lance and Ian, and Jennifer and their tenacity to survive.
Profile Image for Vicki Jowers.
88 reviews2 followers
August 3, 2017
Great Book

If you are looking for a page turner here it is. I really enjoyed reading this book I highly recommend it
Profile Image for Bekah Bussen.
8 reviews1 follower
June 15, 2018
Outstanding

Realistic and fun! Comedy at every turn. Can't put it down long enough to sleep! The question is always what's going to happen next!
Profile Image for mia.
777 reviews
January 1, 2021
I loved this book, it was fast paced, action packed and I just loved the characters, Ian and Lance make an amazing team! I can't wait to start the next book.
Profile Image for Kimberly Vanderbloom.
518 reviews37 followers
January 26, 2021
Surviving the end?

Anyone that thinks they might survive the end of the world should enjoy this book. Teens and adults will love the boys and their attitude.
34 reviews
February 22, 2021
Nice

Nice story, like the characters, like the way this is going. Surely going to read the next book of this series
Profile Image for Angie Anderson.
584 reviews7 followers
March 19, 2021
Good one!

Thomas A Watson has done something amazing! This book is just the beginning of what may turn out to be awesome!
79 reviews3 followers
June 3, 2023
Cannot believe the high reviews. Nasty characters using nasty language.
148 reviews6 followers
February 6, 2025
One of the best series!

Watson knows how to tell a story! He developes believeable, likeable characters that you want to follow and get to know better.
37 reviews
January 27, 2020
This book got better as the story evolved. Look forward to the next in the series
Profile Image for Pam Shelton-Anderson.
1,964 reviews67 followers
May 7, 2017
Reasonably entertaining though the dialogue, especially on that long drive to the cabin, became particularly wearing. I wanted to turn that car around. These kids were lucky that their parents were so well prepared. I upped it a half star just because it was a little different zombie story especially in the beginning.
Profile Image for Kristie hunter.
94 reviews
October 14, 2019
Loved this series

Seeing the zompoc through the eyes of teenagers is great. Ian and Lance, I have to say they aren't your ordinary teenagers. Mischievous, yes. Girl crazy, yes. Dirty mouthed, yes. They are also super-smart, and well-trained in guns and things you'd need in order things to survive. They are also caring for two little girls and a female friend. They are also, tender hearted kids, just wanting to see their parents who were far away when the crisis began. On to book two. Good job, Thomas A Watson
Profile Image for Patricia C. Shroyer.
10 reviews1 follower
November 20, 2015
New Series Begins with a Bang

Giving this book the max star because it delivers a great story. Not every conversation, narration or description is perfect. However, the story is perfect for entertaining. Pure entertainment is why I read this author's novels. I encourage others who enjoy a good story to read them as well. In fiction, the story is the foundation. This book has it.
Profile Image for Daniel A. Daniel.
54 reviews1 follower
March 8, 2016
Great novel! New take on the Zombie Apocalypse!

Easily gave a five star to this novel! Love the different outlook on the Zombie Apocalypse, here we have our heroes being just starting in their teen years, their parents took the time and effort to actually have them trained but in a manner that hid the reasons of training, boy scouts, Kenpo karate, other survival skills such as proficiency with numerous firearms etc.. Am looking forward to part two!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews

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