The Survivors: Pandemic

The Survivors #1

by Alex Burns

"I didn’t realise how much I would miss grocery shopping until it was gone." Life was pretty good. The love of Alice’s life had proposed, they were proud new homeowners, and she’d just landed a great promotion at work. Things were going to plan. Well, they were, until the Red Death struck. Billions dead in a matter of weeks. The survivors are few and far between. No one is safe. Life will never be the same again.

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

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 27, 2018

About the author

Alex Burns is an Australian writer, currently based in Melbourne, Australia.

Alex spends a lot of time daydreaming about disasters and various 'what if' scenarios and really hopes that life keeps on chugging along without having to face any of the challenges and disasters that she forces her characters to go through!

Reviews

[Olivia]

I was in the mood for an apocalypse, and this one is a tense, gripping and good read. The cliffhanger at the end makes you want to reach for the next instalment immediately.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting and Sobering

A flu has hit Australia and eventually becomes worldwide. This book is a story of a survivor Alice and seeing the death of friends and family through her eyes. It was scary and the author did such a great job, it felt real. What do the survivors do? This book had a small group of family and friends that survived. It details the pain of surviving the loss of those you know and love. No gun toting hero as a main character, instead we see the world through a survivor's eyes. As family and small town residents begin to work together to make life bearable others are looting and the ending shows promise of battles with other survivors in the next book. The story felt very real, the characters were well developed and as I read the book I felt I was on this sobering journey with them. It us set in a small town in Australia, but the emotions and problems are universal. The author did spun an excellent story, one I look forward to continuing with the next book.

[TP · Rating 2 out of 5]

The survivors by Alex Burns, was a dystopian novel about survivors of a world wide pandemic.

It is told in the POV of Alice, our main character and not only her but also the book was pretty boring.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad, otherwise I wouldn’t have made till the end. But I kept on waiting for something to happen, for some suspense some page turner as to speak. But nothing really happened. I even wished for the deceased to turn into zombies to get me some action, at times.
I also have to admit, that I had some difficulty liking the main character. She was very condescending and judgemental at times for my liking, naive and immature. I get that it all came from a good heart, but I kept on waiting for her to finally cope with the situation and starting the progress forward. Show initiativ instead of just doing the bare minimum and what is asked of her.
Not much development into a strong and independent woman. I get that it is all tough and hard, traumatising and emotional to deal and grieve in such situations, but more often than not I wanted to strangle her.
She didn’t welcome Ava into her family, really.
She didn’t have any proactive ideas of her own.
She didn’t contribute much to add to the new life.
She didn’t care much for others.
She didn’t even took on the role of a parent for Charlotte.
She even had her problems with the bloody dog Maggie.
Etc.

She was a boring personality wallowing in self pity, the past and how bloody awful and unfair the world is. Boo hoo
The side characters were ten times more interesting than Alice, like her mother or Jack than she ever showed to be.

This is not want I want to read in a dystopian book. I want to read about new ideas of survival. Turning useless 21st world stuff into practical after devices, tools. I want to read how people change and grow stronger with the challenges they have to face. And of course some who don’t make it. How they deal with the demise of society, overcome obstacles, develop new survival techniques, rebuild with what they have left. Confrontations with desperate people as well as the bad apples. Action, suspense and romance of course lol. Character development, because either you grow or you die in such conditions.

The writing was ok, but there is much more potential to go on. If I had to have to read one more time how she got head butted by an animal or choked up about talking of a deceased one I would have screamed bloody murder.

[Jaime · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve always been rather drawn to post apocalyptic tales, Corman McCarthy’s The Road being one of my absolute favourite books. And this is a cracker. It reminded me more of Neville Shute’s “On The Beach” than most of the genre (another antipodean apocalypse as it happens, neither of them ***spoiler*** featuring a single zombie) which i read when I was 15. It’s a gentle, realistic story. Perhaps a little overly realistic give the topic is a global flu pandeminc..... For the first few chapters I actually started to take rahter a dislike of the main protagonist and her vacuousness, but as her woes unfolded just added to the reality of the tale. The only annoyance? It follows the modern trope of teeing up the sequel, and rather than read some of the books queued up on my list I rather fear I may plough on.....

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's scary to think this was written before covid-19. It gave me the same vibes for sure. I'm not sure why I wanted to read it, but I found it so interesting to daydream maybe the last two years was a dream.

Easy to read and a fast read. It's an interesting take on the post apocalyptic life.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an incredibly engaging and fast read, and teeters just over the line to where life is at the time of this review (late March, 2020 in the face of the SARS-COV-2 virus). If anything, it seems a bit too mild, too safe, too easy while still pointing at the dangers that lurk in the shadows of the post apocalyptic world.

But then again, this book does end on a damned page turner, and the next book is not at the library waiting to drop me into the terrifying darkness. Argh!

[Sonja · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started off strong then becomes boring, predicable, and unbelievable.

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing really gripping with this one. I couldn't figure out what was the focus, seemed a bit too bland for my taste.

[Sophie Breese · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. It was free with audible but it was a well written account of surviving post pandemic (written before Covid). Convincing characters and I kept turning the pages. There is a second book but audible doesn’t have it yet.

[Arwen LD · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stunted ending

Ok, so if you like pandemic/end of the world stories, this is probably going to be a fun read for you.

For me, it was a lot of build up to be surprised by very abrupt ending. Slow story growth, coupled with a cliff hanger that wasn't epic, left me wanting. (But, not really enough to seek out the next book.)

[Duncan Maccoll · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ends with "to be continued"; not my favourite ending, sadly.

Too much slow moving dialogue interspersed with lots of 'don't do that' action. Disappointing.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love the setting but overly repetitive to the point of tedious. I get it, things will never be the same again.

[Jacqui · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written post pandemic novel set right in my own backyard. It's hard to believe this was written barely a year before the Covid 19 pandemic, and like that disaster, this story sets up an eerily similar tale of despair and loss. Some scenes were heart breaking, others terrifying. And worst of all was the not knowing. Without phones or internet, the characters were left wondering if their loved ones were alive at home or abroad. My only complaint was the ending. The story leaves us on a cliff-hanger - where on earth is book two?

[Onceinabluemoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This grabs you instantly, it was so real you would think it was written yesterday, I started to fear I was getting symptoms, not one to be an alarmist it did make me uncomfy dwelling on it... After the initial horror wears you down the rest of the story wasn't as riveting, but the ending shocked me, " to be continued", i didn't know it was a series and my library is not stocking #2!

[Laura-leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable, easy read.

[Samantha · Rating 1 out of 5]

i was so bored literally nothing happened

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars!

[AJRXII · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent that ...get book 2 out!! 4 plus years come on Alex!!!

[Gloria Vanier · Rating 3 out of 5]

5 star story but...

I am just sick of these serial books, and with this one I didn't even get a heads up it was a serial! Yes I did like the story, didn't care much for the main character, but if it had ended with this book I would have given 5 stars. So I will never get the ending cause I refuse to be dragged along
on the writers money making scheme spreading a one book story over 7 or so books!! So many books I've read I still don't know the ending because even the writers get tired of finding ways to keep it going!! One series I read was over 30 books long and I finally lost total interest, the writers torture us this way for the money!! Well if they're not clever enough to write one good stand alone book, I'm not going to be dumb enough to keep reading!

[Matt Blum · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really enjoy this book. It was easy to read, predictable in parts, but there was just far too much pointless dialogue throughout. The main character went on and on about her fiance who was stuck in Canada, how much she missed him, how she'd love to be wrapped in his arms etc... I found myself skimming through whole sections of the book and not really missing anything too important. I wouldn't recommend it. It was like a post apocalyptic Bridget Jones' diary.

[Sherry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical story fair characters

Nothing special.i kept looking for a change in formula but did not get one. Needs Editting badly. This book follows the formula right down the line. A change from first person voice would help. The only reasonably good character is Ollie who doesn't really get any development. Neither male protagonist is developed well.

[Mike Clapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the idea of the story as it isn't your typical apocalypse action action action, it focuses a lot of the emotions of such a event and what would happen to society. However, I couldn't get invested into any of the characters enough to care and found myself skipping a lot of the "emotional" sections.

[Evelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably not the best book to read at the time of a real life global pandemic! However I did enjoy it though not the rather abrupt ending. (Which of course wasn’t really the end) There were also times when I felt the main character was rather naive eg travelling in to a bigger community without any protection but then I’ve obviously read too many of this kind of scenario! A good read .

[Elaine and Tess the Springer. I won’t be on GR for a bit. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refreshing.

I absolutely loved this book and I loved the characters. How refreshing to read a book with a very simple storyline. No zombies. I can't find the second book at all, some people have read it because there are reviews on it I've looked even on her website but no cigars, unfortunately.

[Katarin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is NOT a book, it’s a set up for the 2nd book (which won’t ever be published). Like how did absolutely nothing happen? It sets up an interesting enough world but that’s not a fucking book. I get that the real pandemic might have made this rough to write but jfc this book lacks conflict or plot.

[Kris McCracken · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I found our heroine a little annoying at first, once the pandemic got started and the pressure increased, I was hooked. The fact that I'm holding out to read the sequel is enough of an endorsement of the first book.

[Kim A. · Rating 1 out of 5]

no conclusion

I am so pissed. I gave this book 1star because the author was too lazy to write the end. Don’t write a book you can’t finish!!!!!!!!!!

[Amy Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

.....📚 𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 📚.....

MAY - The Survivors: Pandemic by Alex Burns is exactly what its title says. Written in 2018 prior to COVID, this story takes on what would happen if a deadly flu pandemic took out 90% of the population.

Alice's life was ticking along. She had a great fiance, a stable job, loving friends and family scattered across Melbourne, and a belief that things could only get better. When a mystery flu hits quickly in Melbourne, Alice isn't sure whether her fiance will be able to get back to Australia when the borders start closing, but within a week that's the least of Alice's concerns. As the city locks down and the death toll rises, Alice knows her only chance of survival is to head home to the country and hopefully more survivors.

I wanted to like this one, and writing a review has been hard. The author did well in predicting the lockdown and human behaviour at the onset of the pandemic, but the best way I can describe this book is to compare it to a pilot episode of a new series. There's a lot of setup, introductions of characters, but no story arc. It just builds slowly to nothing. It also ends on a sudden cliffhanger that comes out of the blue. I realised after I started, this was set up as a series, however book 1 was written 6 years ago with no sequel to date or in sight. I'd give this one a miss at least until book 2 is planned. 
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[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable read which I initially thought was something of a cosy catastrophe, but after a while I realised it was probably far more realistic than many other P.A. books I'd read. It had none of the gun-toting baddies, shoot-outs and weird religions that many US-based novels feature. In fact these people were doing what seemed sensible, and what normal people would do - move to (or stay in) the country where they could grow stuff, then start to build a community and help each other, all while mourning their losses and trying to adapt to a new way of living without modern conveniences.

My favourite character was Alice's mum - Jenny - who knew how to pluck chickens, skin rabbits, make jam, grow everything and was always calmly producing cups of tea for family and visitors.

The book was refreshing and well thought-out. Some bad things did happen, and not all survivors were as community-minded as Alice's group. However they did seem to have quite a bit of good luck in having two doctors and a nurse around, and plenty of stored food and farm animals. There was a wide range of ages amongst the survivors, from 6 to 92. The ending of the book left it open for more adventure and I'd be happy to read the sequel.

[Jude Samson]

This is a book with very little happening. Even with virtually no conflict or action this is actually still written better than way too many others in this genre which just points out how many poorly written books there are in this genre. Other than a couple of absolutely contrived moments there is zero conflict. Everything is super easy for anyone that’s lived and comes together in the town. Any time there is a potential conflict for the character to face its over in a paragraph or two and they didn’t have to actually conquer anything. Nothing happens to allow the characters to grow through adversity. Nothing breaks down the characters so they can build themselves up. Also, it’s incredibly unrealistic that almost her entire family survives and of course there’s a fully self-sufficient prepper amongst them. Everything is handed to these characters with such ease it’s very boring to get though. Technical skills are pretty good with only a few noticeable issues but when you have such a weak plot, being skilled at constructing a sentence won’t be enough to save you or keep readers going. This is a perfect example of how a planned series can be just one book if written well.