They say that necessity is the mother of all inventions. Amir Weatherby has the world in his hands, quite literally. When his company discovers an asteroid on a direct collision course with Earth, they decide to keep the news quiet and find a way to survive the impending apocalypse themselves. Secret projects begin with the intent of preventing the world going the same way as the dinosaurs. Three top-secret sites are developed, each designed to hold a small pocket of the human race safe until after impact. It just so happens that one of these sites is in space. The former ISS is transformed intoa safe haven called the ARC, the Automated Resettlement and Repopulation Cryostation, where some of the world’s greatest scientific minds will sleep through the whole show. But events unfold in ways that couldn’t have been predicted, and when they arrive back on Earth there is a whole new disaster waiting for them.
Devon is from the UK, having lived in many places until finally settling in the Midlands. His career in public services started in his teens and has provided a wealth of experiences, both good and some very bad, which form the basis of the book ideas that cause regular insomnia.
He first started reading for fun as an adult, having tried his hardest to avoid anything resembling academia growing up, and at that point the world became a far bigger place. He has been reading, at least one book at a time, ever since.
His debut works, the After It Happened series, (Survival, Humanity, Society) were published in April 2016 followed by Hope (July 2016) and Sanctuary (December 2016). The first part of the series concluded with the release of Rebellion which was published in June 2017.
Storming high into the charts with the first books of the After It Happened series, Devon launched into the top 10 sellers listings in the UK, Australia, Canada and the US, and he made the decision to write full time shortly after the launch of Hope.
Devon’s self-published beginnings caused a stir in the publishing world, and resulted in contracts with Podium Publishing for Audible, narrated by R.C. Bray (The Martian, Expeditionary Force, Arisen), before a publishing deal for kindle and paperbacks with Vulpine Press.
Further works have seen the start of a multi-author series, sci-fi/post-apocalyptic cross genre, futuristic dystopian and alternative history zombie apocalypse. Spin-off books from the After It Happened world have been announced for 2018.
I listened to the Audible version of the book. It had an interesting concept but in execution it never really grabbed me - and I was finding myself check how long I had left to listen.
I started to describe why the book didn't work for me and I realized I could not do that without major spoilers. Suffice it to say that the part of the book leading up to the return of those from space was very rushed. Essentially, . All the elements of this book seem like it should make a great story, but for me, it never quite took off.
Naturally, we have a cliffhanger ending leading to a second book. Think I will pass.
The concept was enough to keep me reading despite the bombardment of typos and editing mishaps. Perhaps worse than those was the cringe-worthy representation of female characters. Not a single one mentioned or described without some sexual or attraction context. Even the military women are mostly ignored despite the male counterparts being center stage. And if he described a female as being masculine in any way (temperament or physically) he was quick to mention they were all feminine... Don't worry single-minded cis male readers who were clearly the target audience. For this reason, I will not be continuing with the series.
This was my kind of story. A fast moving sci-fi adventure and entertaining from start to finish. My full review can be read here ---> https://wp.me/p5t5Tf-1Ak
two stars only for the initial concept (which is why i gave this one a try). if you like cardboard cutout characters speaking wooden dialogue in a landscape of tropes then go ahead and buy it. be warned its not done until book two which i most definitely will pass on.
Somewhat underwhelming, given the scope of the premise. The story's titular ARC plays a rather insignificant role, more for the convenience of the story, rather than anything meaningful. In fact, the reader spends almost no time at all on the ARC, because the book jumps very quickly from pre-event to way-way-after-event, with the ARC being little more than the momentary elevator the characters (and the reader) take to transition between the two main time periods.
Overall, while the narration was clear and easy to follow, it was also extremely predictable.
It's as if the author likes to foreshadow with a sledgehammer.
This is a very short book, clearly meant to be the introduction to a series without any intention to give it any merit of its own other than to set the scene by lining up one trope after the other.
And while all that's not necessarily a bad thing (makes the audiobook easy to follow while doing other things), it just doesn't seem particularly engrossing and I'm not quite interested enough in either the characters or the predictable future of this story, to give the next iterations a try.
What a surprise! Wow. Whoevers reading this, i hope for your sake you heed my words when i say this is definitely worth a read/listen. No empty bluster or easily given praise, just the honest to god truth. This really did take me by surprise. I seen this during a promotion on audible and liked the description so decided to give it a shot but wasnt expecting much. It exceeded my every expectation. The characters were well developed, believable and likable. Flawed humans just doing their best to get through the situation they found themselves in. A very comprehensive take on what could be done if someone with money and influence got enough warning before an extinction level event. It kinda vaguely reminded me of Earthside by Dennis E Taylor but executed alot better. There was some confusing perspective changes that were done in such a way that it seemed accidental, maybe because of a miscommunication between the 2 writers or something. But it seemed this book was supposed to be told from the 1st person perspective of the computer guy but there were times when the perspective changed in a very subtle way where i didnt even notice it at first then got confused. Not a big deal just took me outa the story for a second wondering if the writers messed up or it was just poorly done. Editor prolly shoulda caught that. Im not familiar with the narrator from anything else hes done (audible version), which is rare, but he did a really good job. If you enjoy base building, new world exploring, starting over after apocalypse type sci fi then youll definitely get a kick out of this one. Ive already listened to the next 2 books and the plot stays strong and progresses steadily throughout. If you havent already purchased this then id make the suggestion to get the 2 pack that can be located by clicking on the series thing under the authors name. I didnt notice that until i was going to get the 2nd book. I found it worth it anyway, a bit short but id prefer short and sweet then long and arduous. Hope this series continues for many books to come!
Good characters and SCI-fi plot for a world-ending asteroid encounter
I enjoy a good SCI-fi story and this New Earth Book 1 didn’t disappoint. The premise is a the world’s richest tech guru finds out a life-ending asteroid is going to hit the earth roughly a decade in the future. He leads his companies to concentrate on creating two underground sanctuaries and one orbital sanctuary where members of the human race will be in a cryogenic state until such time as the earth can be repopulated. The science, political dynamics and human nature are well portrayed. The asteroids hits, life is destroyed and, to not create any spoilers, the three sanctuaries don’t exactly go as expected. However, the book does end with some humans back on a recovering earth but the last part of this book foreshadows the typical human nature of different groups exhibiting dominance over each other and the earth. I’m not really into this type of book so will probably not pursue the other books in the series. As a good SCI-fi book with a definite ending - with a little justified foreshadowing - I give this book 4 stars. It’s a great apocalyptic thriller with the end coming in the form of a killer asteroid that wipes the face of the earth.
An interesting premise that reminded me a little of The 100 television show and the movie, 2012. We can't help but wonder what will happen if Earth cann't avoid going the way of the dinosaurs with a catastrophic event like an asteroid hit. What would we do? What made The Arc fascinating was reading about all of the preparations by the few in the know about just such an event. Not the usual political hush-hush, but managed by a private individual. I found it a lot more believable than a government conspiracy.
A good portion of the story was about the actual set up for the select few to survive the catastrophe. I liked that...a lot. The title is a bit confusing. Very little of the book takes place on the ARC.
That said, I really enjoyed the characterization. Ford captured the various characters and how they deal with the eradication of civilization beautifully, how they would react in the new world "order". Some adjusted to the new reality. Some didn't. The natural power struggles are quite real. I thought this was well done. I'm a sucker for good characterization.
This is one "cliffhanger" I'll have to follow into the next book.
This story is an excellent introduction to the series, laying the groundwork for some interesting narratives. The first half of this book deals with how humanity prepares for a devastating global catastrophe, while the second half opens avenues for the aftermath a thousand years later.
The author gives a complete and thorough description of the disaster preparation, and develops the key characters who will play important roles in future books in this series without be laboring any of the science and technology involved. It helps the story to progress at a comfortable pace without getting bogged down with ultimately unimportant details. The result is an adventurous science fiction novel that keeps the reader's interest through to the end. I found myself anticipating the next book in the series when I reached the final sentence.
This is a good, approachable book for teenage readers, and is an enjoyable story for adults as well. An excellent vacation novel! Excellent work, Mr. Ford.
This book was quite slow to start with. Part 1 was mainly about developing the world building and introducing the main characters. There was so much going on, with different locations and people, that it felt like quite a few info dumps were packed together.
I liked the characters. They all had their own personalities and were developed nicely. I didn't like Tanaka though, but he's meant to be a bad guy.
I liked the plot more once everyone landed back on Earth and woke up. Harrison and his group of people were interesting. I think he genuinely wanted to be a good leader and needed the help of the people from space to defeat the descendants of Tanaka.
I was surprised by Annie's evolution and how she had managed to change her own programming.
I was also surprised by The Swarm and what it actually was. It's made me curious enough to read the next book
There’s the good, the bad, and the complicated idiots. The story was a Radom find has it showed up on my recommendation on Goodreads.
The story toke abit of hour to finish has I stopped to eat half way threw to eat, but still the hour was mesh has I truly more less saw a story of the one percent thinking they know what’s best for common man to know lay country leaders do the shot and pray to solve there problems.
In the end I just felt like you want a ground sci-fi story with a solid background on for the chacthers but really you over did only like 20 of the 10 year plan need to written the rest just toke up content space. Them were left with a story ending that really just felt you want a tragedy to get at least one tear out of the reader. Not cool at all authour.
Quite disappointing. Interesting concept. Big asteroid coming toward Earth. Rich guy who owns big chunk of economy keeps the info under wraps and sets up 3 places for survivors. The first book deals mostly with the outer space settlement. The author warned at the outset that some of his science might not be up to snuff. That wasn’t the biggest problem. Numerous typos were distracting. Pieces of technology were not fully explained (balloons lifting pods to space-where did those balloons go afterwards). Time went by so quickly that a lot of details were left out. Not reading the other books in the series.
Mr Ford writes great novels predominantly about the effects of a distopian future and how people will / may react to this type of outcome. This book is a novel twist to this theme in that people know the end is coming and some get to plan accordingly BUT in the end people will be people and the outcomes are controlled, conflicted and impacted by the actions of those who opportunity to rule rather than nurture. Good read and wait eagerly for the next book….
This book starts a series for the author. I love the detail that went into the planning of the escape from the asteroid. It seemed so realistic, especially in view of current events. That others would take over after the dreamer, but have more basic power grabbing reasons is not surprising. However, the end of book one and lead in to book two doesn’t grab me. The motivations seem too basic and have too little edge, but maybe that’s life in the author’s eye.
An impending asteroid soon to destroy Earth - the Survivors, some in cryotubes in space, some in underground bunkers hoping to survive the Earth's explosion. ANII the computer monitoring all of earth & space activity, becomes sentient in the aftermath. And the people on the space station finally awaken after what was supposed to be just a hundred years. This book has you reading at the edge of your seat. One can only wonder what comes next as all the survivors meet. Great read!!
The impending doom that faces human civilization spurs one very wealthy and visionary man into action as he organizes a group of the most brilliant-minded scientists to develop a desperate long-range survival plan to save humanity. This part of the story is enough to keep the reader interested. But, the return to the New Earth really captivates the imagination and exposes the horror of a savage new world with no limits. This was an exciting and creative beginning to a "Can't Put Down" read. Don't Miss This One!!!!!
A brilliant start to Book 1 really sets the scene before the sequence of events catapults you into a future that contrasts both a simpler and more brutal way of life to that of the technology focused crew that circled the planet for so long. The evolution of the AI is fascinating and often amusing as it interacts with the crew who face an unrecognizable world due to the AI's earlier decisions, only intensifying further as the space crew have to navigate through the new societies' loyalties and truths to find their own path forward.
From the get-go, the Reader knows they're in for one heck of a read. I found this a compelling, highly enjoyable dystopian view of a very likely lead-up to the real thing. Once into the novel, it is a riveting read full of action, human intrigue, and interactions under extreme circumstances. I can't wait to see what Devon Ford's next vision of the future brings to the Reader. I will be sourcing the next novel as soon as it comes out.
Seriously thrilled that Kindle recommended this author to me! I first read the “Odin” 3 book series - fabulous! - and am now blazing thru the New Earth series. I need to slow down, but I can’t - the characters are well rounded, the plots play out at a great pace and I am obsessed! Mr. Ford’s writing style is exactly what I had been looking for - not so verbose as to bore you and just the right amount of humor and sarcasm. Ten thumbs up.
Amira Veterbija, miljardieris ar firmām visdažādākajās, ja ne visās, iespējāmās sfērās, kompānija pirmā uzzina par asteorīdu, kas ne tikai visai droši ietrieksies Zemē, bet pēc aprēķiniem ir pat lielāks nekā tas, kurš izraisīja dinozauru ēras beigas. Šķietami tikai pašsaprotami būtu šo traģisko vēsti neturēt zem pūra, bet pēc Amira ieskatiem tas tikai izraisītu lieku un neefektīvu paniku.
An interesting and timely novel, ARC brings together a number of themes involving killer asteroids, extinction-level cataclysm, dystopian societies, and AI development. I was particularly impressed with the manner in which the government handled/spun the news of the coming apocalypse.
Interesting characters and an engaging plot had me neglecting other duties in order to keep reading!
On balance, a fairly entertaining book so long as you don't look too deeply.
There's a few jarring technical issues with the plot that artistic license doesn't quite cover, could've been easily avoided with some minimal research.
The characters are only somewhat engaging, adhering to familiar tropes.
An unfulfilling ending which didn't really tie anything off.
This is a new take on post-apocalyptic fiction, one that stands out as rather unique. The story drew me in, and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel. The text would have benefited from an editor to pick up on the grammar, missing words (!) and overall clean up the writing a bit. Still, an engaging read.
Once again the mix of characters is just right, the way the crisis unfolds is really well made, without rushing, spending time to describes the steps in just the right amount of details.
In short yet another great serie by Devon C. Ford I am sad as I am reaching his last serie, so I will have to wait for a while after this one
I found ARC to be very interesting. As with everything I've read from Devon Ford, it is extremely well written. It is definitely full of all things sci-fi and though it's obviously fiction ;-) he writes it in a way where it's totally feasible. I love the storyline and the characters and can't wait to see where this goes!
The Author Can Flat Out Write a Story!! This Book was Intense. I cant sleep till I Start the Next Book. Unique Tale that takes your Mind into a Complete -Imagie if it happened scenario! Well Written and One of the Most Incredible Books In a Very Long Line of Books I have Read!!!!