This review contains spoiler alerts and somewhat strong language.
This set was pure garbage. I would have given this crap zero stars if I could. For Christ's sake, the book description on this very page pissed me off. No electrical power sets DC back to the Stone Age? Try the 1880s. This story is "unputdownable"? Fuck you.
After the EMP is a two story set: EMP and Hideaway by J.S. Donovan and Roger Hayden. Not sure who wrote which, or if they collaborated. Both were terrible. I'm guessing these two "authors" aren't the literary types since they broke the most basic writing rules when creating this nonsensical drivel.
First, write what you know about. Everything they wrote about the military was embarrassing and laughable. Don't write a military character if you don't know anything about it. At least do some research.
Second, show it. Don't say it. You don't have to say why the characters are doing each of their actions and what their thought process is. That's your thought process. Not the theirs. It pulls the reader/listener from the story. Show what they're doing through their actions. Their intentions should be obvious or implied.
So, for the first set, EMP, I hated. Pure garbage. There was no style. The characters were flat and bland. The character Harper was a good idea, but since she's the hero in this drab tale, then she should have suffered some real losses. James was a pointless character. He should have died back in DC, probably by her hand. Her son should have been killed before her eyes. Which leads me to my next gripe, the villains were watered down versions of school yard bullies.
The bad guys in these stories were hardly bad. The writers must have a weak imaginations if they can't come up with some nefarious, diabolical shit in a post-apocalyptic setting. You would think if they were bad guys they'd have bad language, at least. It's like this whole scenario was written by a Mormon. The main bad guy, Brandi, (seriously? Brandi?) was some scrawny, little blonde guy who somehow had an army of outcasts and drug addicts. Wouldn't that be like wrangling cats? Junkies and loners aren't exactly keen on being told what to do. But, hey, the lights went out, so I guess all bets are off.
I listened to this story on Audible, like a fool. But luckily, I was able to speed up the narration just to get through it. And after I finished the terrible story with Harper and got into the next pile of garbage with James and Marla, I was slightly less disappointed. At least Hideaway attempted some sort of style with the storytelling. They opened with the point of view of an adolescent boy far into the world after the power went out, then went back to the beginning. (Actually a really good storytelling method). He attempted to write the story from different points of view between James and Marla, even if they didn't match up. This earned the one star.
Honestly, I didn't even finish the story. Once it got to the point where the escaped convicts abducted Marla and other women for good old fashioned raping, and they didn't even kill the men, I was done. What a fucking unrealistic situation. The escaped cons would have murdered anybody who got in their way. For these terrible, abhorable, villains, there is no point in letting guys live after you take their women. There would be a whole lot more raping, thieving, and killing going on.
And why has everything fallen apart so quickly? The power went out. Why would everything go to hell so quickly? Why would the government take the time and resources to start putting residents of suburb communities into camps, within 24 hours of the event? Wouldn't it be better to keep them in their neighborhoods and homes? How would they have that much space to relocate the entirety of the American populace into camps? Doesn't make any sense.
The narrators were God awful. Cheryl May and Ramona Master. The rough, grizzled voices they used to read the male characters, you would think they had never heard men talk before.
This whole fucking thing was so poorly thought out. Why would everything go to hell so quickly just because the power went out? You'd think there would just be some confusion for a few days at least. Then some frustration and impatience. Then maybe some light pillaging. Probably some unrest in the big cities. But things wouldn't go to hell in a handbasket as soon as cars wouldn't start. Fucking ridiculous.
Don't bother with this garbage. I have no idea why this has 4.01 stars on goodreads. And, unfortunately, I have wasted too much time listening to what I did of the story, and writing this review.