Shelter: The Aftermath Book One

The Aftermath #1

by Dave Hutchinson

A stunning, post-apocalyptic vision of the future as humanity strives to rebuild civilisation in a world ravaged by climate change.

Hardship is all Adam Hardy and his community have ever known.

Almost a century ago a storm of cataclysmic comets struck the Earth and triggered generations of perpetual cold and darkness. Now the survivors of rainswept England huddle in their tiny communities, scavenging the ruins of the old world. Finally, the Long Autumn is coming to an end, and society of a kind is starting to rebuild.

But for how long? Adam is struggling to hold his small Berkshire village together as the age-old rivalry between the Taylors and the Lyalls spills out into fresh bloodshed. A new tyrant, Frank Pendennis, has risen in the east in Kent, and has dreams of conquest. And rumours of something even worse are coming from the north...

The struggle to inherit the world is just beginning.

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

304 pages, Paperback

First published June 12, 2018

About the author

UK writer who published four volumes of stories by the age of twenty-one – Thumbprints, which is mostly fantasy, Fools' Gold, Torn Air and The Paradise Equation, all as David Hutchinson – and then moved into journalism. The deftness and quiet humaneness of his work was better than precocious, though the deracinatedness of the worlds depicted in the later stories may have derived in part from the author's apparent isolation from normal publishing channels.

After a decade of nonfiction, Hutchinson returned to the field as Dave Hutchinson, assembling later work in As the Crow Flies; tales like "The Pavement Artist" use sf devices to represent, far more fully than in his early work, a sense of the world as inherently and tragically not a platform for Transcendence. His first novel, The Villages, is Fantasy; The Push, an sf tale set in the Human Space sector of the home galaxy, describes the inception of Faster Than Light travel and some consequent complications when expanding humanity settles on a planet full of Alien life. Europe in Autumn (2014), an sf thriller involving espionage, takes place in a highly fragmented and still fragmenting Near-Future Europe, one of whose sovereign mini-nations is a transcontinental railway line; over the course of the central plot – which seems to reflect some aspects of Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 – the protagonist becomes involved in the Paranoia-inducing Les Coureurs des Bois, a mysterious postal service which also delivers humans across innumerable borders.

- See more at: http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/hutc...

Works
* The Villages (Holicong, Pennsylvania: Cosmos Books, 2001)
* Europe in Autumn (Oxford, Oxfordshire: Rebellion/Solaris, 2014)

Collections and Stories
* Thumbprints (London: Abelard, 1978)
* Fools' Gold (London: Abelard, 1978)
* Torn Air (London: Abelard, 1980)
* The Paradise Equation (London: Abelard, 1981)
* As the Crow Flies (Wigan, Lancashire: BeWrite Books, 2004)
* The Push (Alconbury Weston, Cambridgeshire: NewCon Press, 2009)

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm of two minds on this one.

I feel like I ought to go easy on it because it is, after all, just a recreation of the Hatfields and McCoys set in rural post-apocalyptic England. It's been many years after a broken asteroid took out North America and we have a mostly illiterate farming community that is run more like a feudal system than anything else.

Enter in the characters. This is where all the fun is going to be had, assuming you have fun with them. Me? I was kinda meh with them and the underlying concept of the novel. It was competent but nothing truly stood out. I've enjoyed Hutchinson's other novels quite a bit but this one kinda left me flat.

You know it's a bad sign when you're rooting for the bloodshed and a nightmare-fueled war between these "sane" rural community folk.

Then again, maybe that was the whole point. I'll be looking out for other novels by him but this one... not so much.

[imyril is not really here any more · Rating 5 out of 5]

This nasty little tale from a Dave Hutchinson - ushering in a new series of post-apocalyptic shared world stories - swept me off my feet early and kept me with it throughout its low-key, tense length.

Expect characters whose dimensions are implied rather than explored, but who feel awfully real. Small communities clinging to survival as the world goes backward (the whole vibe reminiscent of Bill Masen’s musings in the final act of Day of the Triffids - no doubt one reason I liked it so much). A lone spy who over-empathises, yet when pushed has no real moral boundaries (can you say low tech post apocalyptic Bond? No sex for Adam tho, he’s too busy for it to even cross his mind). Rising powers staking claims. And an array of stubborn, realistic women who seem to quietly run things (I’ve complained about Hutchinson’s women in the past; I have no complaints here).

All in all, I ripped through it in 2 days and the more I think about it the more I like it. It’s simple, dark and bleak. And it’s left me wanting more of the Aftermath.

Full review

I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully written (no surprise from Dave Hutchinson!) but this is too bleak for me. I did enjoy the fact that we're shown the area where I live (Oxfordshire) during the Apocalypse! Review to follow shortly on For Winter Nights.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Shelter and found myself frequently wanting to skip ahead, the mark of a good thrill ride for me. The best mainstream comparison I can make would be The Walking Dead, but obviously without the zombies. Several strong yet complex leaders try to save their version of civilization. I also thought Hutchinson did a commendable job setting up for his next book in the series. I don’t want to give away anything, but the worldbuilding and characters in this one will have people coming back for more

Thank you to NetGalley, Rebellion Publishing, Solaris Books, and Dave Hutchinson for the advanced copy for review.

Full review can be found here: https://paulspicks.blog/2018/05/24/sh...

Please check out all my reviews: https://paulspicks.blog

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

The premise of Shelter is relatively simple. Two comets, known as The Sisters, have collided with Earth and caused all manner of environmental disasters. This in turn has caused a cataclysmic breakdown in society. Decades of unpredictable weather conditions have left parts of Britain underwater and the population have fragmented into many different factions.

The main plot can probably best be described as the Hatfields and the McCoys in the post-apocalyptic south of England. Two extended families who have learned to survive on their own are pitted against one another due to unfortunate circumstance. Watching a peaceful community implode is completely fascinating. The range war between the Taylors and the Lyalls starts small, but quickly intensifies. Each violent act elicits equally violent retribution. The families are hell bent on keeping hold of what little they have, neither group ever stopping to consider the wider ramifications of what they are doing.

There is little denying that Hutchison’s vision of Britain is bleak, but it is also utterly engrossing. I suspect the main reason is because it feels so believable. The actions and reactions of the characters never feel anything other than genuine. As friends and neighbours are drawn into the violence it becomes increasingly evident of how unimportant anything other than survival has become. Simple misunderstandings make the situation even worse and events build towards a final showdown.

Along with story of the two families, there is also a thread of the narrative that follows a man named Adam. An undercover military operative from another part of the country, he travels around the south of England watching communities and reports back to his superiors. Under strict orders to not become involved, Adam moves around checking on groups and learning who is controlling what resources. His reports are used to decide if a society should be viewed as the potential threat or not. When he finds himself in the midst of the conflict between the Taylors and the Lyalls, he realises he can no longer sit idly by and watch all the needless death. He is compelled to break with protocol, intervene and take action.

It may sound quite downbeat, but there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon. Communities are beginning to trade with one another and travel is getting just a little easier. Britain is being reborn, but this is going to be a most difficult birth. There are many different groups who all have their own take on what form this new society could be. Some want to be left alone to go their own way. Others are keen on re-establishing the historical status quo, while others want to take all they can get their grubby mitts on. Needless to say, all these competing ideologies guarantee that there will be more conflict to come.

By the novel’s end much has happened, but I still got the distinct impression that we had barely scratched the surface. The most pressing question, what is going on in the rest of the UK, and by extension, the rest of the world? I do hope we get to find out. I’ll happily admit to being a huge fan of Dave Hutchison’s writing in this novel is as good as any of his earlier work. If you haven’t read anything by him before, I would strongly urge you to check this out. Shelter is the ideal place to start.

[Runalong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really reminds me of John Wyndham’s quiet apocalypses where the big disaster is just a prelude to society itself being the monster. Also very hard to not think impacted by our own Brexit troubles

Full review https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...

[Tabatha Stirling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you so much @netgalley & Rebellion for the ARC in return for an honest review.

I LOVED THIS BOOK. I came very late to the fantasy genre. It was only two years before Series One GoT that I read Songs of Fire & Ice and fell instantly and utterly in love. Since then I've devoured series after series, author after author even taken on Robert Jordan's epic. So I know a thing or two about the fantasy & sci-fi genres.

Dave Hutchinson is a veteran author and unbelievably not one I'd come across before but everything about the blurb, cover and the author's list of work intrigued me. 'Shelter' is set in the future after The Sisters (pieces of a comet) had brought a Long Autumn to Earth and a virtual blackout of communications. Although the world looks similar it's sophisticated conventions are long gone.

People live in communities cut off from each other, some thriving, others starving with enough marauders, madmen & power hungry despots trying to carve themselves kingdoms out of humanity & earth.

There is a very real sense of paranoia and distrust, that things are held together by the barest thread of civility and how very bloody things become when boundaries deteriorate.

The author is so skillful with characterizations that even if I had a negative response to a character - I still felt for them and I was intrigued to know how their stories ended.

The simplicity of transplanting what human beings know into a different yet familiar setting really plays with the reader's mind. I only have one word of advice to give the author. Stop basking on your laurels and the write second one, please. Fantastic piece of dystopian fiction!

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Sisters were two asteroids that struck the earth and almost annihilated the entire world. For almost a century storms ravaged the earth, making survival barely possible. In England pockets of survivors eek out a living in small communities. Most modern technology has not survived and the remnants of resources that remained after the asteroid strike are nearly gone. As civilization tries to rebuild, different tyrants emerge and cause chaos. In a small area of the country two strong families are at war and hundreds of people die in the ensuing battles.

This is book one of a series. The world building is pretty good. While the book was well written and there was plenty of action, I still found myself waiting and waiting to figure out what the point of the story was. It just seemed to meander and lacked focus. I guess I just like my fantasy a bit more direct than speculative. The book is interesting, however, and I recommend you read it.

[Peter Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shelter by Dave Hutchinson

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...

On some unspecified day in the near future, humanity is going to have a bad day. According to Dave Hutchinson, civilization will end when the "Sisters" - the pieces of a comet - impact the Earth out of left field. No one saw it coming. It ringed the Earth in destruction. In the aftermath, many people never knew what happened.

What they knew was that civilization was over and that they had to flee the cities, taking disorder with them.

This book starts approximately one hundred years later. The setting is southern England, which in 2230 (approximately) has reverted to a level that would have been recognizable to Alfred the Great. Small distances are vast distances regulated by the speed of horses and the actions of highwaymen. For people on the coast, Oxford is a place known only through rumors.

On the other hand, some places did better than other places. The naval base at Portsmouth kept its assets and has put itself together as a regional power. Portsmouth is beginning to reach out to rest of the world and find out what is going on in southern England through infiltration agents.

What I particularly liked about this book was the setting. Hutchinson does a great job of showing what a civilization knocked to its knees and rebuilding would look like. Technology includes guns and other items scavenged from the prior world. Human communities are holding on by their fingernails. Starvation is a constant threat because the Sister generated a long term "nuclear winter."

Hutchinson divides his attention between a farming community in southern England and the actions of a Portsmouth infiltrator. The reader watches the farming community spiral into a factional war as one murder is paid back by another. A human monster stalks the killing field getting revenge for his marginal existence.

Hutchinson is an excellent writer, and I enjoyed the ride, but I wondered what this book was all about. I think the problem is that we don't see the story through to its end. We see the cycle of violence in the farming community ended - along with an external threat - and there seems to be the intimation the Portsmouth will include the community in its sphere of influence. However, we don't go there completely. Likewise, we don't get closure on the external threat or the deranged killer.

This is voume 1 of what appears to be a two part series. Perhaps these problems will be addressed in the next book?

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rather liked this book. I am a bit of a fan of Dave Hutchinson's work and that, combined with a post-apocalyptic theme, sold me the series. It's actually a series in production, so I only have the first instalment at the moment.

The premise of the story is that 100 years before the setting of the story, the Earth collides with a sequence of cometary fragments known as 'The Sisters'. Something akin to a nuclear winter ensues, civilisation fragments, and there is a dramatic reduction in the UK population. By how much is unclear, but a century on the characters are still able to scavenge from superstores and Cash & Carry warehouses. The stocks are running out, so it is an interesting time to see what happens next.

The story is set over three locations - Thanet, the Berkshire Chilterns, and Plymouth. Each location has a different social organisation and each has a different economic base. The Thanet location is the least attractive. It is ruled by a rather thuggish gang who resort to slavery as a basis for work completion. The closest thing to money in this community is tobacco, although it is unclear why and how people continue to smoke. Thanet is the land of military style autocracy.

The community in the Berkshire Chilterns is more deliberative, but with an extremely weak set of governance rules. These are easily contravened, and when this happens, a nasty and bloody civil war ensues. The economy is a combination of subsistence farming with scavenging, and one can question its long term viability as the inherited bounty is used up and the community lacks the wherewithal to manufacture fresh supplies.

We don't see a lot of the community in Plymouth, but we do see enough to recognise the remnants of the naval base. Society, again, is organised in terms of a military hierarchy, but one where the thuggish element is absent. I had the impression of a rule based autocracy. It's hard to see how such a society could be supported by a primitive economy, but this is fiction and I was content to suspend my disbelief.

I think that the conclusion, even the insight, that I found in this book is that when things go badly wrong, they don't do so evenly. Some parts are devastated. Some parts muddle through reasonably well. Some parts retain a good portion of the order that existed before the catastrophic event. That's certainly an insight to bring into my work.

I found the book to be great bedtime reading. It moves along at a nice pace. The characters are well developed without being too over-developed. I found myself being in sympathy with the hero of the piece and I found myself disliking the villain. I would imagine that the author could ask no more from a reader.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of Shelter. All opinions are my own.

Call me morbid but I do love a good mass extinction event. On paper, that is. Watching the characters scrabble about trying to understand, to regroup, to exist. Be it zombies, plague or entities from outer space, I’m signed up for the ride. You’ve only to read / watch Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead or Stephen King’s The Stand to observe how man can return to his baser instincts when the chips are down.

Into the field comes Dave Hutchinson’s Shelter – Aftermath, the first of a new series from Solaris. My interest is piqued by the setting – we’re not present on the day, week, month or even year of the cataclysmic events that caused the end of the world as we know it – we’re a century or so down the line. And we are in Little England. A Little England armed with pitchforks, guns and suspicion. Actually, we’re not even in the whole of England – we’re looking at the fractured south through our anthropologic microscope. No one knows what’s happening in the wilds of my dear old north.

First came The Sisters – broken up asteroid strikes that trashed the earth, burnt and scorched it into ruin and then destroyed the eco-system as we know it. Weather erupted that destroyed our green and pleasant backwaters. We then drop in a century later to observe the devolution of man from what had gone before. Limited technology. No factories. Suspicion and clusters of half starved humanity who don’t know what – or who – may be living over the next hill. Feudal communities in various stage of expansion and implosion. And did I mention guns? Lots of guns – which I will admit felt odd to this Little Englander used to a society in which they are mostly prohibited.

We see three communities dealing with their own issues – Guz, a former naval base that has weathered The Sisters fairly well and is eying neighbouring country for both intelligence and possible expansion while placing quotas on the intake of said neighbours even when they are starving (sound familiar?). There’s Thanet, in Berkshire, where feudalism and back breaking farm work are alive and well and the local populace appear largely content with their lot. And the third – a dictatorship run by Frank Pendennis that is being observed for Guz by spy Adam whose travels pull the threads of these individually myopic southern communities into a more rounded sense of place and time. Oh, and then there’s Morty. Not Monty. Morty. You’ll have to read the book to find out about him though I will tease and say he’s kind of a post-apocalyptic Trash-Can Man without the nuclear resources.

Hutchinson crafts this story with great skill, highlighting how one small act can cause a catastrophic ripple effect that no one perhaps wants but that becomes impossible to stop. He observes the little details of humanity beautifully – those chinks and flaws that begin to crumble under the weight of hardship and loss. And he writes funny, pithy interactions with a generous helping of anglo-saxon to leave us in little doubt of where our characters stand.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Aftermath and I note from the blurb at the back that it is paired with a future book release due in August 2018 from Solaris – Haven by Adam Roberts. . There are plot breadcrumbs laid throughout Aftermath that seem to lead us to the north of England. I can’t wait to get my grubby little hands on this and see what is happening in my neck of the woods in parallel with Hutchinson’s tale.

With thanks to NetGalley, Rebellion Publishing, Solaris and Dave Hutchinson for the advanced copy for review.

[David Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm grateful to the publisher for an advance e-copy of this book via NetGalley.

I've always been fascinated by the period in British history that used to be known as the Dark Ages. That name is used less now as it's been accepted that chaos didn't descend when Roman rule ended. Nevertheless there were huge changes - the loss of manufactured goods, of widespread trade and of currency.

Set a hundred or so years after the destruction of modern civilisation by an asteroid strike known as "The Sisters", Hutchinson's new book takes a look at what one might term a modern "Dark Ages". As in the 5th century, we see here little bands of survivors eking a living among the ruins, keeping farming going but with no modern manufacturing. Here, as then, there are surviving patches of control and order where military formations survived, and others where local strong men establish little kingdoms.

It was the age of Arthur...

...it is the age of Adam.

Adam is - what? A spy? An explorer? - for Guz, the realm, polity, city-state, call it what you will, that emerged from Portsmouth naval base. In this book he's sent on a mission across country to investigate a rather nasty warlord who has established himself in Kent. Adam is a resourceful sort, self reliant, careful, tough, and me makes a good viewpoint character as we see what our world has become, six or seven generations on.

Hutchinson is good at letting his story unspool, showing us the territories Adam is going through and the character of their residents. As well as Kent there's an agricultural enclave on the Berkshire/ Oxfordshire border (there's some kind of trouble further north in Oxford and the Cotswolds, we never find out exactly what) where much of this story takes place. It's not, though, an idyllic, Hobbiton sort of place. Rather, The Parish is rent by jealousies and grudges and ready to erupt in civil war. Inevitably Adam becomes involved in this but I won't say any more about the detail because that would give away rather too much.

This part of the story shows off rather effectively, I think, the "nasty, brutish and short" lifestyle which we all fear will befall us should civilisation stutter. The way Hutchinson chooses to animate the conflict here almost made me gasp - he's certainly not sentimental about his characters, and what happens shows, perhaps, that the term "Dark ages" really does describe this world.

If that's the bad news, the good is that there will be more books set in this universe - the next, Haven by Adam Roberts, is due in August. Hutchinson and Roberts are clearly having fun - as well as an Adam in this book the second has a "Forktongue Davy". Roberts, of course, has form in depicting apocalyptic, futuristic versions of Berkshire (see for example his New Model Army) and Hutchinson's Fractured Europe sequence (I think it's now a five book trilogy) shows a continent divided into petty states and autonamous holdings, so together they seem almost destined to produce something like this.

Very thriller-y, very violent, pretty dark and with hints of wider developments - whether it's the inherited nukes of Guz, the strange "Spanish fleet" moored off the coast or those mysterious goings-on to the north - I sense a lot more to come fro this world, and I'm looking forward to that (not least because I think I live in the path of one of these roving war bands and I need to know what's going on!)

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set sometime in the future following an asteroid strike civilization is starting to evolve. In The Parish there are large farms each supporting several families. This is a simple barter system. However, life is not so relaxed elsewhere - is there unrest in the Cotswolds? Is the fortified city state of Guz (aka Plymouth) seeking to take over other areas and what is going on in Margate?

As post-apocalyptic books go this is comparitively simple. The earth was struck by "The Sisters" which were twin asteroids. Flooding ensued as did "The Long Autumn" with far too much rain. Even over a century later isolated communities did not always know what caused the apocalypse - I was particularly pleased to see this as I have wondered in other books how everyone knew what happened once mass communications went down! There isn't a zombie in sight nor a particularly nasty virus wiping out mankind. Don't get me wrong I love a good zombie or deadly virus book but this made a pleasant change.

The world that the author has created worked for me. There was structure in places. In some places there was dictatorship and in others, such as The Parish, it was a seemlingly gentle community. I enjoyed the fact that the author showed us different ways of living which were dependent on many things such as the people in power, the situation when the asteroids hit and the geography of the country.

There are several main characters but the character of Adam Hardy brings all the threads together in the end. He seems a strong, fair character though he has a little wobble in the middle which I wasn't so sure of. There are main characters in all of the places we visit who all have clearly defined characters - all so different. I was also pleased to see some strong women.

I really enjoyed this book. The world that the author has created worked for me & there is a strong plot which pulled everything together well. There is a lot of violence in this book - not all of which I felt was strictly necessary. I think the author got a little carried away in places! However despite this I enjoyed it so much that I couldn't bring myself to demote it to 4 stars!

I see that there is a series planned and I shall be purposely looking out for the next book.

I received a free copy via Netgalley.

[Geoff Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hutchinson has written another good book, which explores some deeper ideas. It never quite fires on all cylinders, but is still a worthwhile read nonetheless.

I think the most interesting thing about the book, as in most post-apocalyptic books, is in the utopian and dystopian communities that are created by the characters. In Shelter, we have a despot, an agrarian anarchic community, and a militaristic expansionist mini-state. One of these does not meet with a good end. With the weather's improvement comes the strains of the now-increasing populations, and this puts these communities' weaknesses on display.

The world that he has created (perhaps with Adam Roberts, who will write the second book in this series) is right in line with the other worlds in Hutchinson's previous books. That is, a setting that is well-crafted, thoughtful, and realistic without feeling too similar to our current one.

The characters we encounter are interesting. Their emotions and actions are complicated, and payoffs are well-earned.

However, I kept waiting for a payoff or an engrossing section that never appeared. The action pieces are fine, and the plot is fine, but it didn't seem to have that extra zing that I'm used to seeing from Hutchinson's Fractured Europe series.

Even so, I have the second book on pre-order and I hope this setting forms the basis of a long series.

[Mai · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. Thank you! All opinions are my own.

Shelter: Tales Of The Aftermath is a compelling post-apocalyptic novel about the survivors in a world after the coming of The sisters. Interesting questions about this new world after our civilization meet well-written varied protagonists. A quite fascinating read, I really enjoyed this.

[Merrytoad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish to thank NetGalleyn for the advanced copy for review of what is a really compelling story.

Shelter Tales of the Aftermath is a post apocalyptic novel with a number of differences, firstly rather than being set immediately after the event, in this case a string of asteroids that destroy the present civilisation, it is rather set some 100 years after, showing how different groups of survivors have established a very fragile existence.
The other major difference is that this time it's not all about America, its good at times to see apocalyptic stories and survival based in other countries. In this case it's all about southern England, meaning I dont for this story have to keep an atlas by my side to follow the journey.

With regards to the story I absolutely loved it I would certainly re-read this, a very good mix of characters, locations and plots, intertwining to build the plot.

Would most strongly recommend this to lovers of Aftermath stories.

[Craig Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. I love the post-apocalyptic genre when done well. Shelter is a good read with a couple of minor problems. Usually the of civilization is related to disease, war, aliens, or the like. This world ending event was caused by the break up and impact of a comet, the pieces being called The Sisters. Shelter takes place in southern England generations after the impact. The characters are well developed but there were times when it was difficult to know who was doing what to who. This book was written by an British author for a British audience so those who are not familiar with the geography of England could be lost when the author writes about different locations. My major issue was with the foul language used. Yes, this was a rough society but using every expletive ever invented multiple times on each page seems to be gratuitous. Very interesting story line but would be much better if cleaned up.

[Amanda]

Read for work.

[Robin Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shelter is book one in the Aftermath Duology, detailing the lives and struggles of those still left in the United Kingdom some 100 years after a cataclysmic comet strike wiped out almost all of humanity.

We get to see glimpses at what could possibly happen after the initial shock of a natural disaster/apocalypse and how humanity bands together in little colonies around the country, farming and surviving as best they can.

We get to see this told from several different characters’ viewpoints, such as from settlement leaders engrossed in bitter rivalries that border on civil war, to Adam, the undercover spy infiltrating communities country-wide to gather intel on the populous and their strengths.

It did take me a while to get into this book as it flitted from one character to the next relatively fast but once I had gotten to grips with each of the main families involved, it did come easier. I will say, this book is not for the faint of heart and does contain quite a few bloody and violent scenes as well as strong cursing. This was basically Game of Thrones meets The Walking Dead (minus the zombies).

I had a blast following Adam and Monty (Monty in particular) and loved watching his descent into madness and chaos. It would have been cool to follow him a little more. Each chapter hooked me and revealed a little bit more information about the characters and how they set up home after the apocalypse passed them by.

CW: Cursing, Gun Violence, Death, Murder, Blood, Violence, Decapitation, Mutilation, Fire, Fire Injury, Animal Death, Mental Illness

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was well written, but I think it was just too bleak for me. It's a bit post-apocalyptic Hatfields and the McCoys, as pointed out in another review, and I have a hard time with stories about family grudge matches where it feels like a lot of suffering occurs for no reason (it's the same with Romeo and Juliet, for example). The main-ish character (there were many characters and point of view shifts, which for the most part actually worked pretty well) who was most sympathetic, seemed like a pretty good guy actually, actually ended up acting a bit of a psychopath by the end? I'm not sure if he thought he was acting in retribution for a family who had greatly helped him, but his actions made the entire situation worse and I don't know what he was even trying to do.

I may or may not consider reading the next book in the series. They appear to be just interconnected stories in this same setting, not following the same group of characters necessarily, and I can't decide if that makes me more or less interested. Either way, the ending of this book was mostly just a downer, and I would need to make sure my expectations were set accordingly.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very english-centric post-apocalyptic setting in which two of my favorite authors have decided to create a shared world of small novels. Long enough after a dimly remembered series of comet strikes has broken modern civilization, but not long enough to have completely exhausted the ammo we left behind, a depopulated England has settled into isolated communities mostly dependent on subsistence level agriculture. Some groups have maintained a level of mastery over the technology left behind, and some groups have just maintained a level of mastery over a large population by power and violence. If you've read the 'Europe' sequence by Hutchinson, you won't be surprised that the main viewpoint is of a spy of sorts, sent by one polity to assess the level of danger from a strongman building a sort of prison state on their borders. There is well wrought spycraft, chase and escape in this story, but the most conflict arises from Hutchinson believably spinning out the consequences of a feudal-like state where there is no sovereign to guarantee order and survival depends only on shooting first. There are no zombies, but the state of play reminded me a lot of 'The Walking Dead'.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The earth gets popped by a swarm of space rocks, effectively ending modern civilization on earth. Shelter is a rather intimate personal and political thriller set just as people are thriving well enough to worry about bigger things than securing their next meal. The setting is a region of England where feudal farms ranging in size from a single family to a few hundred people maintain a tenuous peace with no higher law. A tough lot of people, but perhaps not as tough and certainly not as organized as some of the neighboring regions.

If you've read Hutchinson's Europe series, you are probably thinking this is something he could pull of well, and he does. The characters aren't the most developed, and fall into familiar roles, but they are memorable enough to keep them all separate and keep you interested as the plot unravels. There is a moral to the story, but it's not a particularly pleasant one, and for me took a back seat to the great storytelling.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A hundred years after The Sisters (a group of comets) caused an apocalypse on Earth, British families survive and squabble.

I love post-apocalyptic fiction, but I didn't love this one. It was a 'cozy catastrophe' - slow, bland, not a lot of violence. And that can be good, but only if you care for the characters. In this story, I had trouble keeping their names straight. I had only the outline of who belonged to which group. And since this book is largely the story of a feud that begins (or reignites) between two families, that was a problem. Not bad but not good enough to make me read the second book in the series (it's a shared-worlds series so it's a different author).

[H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very Dystopian.

It's was a dire story of a wet depressed world with people struggling everywhere - well England anyway - after a comet wrecked things, inc the climate ages ago.

As usual with these stories there is the US, Europe and the UK. Nowhere else on the planet exists apparently, at least no mention is made of them. Funny really, Asia, Oceania, South America, Africa. Some quite large places there...

But anyway I digress - back to the book. None of the characters are pleasant.
Everywhere has people hating each other, harming each other, fighting.

Doesn't make me want to find out anymore I'm afraid.

[Tyler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shelter: Tales Of The Aftermath is a post apocalyptic tale (set 100 years after a string of comets hit the Earth) set in rural England, and people have formed into individual communes to protect themselves from each other.

It's written well enough, following a few different characters but mainly Adam, who ventures off to investigate a commune that uses force to gain more and more land. But ultimately it's nothing original, there were too many characters/names to follow and it just felt a bit flat overall. 2.5

[Mutated Reviewer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ever wonder what would happen if a comet broke apart and smashed into the Earth, causing the downfall and destruction of civilization? Then this is the book for you. Not only does this show you what would happen to the people who got a hold of farms and managed to take care of themselves, but also what would happen if people banded together, like raiders, and their own small time military. Of course, completely lawless.

Check out my full review here!

https://radioactivebookreviews.wordpr...

[Drew Doll · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a disappointment for me. I have generally enjoyed Hutchinson's writing - and the prose in this novel is lyric and beautiful as ever. The plot and characters, however, left a lot to be desired. I need to have someone I feel is worth cheering for, and in this novel I can't find anyone with whom I connect. The endless retribution for acts of violence; the spiraling of conflict into conflict; the sheer bloody-mindedness on both sides - I ended up hoping the entire mess would simply implode.

[Milo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A kind of Walking Dead without the zombies style post apocalypse that feels a bit like it drags in multiple places but has some rich world building benefiting from a welcome change of pace having this type of story set in the UK, and the idea of a British sense of community is exposed as hypocritical really well here.

[Chris B · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking forward to a post-apocalyptic novel set on the Berkshire/Oxfordshire borders, but this didn't quite hit the spot. The narrative got a bit confused in the second half, and the author seemed a little less than familiar with the setting he had chosen - particularly on the difference between the Chilterns and the North Wessex Downs. A little disappointing.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story has a great concept and Dave Hutchinson’s writing is excellent. The plot moved fast and the characterisation was good, but for me it was just a bit too bleak towards the end. An excellent story but be warned!