I listened to the omnibus of books one through five, and since I just burned straight through, I don't remember where one book ended and the next began. So, this review is for the first five books. I'll post it on all five.
This series wasn't bad. The dystopia that formed in the bunker was depressingly realistic, as was the amount of strife and corruption in/between the groups outside it. All in all, the series was engaging enough for me to listen to five books, which is saying something, but there were a few issues.
There were too many inspiring speeches, for one. I can get behind one or two of these, but there were points where it felt like one character or another was making an inspiring speech every chapter, and that's just too much for me.
There were also too many occasions of characters being staunchly opposed to a thing that they were advocating for on a larger scale in a prior chapter/book, suddenly arguing tooth and nail against it, only to give in after their own prior arguments were laid out for them and basically (grudgingly) saying, "I suppose you've got a point." People don't typically backtrack on principals they're willing to risk death for just a few days later. People also don't give in to logic so easily when their emotions are high enough for them to start vicious name calling or outright getting violent. The fact that people who were okay starting a settlement with 18,000 people were then convinced it was impossible to do so with such an enormous number as 3,500 people irked me.
The author clearly put some time into researching a few plants that most people consider weeds but are actually edible, which I appreciate. I wish there had been routine mention of more of them than seaweed and dandelions, but it was still nice to see foraging considered a viable dietary supplement. The evaporation pools for salt was a really good addition too.
There were a few things that Phil Trainer (the farming/plant expert in the books) would've known that weren't mentioned, like the acidifying effect granite has on the soil near any large natural sources of granite and the potential use of lime to counteract/neutralize it, but I'm aware I'm getting way too picky expecting that to have been in there, even if Trainer is an expert. The only reason I know that is from watching a bunch of docuseries about farming through the ages, and I know that's not something most people do. Lol.
All in all, it was a decent series so far.