Refuge

by Jeremy Robinson, Daniel S. Boucher, Robert Swartwood

Refuge is a novel that was released in five parts from international bestselling author Jeremy Robinson, but it is now available as one complete read. So enjoy the whole completed novel. You’re in for a creepy ride.Refuge, New Hampshire, is a small town. The kind found on postcards. Their biggest concern is the rowdy summertime revelers making their way up from Massachusetts and New York. And with most of the town’s residents in neighboring Ashland, for the Fourth of July fireworks show, Refuge is quieter than usual. That is, until the Baptist church’s bell starts ringing—on its own. The bell chimes faster and faster, reaching a frenetic pace, as though rung by the Devil himself. But the bell is just the beginning. The air shimmers. The night-time sky fills with a burning red aurora. The moon, previously a crescent, is now full. And just hours after dusk, the sun returns to the sky, revealing an endless desert where there was once a mountainous pine forest. Led by ex-Army Ranger turned surrealist painter, Griffin Butler, Sheriff Rebecca Rule and her deputy, Helena Frost, the residents of Refuge must weather an ever changing onslaught of otherworldly dangers while trying to uncover how and why the landscape beyond town shifts every time the church bell tolls. As a sequence of horrific events threaten to destroy the town, the residents must band together, search for answers and find a way to defend their homes, or Refuge will be lost.

442 pages, Paperback

Published June 16, 2020

About the author

Jeremy Robinson is the New York Times bestselling author of seventy novels and novellas, including Apocalypse Machine, Island 731, and SecondWorld, as well as the Jack Sigler thriller series and Project Nemesis, the highest selling, original (non-licensed) kaiju novel of all time. He’s known for mixing elements of science, history and mythology, which has earned him the #1 spot in Science Fiction and Action-Adventure, and secured him as the top creature feature author. Many of his novels have been adapted into comic books, optioned for film and TV, and translated into thirteen languages. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and three children. Visit him at www.bewareofmonsters.com.

Reviews

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthologies are always a bit difficult to review, and this one is not the norm. Here we have 5 different authors, who each contributed a section of the same storyline. I don't know what their parameters were, if they were given any type of road map or if they just were told to let it go where it went....not really sure. But, the whole story ended up being a fairly cohesive and interesting saga.

The storyline revolves around the small town of Refuge, New Hampshire. One night, the church bells start ringing unattended and that ends up being the signal that a change is going to occur. From then on, every time the bells begin to ring, the town undergoes a dimension shift. We get to meet several town members (and witness many, many deaths) as they are trying to figure out what the heck is happening while at the same time trying to keep everyone alive from all the new things that want to kill them.

I honestly COULD tell that there were different writing styles, but for the most part, the story read pretty smoothly and there was not a jarring section that threw you out of the story. I think my favorite section was Section Three: Lost in the Echo that was written by Robert Swartwood. Why? Don't know, but I liked it.

I listened to most of the story on audio and did not realize until I was finished that there was a map of the town in the printed version. Bummer. I think that would have been a big help for me as everyone was running around. The other thing that I was not aware of was that the ending was - well, I guess you would call it a cliffhanger. I do not know enough to know when this book was published so maybe there is already a Season Two, or maybe this was just released....I have no idea.
For the most part, even if you decided to stop after this book, the storyline wrapped up in a way that could be considered complete.