Reclamation

Best Laid Plans #4

by Nathan Jones

Trev has seen one of the first mushroom clouds of the global thermonuclear war that would come to be called the Retaliation. The world will never be the same, and neither will those who survived through it.

He and his family have escaped from imprisonment and are rushing home to rejoin family and friends in Aspen Hill. As they travel their worried thoughts turn to an uncertain future and what they can do to improve their chances. Back in Aspen Hill his cousin Lewis and their friends are continuing to recover from the raider siege. Their small town remains untouched by the effects of the Retaliation, for now, and their focus is on their own survival and future sustainability.

Meanwhile the invading Gold Bloc forces, hampered but not stopped by the Retaliation, continue their conquest of the struggling United States. Their goal is to take the country for themselves to replace their destroyed homes, and they're cutting a swath through a land weakened by everything that has happened since the Gulf burned. Their only opposition is the scattered remnants of the US Armed Forces, who are struggling to gather and raise some organized defense.

The enemy's progress is slow, but Trev and the others must face the possibility that eventually they'll reach Aspen Hill.

433 pages, Paperback

Published February 13, 2020

About the author

My name is Nathan Jones. I write mainly in the post-apocalyptic and science fiction genres. My most recently completed project is The Challenge, first book of the post-apocalyptic No More Content series, a collaboration with my brother Seth Jones. My next project is Mythas, first book of the fantasy adventure series Band of Outcasts.

I've been a longtime reader of post-apocalyptic fiction, and like to explore various scenarios in which disasters could occur. One interest has been observing just how fragile our modern life is, and how little it would take to send us back to a low tech existence that people in general no longer possess the knowledge or skills to survive in. That interest inspired me to write and publish my completed post-apocalyptic series Best Laid Plans, comprising the five books Fuel, Shortage, Invasion, Reclamation, and Determination, and to build on that story with the completed Nuclear Winter series, which begins shortly after Best Laid Plans ends and includes the four books First Winter, First Spring, Chain Breakers, and Going Home, as well as the standalone novel Fallen City.

Outside the Best Laid Plans world I've written the completed post-apocalyptic Mountain Man series, with the novels Badlands, Homecoming, Homeland, Mountain War, Final Stand, and Lone Valley. I also have the completed post-apocalyptic Isolation series with Shut In, Going Out, Starting Anew, and Holding On. My current post-apocalyptic series is No More Content, with the recently released first book The Challenge.

I've also been a longtime reader of Science Fiction and Fantasy, with an equally deep love of those two genres. This has inspired multiple projects, the most recently completed being my science fiction novel Caretakers, Book Two of the Stag Privateers series, sequel to Last Stand. My other science fiction story is Boralene, Book One of the Stellar Merger series.

The stories I've written in the Young Adult Fantasy genre have now been moved over from another pen name to be available alongside my other books. These books include the completed The Watchers trilogy with Undying Heights, Ithel's Library, and Deep Dwelling, the completed The Protectorate series with Corsairs, Revenants, Invaders, and Shipwrights, and the standalone children's fairy tale Firefly Girl.

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I enjoyed the book and the series, one thing really, really bugged me.

NCO's (Non-Commissioned Officers), i.e, Corporals and Sergeants, are not "Officers." They are never addressed as "Sir" and never saluted.

Now, civilians might not know that, so on first meeting, they may call them Sir, but any and every NCO will immediately correct them, usually with a quip like, "Don't call me Sir, I work for a living..."

Addressing an NCO as Sir or as an "Officer" insults both NCO and Officers...

(Taking off my veteran NCO hat now... ;)

[Bernie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reclamation review

Reclamation is the fourth fast paced post apocalyptic book in the Best Laid Plans series written by author Nathan Jones.