Final Rain

The Survivalist #19

by Jerry Ahern

John Thomas Rourke's remarkable survival skills enabled him to emerge unscathed from the nuclear devastation of W.W. III. But terrifying new storm clouds loom over the eastern horizonas the ex-CIA Covert Operations Officer and weapons expert takes command of his battered nation's broadening air and land war against the brutal Soviet foe. Russian troops, utilizing a blood-curdling new Particle Beam technology, have launched a furious assault on the Eden Project. Joining forces with his international alliesincluding the army of the underwater citadel Mid-Wake - Rourke races to the defense of the beleaguered settlement. The entire world is dividing to do battle a fourth time. But this time the Earth's atmospheric envelope is so fragile that a single nuclear bomb blast will assure the total annihilation of mankind. And unless John Thomas Rourke can stem the raging Communist death-tide before the ultimate button is pushed, no power on the planet will be able to forestall humanity's extinction - not even The Survivalist.

Genres: Post Apocalyptic

Audio CD

First published June 1, 1989

About the author

Jerry Ahern (born Jerome Morrell Ahern) was a science fiction and action novel author best known for his post apocalyptic survivalist series The Survivalist. The books in this series are heavy with descriptions of the weapons the protagonists use to survive and prosecute a seemingly never-ending war amongst the remnants of the superpowers from pre-apocalypse times.

Ahern was also a firearms writer, who published numerous articles in magazines such as Guns & Ammo, Handguns and Gun World.

Jerry Ahern passed away on July 24, 2012 after a long struggle with cancer.

Ahern also released books under pseudonym Axel Kilgore.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Final Rain is the twentieth book in The Survivalist series. The Survivalist is John Thomas Rourke, a doctor and ex-CIA agent and weapons expert. Mid-Wake, the super-sized sixteenth volume in what was the longest and most successful series in Zebra's "Men's Adventure" line of the 1980s, finished wrapping up the arc that had been an amazing reboot to the series, and presented a whole new raft of challenges. In the first nine books, Rourke survived Armageddon when the Russians launched their nukes, searched for his family, fought the invading KGB, fought the surviving U.S. citizenry who had gone feral, helped set up a new U.S. government, fallen platonically in love with a beautiful Russian double-agent, lectured for pages on end about his gun collection, had amazing adventures with his new buddy Paul, and then, just when he'd been re-united with his wife Sara and their two kids, he learned that the world was going to end, for real this time, or so he believed at the time. So, always the survivor, he put Paul and Natalia and his family into cryogenic suspension chambers and woke up to a whole new world, five hundred years later. JTR catalogues his weapons collection quite frequently, which always seems to take too long; they're skimmable or skippable, like you'd ignore commercials on tv or skip over advertisements in comic books. Anyway, we learned that many other groups of people had survived, too, including some Russians and Nazis and Chinese Communists, so we had plenty more fighting, sex and violence. Too, there was the return from outer space of the Eden Project to Georgia, where the Rourke clan established their base. It set up another vast and glorious cartoon serial comic book story... Mid-Wake was the first book in the series to appear without a number and was two or three times longer than any of the preceding novels. In that volume we learned that both the U.S. and the Russians have undersea cities that survived, and they'd been having undersea battles for the last five-hundred years. Rourke's nemesis, a mad Russian with a penchant for doomsday weapons, would have destroyed the planet if he linked up with the Russian undersea colony, so the Rourke extended family and their new Mid-Wake U.S. allies made sure that didn't happen, and Karamatsov didn't survive. But his second-in-command did, and seems to want to pick up right where his leader wanted... Not a whole lot happened in the preceding two to advance the overall arc, but this one almost makes up for them. Natalia is still out of her head but finally sees some resolution, the allies start coming together, and the Russians attack the Eden Project with an eye for starting World War Four. The problem is that the Earth's atmosphere has become so fragile that a single nuclear blast will end all life on Earth... again. Rally the troops and defend Eden... It's another pretty well-told and fast-paced story, a fast read peopled with clear cut good guys and bad guys. I didn't agree with the extremity of some of the political philosophy, but Ahern was a great storyteller, and Rourke's friends-and-family dynamics were a truly compelling continuing soap opera. This twentieth volume was labeled as number nineteen, which led to unending confusion about the proper continuity. (For example, Goodreads currently lists Mid-Wake as number twenty-eight for some reason, though I've also seen it as 15.5 elsewhere.) Zebra continued their misleading, confusing, and erroneous numbering for the duration of the series, and you have to read all of them in publication order to follow the overall story.

[Joseph B · Rating 3 out of 5]

After two books slowly setting the stage, Final Rain sees pay-off for much of the tension building. This includes the Soviet nukes, Natalia's psychosis, and the varying free factions finally coming together. I feel like the events of the last three books (including this one) could've easily been one or two novels, I am happy to see the series moving into interesting territory once more.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dziewiętnasta część przyjemnego odzwierciedlenia kina akcji w klimatach postapo z czasów filmów na kasetach wideo.

[Little Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite adventure series. Dr John Thomas Rourke leads his family and friends through a post apocalyptic world fighting ever step if the way. Fantastic characters and plots. Very detailed weapon descriptions. Excellent series. My highest recommendation

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

See my review under "Total War," Survivalist Book 1.

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Post-apocalyptic pulp goodness.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was fun easy reading in my teens. Would actually like to pick one up again and see what I think now. :D