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Alex Fletcher #1
The Jakarta Pandemic
"RIPPED FROM TODAY'S HEADLINES AND METICULOUSLY RESEARCHED, The Jakarta Pandemic walks you through a family's near impossible struggle to survive a lethal pandemic virus.""A rare, up-all-night thriller series. Alex Fletcher is the 'hero' we need when disaster strikes and the bonds of society start to break."THE JAKARTA Cases of a highly lethal virus appear in major cities around the globe. Most ignore the warning signs.Alex Fletcher, Iraq War veteran, has read the signs for years. With his family and home prepared to endure an extended period of seclusion, Alex thinks he's ready for the pandemic. He's not even close.The unstoppable H16N1 virus rapidly spreads across the United States, stretching the fragile bonds of society to the breaking point. Schools close, grocery stores empty, fuel deliveries stop, hospitals start turning away the sick...riots engulf the cities. As hostility and mistrust engulfs his idyllic Maine neighborhood, Alex quickly realizes that the H16N1 virus will be the least of his problems."It delivers a vicious punch of violence and heroism for the reader to endure and admire. I could hardly put The Jakarta Pandemic down until I finished it." - Amazon reviewer"The tension builds as difficult choices are made, when no good options seem to be available. I found certain segments to be uncomfortably realistic, at times creepy in the way you could feel things closing in around the family." - Amazon reviewer"It makes you think...how far are you willing to go to protect your loved ones? Every day that goes by, these characters have to question what is right and what is wrong. Take the trip thru this book. You won't be disappointed." - Amazon reviewerThe Alex Fletcher Books (In Order):The Jakarta Pandemic, Book OneThe Perseid Collapse, Book TwoEvent Horizon, Book ThreePoint of Crisis, Book FourDispatches, Book Five _________________________________________________________________________________Steven's novels are recommended for fans of Brad Thor's Scot Harvath, Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp, Brad Taylor's Pike Logan, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, Lee Child's Jack Reacher, Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne, L.T. Ryan's Jack Noble, C.G. Cooper's Daniel Briggs, Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon, Mark Greaney's Gray Man and Michael Crichton.Learn to survive COVID19—coronavirus
527 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 15, 2010
6122 people are currently reading
3776 people want to read
About the author
Steven Konkoly
70 books1,230 followersSteven graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1993, receiving a bachelor of science in English literature. He served the next eight years on active duty, traveling the world as a naval officer assigned to various Navy and Marine Corps units. His extensive journey spanned the globe, including a two-year tour of duty in Japan and travel to more than twenty countries throughout Asia and the Middle East.
From enforcing United Nations sanctions against Iraq as a maritime boarding officer in the Arabian Gulf, to directing aircraft bombing runs and naval gunfire strikes as a Forward Air Controller (FAC) assigned to a specialized Marine Corps unit, Steven's "in-house" experience with a wide range of regular and elite military units brings a unique authenticity to his thrillers.
He still wakes up at "zero dark thirty" to write for most of the day. When "off duty," he spends as much time as possible outdoors or travelling with his family--and dog.
Steven is the bestselling author of ten novels and several novellas, including a commissioned trilogy of novellas based on the popular Wayward Pines series. His canon of work includes the popular Black Flagged Series, a gritty, no-holds barred covert operations and espionage saga; The Perseid Collapse series, a post-apocalyptic thriller epic chronicling the events surrounding an inconceivable attack on the United States; and The Fractured State series, a near future, dystopian thriller trilogy set in the drought ravaged southwest
You can contact Steven directly by email (stevekonkoly@striblingmedia.com) or through his blog (www.stevenkonkoly.com).
From enforcing United Nations sanctions against Iraq as a maritime boarding officer in the Arabian Gulf, to directing aircraft bombing runs and naval gunfire strikes as a Forward Air Controller (FAC) assigned to a specialized Marine Corps unit, Steven's "in-house" experience with a wide range of regular and elite military units brings a unique authenticity to his thrillers.
He still wakes up at "zero dark thirty" to write for most of the day. When "off duty," he spends as much time as possible outdoors or travelling with his family--and dog.
Steven is the bestselling author of ten novels and several novellas, including a commissioned trilogy of novellas based on the popular Wayward Pines series. His canon of work includes the popular Black Flagged Series, a gritty, no-holds barred covert operations and espionage saga; The Perseid Collapse series, a post-apocalyptic thriller epic chronicling the events surrounding an inconceivable attack on the United States; and The Fractured State series, a near future, dystopian thriller trilogy set in the drought ravaged southwest
You can contact Steven directly by email (stevekonkoly@striblingmedia.com) or through his blog (www.stevenkonkoly.com).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 572 reviews
April 9, 2012
The ending sucks. It kept me reading, mainly because after enduring page after page of overly detailed prose, I wanted to see what happened. Could be trimmed considerably -- if it isn't a prepper how-to, why do I need to know the last time the water was rotated?
Don't like the "hero" -- he is mouthy and antagonistic, aside from being a thief. Needlessly provokes confrontations right from the beginning. Pretty much brags about being prepped while others did not or could not prep, which of course will guarantee resentment, plus he did not train his family. He makes several stupid mistakes and sets himself up for getting killed -- and getting his obnoxious family killed.
Once the set up was over, you don't find out anything more about the pandemic. At the end, I at least wanted to know the state of the world post-flu, or at least the state of the neighborhood. There is no way things would return to normal so fast, especially the power grid. It took years for the Gulf area to get back to any semblance of normal, and that disaster was limited geographically with support provided by other states/countries because they were not affected -- which would not be the case after a global flu outbreak. How many people died during the pandemic? What happened to the girls left to fend for themselves? No information provided that would have at least wrapped it all up. That thing about gold going up was pretty stupid -- if the pandemic taught people anything it would be that gold is worthless when there is nothing to spend it on: you can't eat it and you can't heat your house with it.
Don't like the "hero" -- he is mouthy and antagonistic, aside from being a thief. Needlessly provokes confrontations right from the beginning. Pretty much brags about being prepped while others did not or could not prep, which of course will guarantee resentment, plus he did not train his family. He makes several stupid mistakes and sets himself up for getting killed -- and getting his obnoxious family killed.
Once the set up was over, you don't find out anything more about the pandemic. At the end, I at least wanted to know the state of the world post-flu, or at least the state of the neighborhood. There is no way things would return to normal so fast, especially the power grid. It took years for the Gulf area to get back to any semblance of normal, and that disaster was limited geographically with support provided by other states/countries because they were not affected -- which would not be the case after a global flu outbreak. How many people died during the pandemic? What happened to the girls left to fend for themselves? No information provided that would have at least wrapped it all up. That thing about gold going up was pretty stupid -- if the pandemic taught people anything it would be that gold is worthless when there is nothing to spend it on: you can't eat it and you can't heat your house with it.
January 9, 2012
I really disliked the main characters, a family of 4, riding out a flu pandemic in their home, while their neighborhood (and a good portion of the rest of the world?, goes to hell in a hand basket. Their smugness and air of superiority
made them very unlikable, to me. At the end, I was rooting for the flu bug to get them.
made them very unlikable, to me. At the end, I was rooting for the flu bug to get them.
January 4, 2012
If Goodreads allowed it, this would be a 4 1/2 star review.
The Jakarta Pandemic is a story of one of the most terrifying possibilities – a global flu pandemic racing across the world, devastating food supplies, electricity and telephone service, law and order, and most scary of all, medical care for those who have contracted the flu.
Vigilant, organized and more than a little paranoid, Alex has been preparing for such an event, and has everything all planned. However, fear and hunger drive other less-prepared people around him to take desperate measures.
The story doesn’t kick into high gear for quite a long time, but it still kept my interest – particularly the news reports and specialist interviews which give a lot of information on the beginning and progression of the pandemic across the globe and the preparations made by Alex and his family for their self-imposed quarantine.
The main characters, Alex and Kate Fletcher, are both likeable, and their interactions are believable and sometimes even amusing (hard to achieve in a book with such a somber story), and the secondary characters are a perfect mixture of likeable, annoying and slightly creepy. And once things get dicey, their true colours emerge.
The Jakarta Pandemic is well written – the dialogue is believable and fluid, the story is engaging and entertaining and the focus on the lead-up to the pandemic helps to build tension without being preachy.
My one (very) minor criticism is the overly-detailed descriptions of the neighbourhood, what characters are wearing, and what they are eating etc – I don’t really need to know what colour pyjamas Kate was wearing every day!
Full review on my blog: theaussiezombie.blogspot.com
The Jakarta Pandemic is a story of one of the most terrifying possibilities – a global flu pandemic racing across the world, devastating food supplies, electricity and telephone service, law and order, and most scary of all, medical care for those who have contracted the flu.
Vigilant, organized and more than a little paranoid, Alex has been preparing for such an event, and has everything all planned. However, fear and hunger drive other less-prepared people around him to take desperate measures.
The story doesn’t kick into high gear for quite a long time, but it still kept my interest – particularly the news reports and specialist interviews which give a lot of information on the beginning and progression of the pandemic across the globe and the preparations made by Alex and his family for their self-imposed quarantine.
The main characters, Alex and Kate Fletcher, are both likeable, and their interactions are believable and sometimes even amusing (hard to achieve in a book with such a somber story), and the secondary characters are a perfect mixture of likeable, annoying and slightly creepy. And once things get dicey, their true colours emerge.
The Jakarta Pandemic is well written – the dialogue is believable and fluid, the story is engaging and entertaining and the focus on the lead-up to the pandemic helps to build tension without being preachy.
My one (very) minor criticism is the overly-detailed descriptions of the neighbourhood, what characters are wearing, and what they are eating etc – I don’t really need to know what colour pyjamas Kate was wearing every day!
Full review on my blog: theaussiezombie.blogspot.com
July 30, 2012
This should have been titled, "How to survive a pandemic, when you're really rich." Then I would have given it 5 stars.
April 23, 2019
Ugh. It's official. I'm in a book slump:(. This was overall blah. It has some sections of intensity. Overall, it greatly lacked movement and dialogue. Unfortunately, I don't believe I'll continue with this series.
July 29, 2011
The Jakarta Pandemic is a pre-and-post-apocalyptic survivalist novel, wholly unlike other books within the genre which I have previously read. Konkoly has written a well researched and supported tale of terror in the suburbs, a what-if scenario that is nearly exactly what I would expect to happen. The story centers around one man and his family, and by extension their neighborhood. A flu pandemic is sweeping the globe and once it hits the U.S., supplies quickly run low and people do what they feel is necessary to survive.
Since I was graciously provided a copy of this book to review, I did jot down copious amounts of notes while reading. After finishing days ago and now returning to those notes, I have a pretty clear idea as to why I did not fall in love with this book, as to what some of my dislikes were, regardless of how well-written the entire piece was. Throughout my notes, I regularly commented on the family interactions, especially the dialogue, and about confusion as to why certain things were done by the characters.
The family dialogue was drawn out, cute, and insincere, at least until things really started rolling. If not for being told who was speaking, I would have mostly been unable to differentiate between the characters as there was very little difference in personality evident through the dialogue. I felt the main characters were rather prudish, such as Kate and her concern over shirts with collars and the many stereotypical assumptions Alex made throughout the book. I became very sick of Alex's comments on the Chinese and on Muslims, on his elitist and hateful thinking. He jumped to many conclusions and just so happened to be right within this book. I did not like this. I do not believe it is possible to tell if a person is good or bad by looking into their eyes, by judging the quality of their vehicle, clothes, or speech, especially in a time of emergency and fear. If it is possible, then I was not convinced it to be true within this book. I guess I did not particularly like Alex and if he had not had a family, I probably wouldn't have cared too much as to his fate.
Luckily, I by no means need to like and approve of characters in order to enjoy a book. In some ways, Alex's faults made the book slightly more intense, as he was not perfect and that meshed more with real life. I hope that was the author's intention, and that I was not supposed to consider Alex to be the perfect hero.
Also worth mentioning, I liked the news updates involving how and where the the flu was progressing in the world but I did become tired of hearing about FOX News, NPR, the names of talk show hosts who I was supposed to recognize. But I watch minimal television and I do not watch the news or t.v. shows such as Today, so these sections did not engage me in the story enough at times and felt repetitious but other readers may feel different.
I like stories which unfold through action and internal monologue or thoughts but I feel there was too little of this. The story spent little time within any of the characters heads. I wanted less of what was going on in the neighborhood, which was made up of a gluttonous amount of red-shirts for the author to use as flu fodder. Few of the neighbors had enough characterization for me to care what happened to them and I regularly mixed up names.
Other things also confused me. When a cop decides to completely trust Alex when he sees Alex's Semper Fi bumpersticker, I had expected some type of acknowledgement that trusting people based on such superficial observations is dangerous and stupid but I got the impression the author only intended for me as the reader to agree with the cop. When trying to be quiet and go unnoticed, why would Alex run around with a walkie-talkie? In the middle of a pandemic, would the poilce really make house calls to investigate old reports of gun shots being fired? Little things such as this bothered me and took me out of the story, which in a pandemic thriller is not good. I wanted to be sucked into the terror.
I did like the perspective of a pharmaceutical rep and Alex's military background. These were very convincing aspects of the book. I appreciated the reality of what I think could happen to the U.S. as an ill-prepared country if a truly deadly pandemic hit the major cities. The book does make you wonder what surviving in such a siituation would be like, what might you be willing to do. Reading books such as this are fun as I like to play the don't-go-in-there game, but it's more of a don't-do-that game with this book. I do not think I would have done many of the things Alex chose to do, but some ideas were interesting. Preparedness would be the key, as well as keeping your mouth shut about what you are hoarding.
In the end, this is not my typical read, but I still enjoyed the book and think many readers who regularly read this type of straight fiction will feel the same.
Since I was graciously provided a copy of this book to review, I did jot down copious amounts of notes while reading. After finishing days ago and now returning to those notes, I have a pretty clear idea as to why I did not fall in love with this book, as to what some of my dislikes were, regardless of how well-written the entire piece was. Throughout my notes, I regularly commented on the family interactions, especially the dialogue, and about confusion as to why certain things were done by the characters.
The family dialogue was drawn out, cute, and insincere, at least until things really started rolling. If not for being told who was speaking, I would have mostly been unable to differentiate between the characters as there was very little difference in personality evident through the dialogue. I felt the main characters were rather prudish, such as Kate and her concern over shirts with collars and the many stereotypical assumptions Alex made throughout the book. I became very sick of Alex's comments on the Chinese and on Muslims, on his elitist and hateful thinking. He jumped to many conclusions and just so happened to be right within this book. I did not like this. I do not believe it is possible to tell if a person is good or bad by looking into their eyes, by judging the quality of their vehicle, clothes, or speech, especially in a time of emergency and fear. If it is possible, then I was not convinced it to be true within this book. I guess I did not particularly like Alex and if he had not had a family, I probably wouldn't have cared too much as to his fate.
Luckily, I by no means need to like and approve of characters in order to enjoy a book. In some ways, Alex's faults made the book slightly more intense, as he was not perfect and that meshed more with real life. I hope that was the author's intention, and that I was not supposed to consider Alex to be the perfect hero.
Also worth mentioning, I liked the news updates involving how and where the the flu was progressing in the world but I did become tired of hearing about FOX News, NPR, the names of talk show hosts who I was supposed to recognize. But I watch minimal television and I do not watch the news or t.v. shows such as Today, so these sections did not engage me in the story enough at times and felt repetitious but other readers may feel different.
I like stories which unfold through action and internal monologue or thoughts but I feel there was too little of this. The story spent little time within any of the characters heads. I wanted less of what was going on in the neighborhood, which was made up of a gluttonous amount of red-shirts for the author to use as flu fodder. Few of the neighbors had enough characterization for me to care what happened to them and I regularly mixed up names.
Other things also confused me. When a cop decides to completely trust Alex when he sees Alex's Semper Fi bumpersticker, I had expected some type of acknowledgement that trusting people based on such superficial observations is dangerous and stupid but I got the impression the author only intended for me as the reader to agree with the cop. When trying to be quiet and go unnoticed, why would Alex run around with a walkie-talkie? In the middle of a pandemic, would the poilce really make house calls to investigate old reports of gun shots being fired? Little things such as this bothered me and took me out of the story, which in a pandemic thriller is not good. I wanted to be sucked into the terror.
I did like the perspective of a pharmaceutical rep and Alex's military background. These were very convincing aspects of the book. I appreciated the reality of what I think could happen to the U.S. as an ill-prepared country if a truly deadly pandemic hit the major cities. The book does make you wonder what surviving in such a siituation would be like, what might you be willing to do. Reading books such as this are fun as I like to play the don't-go-in-there game, but it's more of a don't-do-that game with this book. I do not think I would have done many of the things Alex chose to do, but some ideas were interesting. Preparedness would be the key, as well as keeping your mouth shut about what you are hoarding.
In the end, this is not my typical read, but I still enjoyed the book and think many readers who regularly read this type of straight fiction will feel the same.
August 29, 2011
I enjoyed reading Jakarta Pandemic. It really gets you thinking about the possibility of this unfolding right in your own neighborhood. I could see this happening and no one listening until it was too late!! It is very realistic and portrays a very accurate picture of what people could and probably would do if this ever happened. I enjoyed the main character, Alex's, personality and thoughts throughout the book. His opinions seem to accurately reflect those of a former Marine who has returned from deployment. A brief mention and hints of PTSD of the main character, Alex, show up throughout the book as well. I have read some reviews which challenge the writer's choice to make the main character judgmental with regards to certain people throughout the story. However, I actually appreciate those touches which make Alex even that more realistic as those would be some thoughts and opinions a former marine returning from deployment in the Middle East would feel. I have and continue to recommend this book to others. I finished this book very quickly and read the entire thing on my iphone. I am really impressed by the fact that the author chose to self-publish this book and look forward to reading more from him in the future!
March 3, 2015
I wanted to Iike this book. I love post-apacalyptic stories and the premise of a bird-flu pandemic was interesting. It was bad. First off, the main character is a right-wing hating, vegetarian, former marine that is so afraid of guns that he won't let anyone in his family ever touch one and is so disgusted with a neighbor that hunts. The author seems to want to give some sort of treatise on surviving a virus epidemic and so gets bogged down in minutiae. Surprisingly, he also skips details that you would think would be vital to the story line. For example, want to know what should be in your food and supplies? He covers that in great detail. Want to know what happens to the 2 preteen children living on their own once the dangerous drifters move into the neighborhood? Too bad. I guess some things we need to figure out on our own. And how many showers can one woman take!? One last thing, I listened to this book and the narrator was terrible. If you have read this then read it, don't listen to it.
October 8, 2012
I have always fancied myself a prepper on at least a small scale since I live in a hurricane zone. The possibility for the basic infrastructure of my region to be disrupted for an extended period of time is within the reasonable realm of expectation. I found the family in this story to be a refreshing example of what every family should strive to be on some level. It just makes sense. Preppers in the media are often cast in a negative light as paranoid nut jobs. This novel is a real eye-opener and illustrates just how fragile our society can be. In a very short period of time, food shortages, utility outages, and lawlessness can descend on us. When the time comes, being prepared can be the difference between life and death.
What drew me in was the depth of the characters. More often than not, the main character in any story is the ultimate hero, he makes all the right decisions and succeeds at everything he does. The main character is also usually mainstream and appeals to the masses. While other Amazon reviewers have knocked the author for various idosyncrasies about the main character (he bashes Fox News, he's a vegetarian, he makes questionable tactical decisions for a military vet, etc.), I welcome the richness it brings. I find it tiresome when the main character succeeds at all times, fits into a stereotype, and has all the answers. It also helps to understand that a character's views in a novel don't necessarily reflect the views of the author.
I also found the setting to be a refreshing change from other PA novels. Stories in this genre tend to focus on the world at large or center on a group of people traveling on a journey to find safe harbor. This novel centers on one family hunkered down in their home and how they interact with their neighbors on their street. I was quite impressed with the level of research put into this novel, the author clearly did his homework.
As is the case with most survival scenarios, the most difficult obstacle to overcome is not the scenario itself, but dealing with other survivors. If anything, this novel reinforces the concept of isolation to survive. Dealing with unprepared crybabies that will do anything to take advantage of your survival foresight should not be the most trying aspect of survival, but sadly, it is. This story deals with that pitfall in interesting ways.
A very exciting and compelling read. I highly recommend this work to any fan of the PA genre.
What drew me in was the depth of the characters. More often than not, the main character in any story is the ultimate hero, he makes all the right decisions and succeeds at everything he does. The main character is also usually mainstream and appeals to the masses. While other Amazon reviewers have knocked the author for various idosyncrasies about the main character (he bashes Fox News, he's a vegetarian, he makes questionable tactical decisions for a military vet, etc.), I welcome the richness it brings. I find it tiresome when the main character succeeds at all times, fits into a stereotype, and has all the answers. It also helps to understand that a character's views in a novel don't necessarily reflect the views of the author.
I also found the setting to be a refreshing change from other PA novels. Stories in this genre tend to focus on the world at large or center on a group of people traveling on a journey to find safe harbor. This novel centers on one family hunkered down in their home and how they interact with their neighbors on their street. I was quite impressed with the level of research put into this novel, the author clearly did his homework.
As is the case with most survival scenarios, the most difficult obstacle to overcome is not the scenario itself, but dealing with other survivors. If anything, this novel reinforces the concept of isolation to survive. Dealing with unprepared crybabies that will do anything to take advantage of your survival foresight should not be the most trying aspect of survival, but sadly, it is. This story deals with that pitfall in interesting ways.
A very exciting and compelling read. I highly recommend this work to any fan of the PA genre.
April 7, 2012
This was a quick Ok read and definitely one of the better free kindle books I've d/l. The premise is that a flu pandemic sweeps across the planet, killing millions and sending society into disarray, told from the point of view of an ex pharmaceutical employee who was also previously a marine. The setting is limited to the neighbourhood where he lives.
As the pandemic moves across the globe there is an authentic feeling to the whole situation - a real sense of this could so happen one day and the panic that can ensue as people try to get supplies etc. I've seen this first hand after living in a city after a natural disaster and I though the author captured that kind of desperation well.
The MC and his family were well characterized I thought and I enjoyed the banter and interactions.
I haven't given it more than 2 stars (it was OK) mainly because it was all too easy for the family. They had A YEARS supply of food. He was an ex marine so had an impressive array of guns and medical supplies, he also had worked for the supplier of a tamiflu type drug so had that on hand if they did get sick and could give it out to family and friends. THey also had solar panels and a wood furnace so really, there was little hardship for them. There was talk of power cuts but they were Ok with their solar batteries, they had internet access the whole time and apart from living on beans and barley they seemed to not really be affected. Around them in the neighbourhood people dropped like flies or starved, which really probably would have made a more interesting story. The middle section of the book dragged a little bit and I think a bit more tension for the family (they remained loving and supportive which is nice, but you know,it would have been more interesting if they'd been stressed to the max and disintegrating ...maybe I just I love my angst too much). In the end they were ultimately saved because he used to be a solider which again, is nice, but what happens if you're just an ordinary family without all the arsenal?
All in all, it was a totally OK read and if you are into 'end of the world' type scenarios you'll probably enjoy it.
As the pandemic moves across the globe there is an authentic feeling to the whole situation - a real sense of this could so happen one day and the panic that can ensue as people try to get supplies etc. I've seen this first hand after living in a city after a natural disaster and I though the author captured that kind of desperation well.
The MC and his family were well characterized I thought and I enjoyed the banter and interactions.
I haven't given it more than 2 stars (it was OK) mainly because it was all too easy for the family. They had A YEARS supply of food. He was an ex marine so had an impressive array of guns and medical supplies, he also had worked for the supplier of a tamiflu type drug so had that on hand if they did get sick and could give it out to family and friends. THey also had solar panels and a wood furnace so really, there was little hardship for them. There was talk of power cuts but they were Ok with their solar batteries, they had internet access the whole time and apart from living on beans and barley they seemed to not really be affected. Around them in the neighbourhood people dropped like flies or starved, which really probably would have made a more interesting story. The middle section of the book dragged a little bit and I think a bit more tension for the family (they remained loving and supportive which is nice, but you know,it would have been more interesting if they'd been stressed to the max and disintegrating ...maybe I just I love my angst too much). In the end they were ultimately saved because he used to be a solider which again, is nice, but what happens if you're just an ordinary family without all the arsenal?
All in all, it was a totally OK read and if you are into 'end of the world' type scenarios you'll probably enjoy it.
February 15, 2015
It's the end of the world (for ONE WHOLE WINTER!) Prepare for being smug about prepping and talking ad nauseum to wife and neighbours. Nothing like waiting out a pandemic by playing xbox while your neighbours starve. Yawn.
September 6, 2011
I did not love this...but I liked it a WHOLE lot. I think if it was written differently, I WOULD have loved it. As other reviewers have mentioned, the book reads like a movie script and that not only is distracting, but doesn't work very well.
But this story is real and believable, and actually quite frightening when you think about it too much. It COULD happen exactly this way.
I DON'T PERSONALLY THINK THE SYNOPSIS BELOW CONTAINS SPOILERS, BUT BE WARY JUST IN CASE
Main character Alex Fletcher is ex-military, and a rep for a pharmaceutical company that has a flu vaccine to rival Tamiflu. In this capacity, he has his finger on the pulse of a possible pandemic and sees it coming. He does his last minute preparations and is good to go. He tries to warn people but Of COURSE everyone thinks he is a paranoid nut, except his immediate family.
They live in an affluent upper middle class hood in Maine. Alex already has prepared his home for ANY disaster. He has solar power, battery backup, weapons, ammo, walkie talkies, night scope stuff, firewood, over the counter and prescription medicines, medical supplies for most eventualities, and enough non-perishable food to feed a small army for over a year. They can eat well, have water, remain clean, defend, protect and ride out most any disaster situation, and even watch DVDs and play Xbox while doing it.
He tries to warn his friends and neighbors, but of course he's paranoid and no one listens to him.
The television and internet news and online articles play out in the background, telling the story of the spread of the flu as Alex goes about preparing his family to ride it out for the long term without having any contact with anyone, the way he figures he can keep his family safe from the flu. No contact=no exposure. Extreme, but it works.
Most of the neighbors in the cul-de-sac go about things all wrong for this sort of occurrence. Instead of isolating, they all get together to decide how to help each other, even as folks are getting sick. Once the grocery stores shut down and food and everything else becomes scarce, of course the whole entire hood turns to Alex, thinking that he owes it to the neighborhood to share what he has with everyone. Um, what???
THAT REALLY MADE MY BLOOD BOIL - DISASTER HAPPENS SO THE ONE WHO PREPARED HAS TO HELP EVEYONE ELSE??? I THINK NOT.
Alex naturally thinks otherwise, particularly since he tried to warn them all and they didn't listen. Understandably, things get tense in the hood, and become increasingly intense as things get bleaker and bleaker and people start dying. Though the main story focuses on this one neighborhood, the news reports tell what's happening in the rest of the world.
Things get worse and worse for most of the neighbors. As the most well prepared and well stocked family in the hood, the Fletchers are the hate targets. Only they and a couple of other families are faring well. Everyone else is dying and starving. After a point, the only family in the harsh Maine winter that has electricity and heat beyond a fireplace is the Fletcher family. Hatred abounds, and people STILL think that Alex should supply them all. He heartily disagrees. He does feel guilt about that, but he disagrees with their thinking, as well he should.
As things deteriorate even further, nomads and refugees from harder hit areas start to flood the hood, begging and squatting in empty homes. Alex and Ed try to make sure that the people that they allow to squat in neighbors' homes are people they want to have around them. They are mostly successful, but one of the groups that shows up is not the "right" kind of people. Bloodthirsty savages who don't care about others. They end up terrorizing the hood for quite some time before Alex and Charlie take of the situation.
I couldn't put this down for a while. REALLY LIKED this.
And quiet as it's kept, about 20 minutes after I finished it, I was online comparing prices on cases of freeze-dried food. Kid you not.
EDITED 5/23/11
Ok, so....I wound up editing this book for Mr. Konkoly, and now, it's pretty darned great. The "issues" that readers, including me, have complained about have been fixed in this version, and it is very complete. :-) If you have not yet had a chance to check this out, PLEASE do so, I urge you. The newly edited Kindle version is available as of later today, and the paperback in a few days.
But this story is real and believable, and actually quite frightening when you think about it too much. It COULD happen exactly this way.
I DON'T PERSONALLY THINK THE SYNOPSIS BELOW CONTAINS SPOILERS, BUT BE WARY JUST IN CASE
Main character Alex Fletcher is ex-military, and a rep for a pharmaceutical company that has a flu vaccine to rival Tamiflu. In this capacity, he has his finger on the pulse of a possible pandemic and sees it coming. He does his last minute preparations and is good to go. He tries to warn people but Of COURSE everyone thinks he is a paranoid nut, except his immediate family.
They live in an affluent upper middle class hood in Maine. Alex already has prepared his home for ANY disaster. He has solar power, battery backup, weapons, ammo, walkie talkies, night scope stuff, firewood, over the counter and prescription medicines, medical supplies for most eventualities, and enough non-perishable food to feed a small army for over a year. They can eat well, have water, remain clean, defend, protect and ride out most any disaster situation, and even watch DVDs and play Xbox while doing it.
He tries to warn his friends and neighbors, but of course he's paranoid and no one listens to him.
The television and internet news and online articles play out in the background, telling the story of the spread of the flu as Alex goes about preparing his family to ride it out for the long term without having any contact with anyone, the way he figures he can keep his family safe from the flu. No contact=no exposure. Extreme, but it works.
Most of the neighbors in the cul-de-sac go about things all wrong for this sort of occurrence. Instead of isolating, they all get together to decide how to help each other, even as folks are getting sick. Once the grocery stores shut down and food and everything else becomes scarce, of course the whole entire hood turns to Alex, thinking that he owes it to the neighborhood to share what he has with everyone. Um, what???
THAT REALLY MADE MY BLOOD BOIL - DISASTER HAPPENS SO THE ONE WHO PREPARED HAS TO HELP EVEYONE ELSE??? I THINK NOT.
Alex naturally thinks otherwise, particularly since he tried to warn them all and they didn't listen. Understandably, things get tense in the hood, and become increasingly intense as things get bleaker and bleaker and people start dying. Though the main story focuses on this one neighborhood, the news reports tell what's happening in the rest of the world.
Things get worse and worse for most of the neighbors. As the most well prepared and well stocked family in the hood, the Fletchers are the hate targets. Only they and a couple of other families are faring well. Everyone else is dying and starving. After a point, the only family in the harsh Maine winter that has electricity and heat beyond a fireplace is the Fletcher family. Hatred abounds, and people STILL think that Alex should supply them all. He heartily disagrees. He does feel guilt about that, but he disagrees with their thinking, as well he should.
As things deteriorate even further, nomads and refugees from harder hit areas start to flood the hood, begging and squatting in empty homes. Alex and Ed try to make sure that the people that they allow to squat in neighbors' homes are people they want to have around them. They are mostly successful, but one of the groups that shows up is not the "right" kind of people. Bloodthirsty savages who don't care about others. They end up terrorizing the hood for quite some time before Alex and Charlie take of the situation.
I couldn't put this down for a while. REALLY LIKED this.
And quiet as it's kept, about 20 minutes after I finished it, I was online comparing prices on cases of freeze-dried food. Kid you not.
EDITED 5/23/11
Ok, so....I wound up editing this book for Mr. Konkoly, and now, it's pretty darned great. The "issues" that readers, including me, have complained about have been fixed in this version, and it is very complete. :-) If you have not yet had a chance to check this out, PLEASE do so, I urge you. The newly edited Kindle version is available as of later today, and the paperback in a few days.
August 16, 2011
I just received an autographed copy of Steve Konkoly's The Jakarta Pandemic in the mail and I just have to say WOW. I mean, I have read this book 4 times now in rounds of editing, but it's all been online. To hold the actual printed copy in my hands is stunning. Now THIS is a BOOK. Nice and heavy, and chock full of pandemic goodness. If you haven't read this one, hie thee to Amazon and get your copy.
You will not be disappointed.
You will not be disappointed.
June 29, 2011
Alex Fletcher is an marine who left active duty eight years ago and is now a pharmaceutical rep with a bit of paranoia about the latest impending pandemic flu assault. The year is 2013, and he has vivid memories of the pandemic of '08 and the less noteworthy panic that occurred in '12 after a swine flu outbreak. Since he works for a pharma company that provides one of the leading flu treatments, it is essentially his job to pay attention to all the reports on how bad this new outbreak is likely to be. That plus the fact that he spends much of his time with doctors who deal with infectious diseases on a regular basis, he is hunkering down for what amounts to the viral equivalent of World War III.
Alex is paranoid, and under regular circumstances might be considered somewhat of a flake. He suffers from post traumatic stress after his time in Iraq, and his house is set up with all the fixin's to prepare him for a long hold out against the flu with food, water, his own power supplies, and plenty of guns and ammo. His plan is simple: isolate himself and his family from everyone else and they will make it through the flu outbreak just fine, even as the world crumbles around them. Yep, Alex would be probably a bit wacky if it wasn't for the fact that he is absolutely right about what is about to go down.
And despite Alex's unheeded warnings to his neighbors to isolate themselves, stock up on food and water, things do go bad rather quickly for them, with food not getting delivered to grocery stores, hospitals getting filled up with flu patients, sickness running rampant and a danger of the power grid going out since less and less people are monitoring and maintaining it. Essentially, Alex has predicted a crash of catastrophic proportions, and that is exactly what happens. And with it, the natives get restless and turn their ire toward the most prepared member of their community. Alex has good intentions, but refuses to be sucked into communal expectations that he play ball and share all his food and every last flu treatment he held on to before quitting his pharmaceutical job. On top of that, scavengers have moved into Alex's upscale suburban neighborhood in a desperate attempt to find food and shelter as riots and overall madness have driven them out of the bigger cities, and they are even more dangerous than the neighbors.
The Jarkarta Pandemic is a well laid out story of one man's quest to keep his family safe during a devastating assault on their existence. I read a lot of apocalyptic fiction, and while this doesn't quite tip over into the realm of apocalyptic, it gives us a hefty dose of how the apocalypse could realistically occur in our world. It does share some similarities with some of the other stories I read in that genre in that it shows how desperate people can become, and how hard the choices are when your family is at stake and so is your survival. Alex reminds me of one of those guys on message boards who talks about how they're prepared for the end of the world, whether it be by natural disaster, plague, or even zombies.
The action sequences are compelling in this book, though I wish there was more of them, and more drawn out tension between the main character and the people who confront him. A lot of the tale is spent with the build up to the pandemic and the slow, boring days Alex and his family spend cloistered inside their home. We are given only one perspective-Alex's, and only find out what is happening to the outside world through his observations of the news on TV and via the internet. It does help provide a sort of closed off perspective, because we as readers know nothing more than Alex does from minute to minute about what is happening in the wider world or even outside his house as they get buried deeper and deeper into the Maine winter. Still, I did feel that parts of the story dragged and did wish for more of a psychological thriller showcasing more people like Todd, Alex's on edge neighbor, and the man Alex dubs "Manson". I felt like the scenes where Alex was dealing with them crackled with energy and craved more of that in this story.
The bottom line is that this was a well thought out, entertaining story, though I was left wanting more interaction between Alex and his key rivals. It is my understanding that this story was recently re-edited, so the typographical issues prior reviewers on Amazon brought up didn't deflect from the story too much for me. The only real issue I had was when the author slips into present tense on occasion, which was a distraction when the rest of the time he sticks with the traditional past tense. Otherwise, the story kept my interest and was an enjoyable read about an intriguing subject that had a bitter and frightening dose of realism to it.
Alex is paranoid, and under regular circumstances might be considered somewhat of a flake. He suffers from post traumatic stress after his time in Iraq, and his house is set up with all the fixin's to prepare him for a long hold out against the flu with food, water, his own power supplies, and plenty of guns and ammo. His plan is simple: isolate himself and his family from everyone else and they will make it through the flu outbreak just fine, even as the world crumbles around them. Yep, Alex would be probably a bit wacky if it wasn't for the fact that he is absolutely right about what is about to go down.
And despite Alex's unheeded warnings to his neighbors to isolate themselves, stock up on food and water, things do go bad rather quickly for them, with food not getting delivered to grocery stores, hospitals getting filled up with flu patients, sickness running rampant and a danger of the power grid going out since less and less people are monitoring and maintaining it. Essentially, Alex has predicted a crash of catastrophic proportions, and that is exactly what happens. And with it, the natives get restless and turn their ire toward the most prepared member of their community. Alex has good intentions, but refuses to be sucked into communal expectations that he play ball and share all his food and every last flu treatment he held on to before quitting his pharmaceutical job. On top of that, scavengers have moved into Alex's upscale suburban neighborhood in a desperate attempt to find food and shelter as riots and overall madness have driven them out of the bigger cities, and they are even more dangerous than the neighbors.
The Jarkarta Pandemic is a well laid out story of one man's quest to keep his family safe during a devastating assault on their existence. I read a lot of apocalyptic fiction, and while this doesn't quite tip over into the realm of apocalyptic, it gives us a hefty dose of how the apocalypse could realistically occur in our world. It does share some similarities with some of the other stories I read in that genre in that it shows how desperate people can become, and how hard the choices are when your family is at stake and so is your survival. Alex reminds me of one of those guys on message boards who talks about how they're prepared for the end of the world, whether it be by natural disaster, plague, or even zombies.
The action sequences are compelling in this book, though I wish there was more of them, and more drawn out tension between the main character and the people who confront him. A lot of the tale is spent with the build up to the pandemic and the slow, boring days Alex and his family spend cloistered inside their home. We are given only one perspective-Alex's, and only find out what is happening to the outside world through his observations of the news on TV and via the internet. It does help provide a sort of closed off perspective, because we as readers know nothing more than Alex does from minute to minute about what is happening in the wider world or even outside his house as they get buried deeper and deeper into the Maine winter. Still, I did feel that parts of the story dragged and did wish for more of a psychological thriller showcasing more people like Todd, Alex's on edge neighbor, and the man Alex dubs "Manson". I felt like the scenes where Alex was dealing with them crackled with energy and craved more of that in this story.
The bottom line is that this was a well thought out, entertaining story, though I was left wanting more interaction between Alex and his key rivals. It is my understanding that this story was recently re-edited, so the typographical issues prior reviewers on Amazon brought up didn't deflect from the story too much for me. The only real issue I had was when the author slips into present tense on occasion, which was a distraction when the rest of the time he sticks with the traditional past tense. Otherwise, the story kept my interest and was an enjoyable read about an intriguing subject that had a bitter and frightening dose of realism to it.
September 12, 2011
I really, really, really, really loved this story! I took longer reading TJP than I normally would only because I was reading it on my laptop which I'm unaccustomed to. Had I had this in print I'd have been done it in one day.
I agree with my friend Jeannie, who also reviewed this, on a number of points but definitely about the news reports in the beginning. They seemed just a little too long to me but it's something I easily got past because of the story itself.
I loved the main character, Alex and his family. I loved, loved, loved the drama with his work toward the beginning of the book. When he was dealing with his supervisor I actually felt nervous myself, like I was the one dealing with this sort of this. That doesn't happen all that often. When I have to keep myself from peeking ahead I know I have a good one on my hands.
Alex's wife played a pretty small roll in the scheme of things but man I loved her too. She's freaking awesome.
Like Jeannie said in her review, I can totally see the majority of people on this earth acting just as Alex's neighbors did. I can't think of a more realistic portrayal to any of them. If (I can't bring myself to say 'when'!) this ever happened we'd be dealing with people just like Konkoly created here. I think that's what's so darn scary.
While I do love apocalyptic novels and others that could be/are considered horror, horror isn't a huge genre of mine so the fact that I loved this as much as I did really speaks volumes.
The reason I wade through smaller known authors is because of this right here. Every so often you find one that is out of this world and Konkoly is it. I have no doubt that anything he writes will be worth reading and I look forward to reading his next book.
This is a scary book but at the same time it really has other great things about it. How family oriented Alex is for instance. He's willing to let go of all else to make sure his family survives this and he's smart enough to do just that.
If anyone is thinking of reading this and is on the fence because of the genre or because of assumptions about what it'll be like I urge you to just try it yourself. You'll probably be very surprised. I can see this being read far and wide, not just by readers of the genre.
**I just looked on amazon and the ebook is $3.99 and the first chapter can be read free. No excuse to miss it therefore. Four bucks is nothing to spend for this story, trust me. I may buy a print version to keep because I can see myself rereading this one day.**
I agree with my friend Jeannie, who also reviewed this, on a number of points but definitely about the news reports in the beginning. They seemed just a little too long to me but it's something I easily got past because of the story itself.
I loved the main character, Alex and his family. I loved, loved, loved the drama with his work toward the beginning of the book. When he was dealing with his supervisor I actually felt nervous myself, like I was the one dealing with this sort of this. That doesn't happen all that often. When I have to keep myself from peeking ahead I know I have a good one on my hands.
Alex's wife played a pretty small roll in the scheme of things but man I loved her too. She's freaking awesome.
Like Jeannie said in her review, I can totally see the majority of people on this earth acting just as Alex's neighbors did. I can't think of a more realistic portrayal to any of them. If (I can't bring myself to say 'when'!) this ever happened we'd be dealing with people just like Konkoly created here. I think that's what's so darn scary.
While I do love apocalyptic novels and others that could be/are considered horror, horror isn't a huge genre of mine so the fact that I loved this as much as I did really speaks volumes.
The reason I wade through smaller known authors is because of this right here. Every so often you find one that is out of this world and Konkoly is it. I have no doubt that anything he writes will be worth reading and I look forward to reading his next book.
This is a scary book but at the same time it really has other great things about it. How family oriented Alex is for instance. He's willing to let go of all else to make sure his family survives this and he's smart enough to do just that.
If anyone is thinking of reading this and is on the fence because of the genre or because of assumptions about what it'll be like I urge you to just try it yourself. You'll probably be very surprised. I can see this being read far and wide, not just by readers of the genre.
**I just looked on amazon and the ebook is $3.99 and the first chapter can be read free. No excuse to miss it therefore. Four bucks is nothing to spend for this story, trust me. I may buy a print version to keep because I can see myself rereading this one day.**
July 21, 2012
I have a secret soft spot for post-apocalyptic and disaster thrillers, and I was very attracted to the premise of this one.
However, like many other reviewers mentioned, the persistent description of minutiae spoils the pace of the story and really prevented me from engaging in it fully. I think that hyper-detail can be a very effective way of building suspense in certain scenes or adding depth to the characterization where an obsessive-compulsive personality adds to the plot.
But neither of these issues were at play here. It just prevented me from engaging with the story. I wish the writer had hired a good strict editor. The book would have been far better for it.
However, like many other reviewers mentioned, the persistent description of minutiae spoils the pace of the story and really prevented me from engaging in it fully. I think that hyper-detail can be a very effective way of building suspense in certain scenes or adding depth to the characterization where an obsessive-compulsive personality adds to the plot.
But neither of these issues were at play here. It just prevented me from engaging with the story. I wish the writer had hired a good strict editor. The book would have been far better for it.
June 16, 2011
While most apocalyptic themed novels tend to take a global overview of the disaster that drives the genre, The Jakarta Pandemic instead focuses on a single street of residents, most of whom are completely unprepared for the catastrophe rapidly heading their way. Steven Konkoly's characters are all well defined and interesting, and I found myself quickly involved in the every day goings-on of the family at the center of his story. The novel builds tension slowly but inexorably, layering levels right up until the thoroughly exciting climax.
I held out for the newly edited version of the novel and, while there are a smattering of errors still (no more than I've seen in similar sized print books), the problems other readers have mentioned are all but non-existent in this latest edition. When one considers the fact that the author not only wrote, edited, marketed and promoted the novel himself, without any of the resources available to legacy-publishing authors, the effort that has been poured into this book (it is easily 100,000+ words) becomes all the more apparent.
Kudos to Steven Konkoly and I highly recommended, The Jakarta Pandemic.
I held out for the newly edited version of the novel and, while there are a smattering of errors still (no more than I've seen in similar sized print books), the problems other readers have mentioned are all but non-existent in this latest edition. When one considers the fact that the author not only wrote, edited, marketed and promoted the novel himself, without any of the resources available to legacy-publishing authors, the effort that has been poured into this book (it is easily 100,000+ words) becomes all the more apparent.
Kudos to Steven Konkoly and I highly recommended, The Jakarta Pandemic.
October 25, 2011
WOW!!! This book is amazing! One of the best books I've read in the genre. Alex is a great main character, and he is definitely someone you'd want on your team. The pandemic flu spreads very quickly in this book and Alex has his family fully prepared to ride it out within his own home. Not everything goes according to plan and evil comes out in full force when people are desperate. This book makes you think of all of the what if's and what would you do, given a situation like this. It is real, very real, and you will be on the edge of your seat throughout most of this book waiting to see what happens next. I highly recommend you go out and buy this book ASAP if you want to read a great pandemic thriller!
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http://sheenathebookgeek.blogspot.com...
December 16, 2018
Unbelievably bad writing with a fascinating plot idea
I am amazed the author has a degree in literature. Typos, spelling errors, verb tense disagreements, and sentence fragments plague the entire book. I typically love this genre but had a difficult time getting past such amateur mistakes.
Conclusion felt weird. What happened to the neighborhood? The world?
And why does every character speak with the same voice, the same literacy, etc. The protagonist and his wife were basically the same person and very unbelievable.
While I adore this genre, I will definitely NOT be reading anything else by this author.
I am amazed the author has a degree in literature. Typos, spelling errors, verb tense disagreements, and sentence fragments plague the entire book. I typically love this genre but had a difficult time getting past such amateur mistakes.
Conclusion felt weird. What happened to the neighborhood? The world?
And why does every character speak with the same voice, the same literacy, etc. The protagonist and his wife were basically the same person and very unbelievable.
While I adore this genre, I will definitely NOT be reading anything else by this author.
not4me
July 6, 2025Prch Amazon Oct. 14, 2015
Not for me.
Inept
Boring
No Adult intimate scenes that I know of.
Wish I hadn't bought it.
Don't you just love those Amazon & GR Recommendations.
Yep. This is why I have books I've never read.
Or Started and ditched. Ugh.
📝🎵Purchased from Amazon October 14, 2015
Not for me.
Inept
Boring
No Adult intimate scenes that I know of.
Wish I hadn't bought it.
Don't you just love those Amazon & GR Recommendations.
Yep. This is why I have books I've never read.
Or Started and ditched. Ugh.
📝🎵Purchased from Amazon October 14, 2015
March 6, 2022
Konkoly Konquers Jakarta
I really wasn't sure how much I could tolerate a book about a Pandemic given that, at the time I read this, we are in the third year of the COVID Pandemic.
Steven Konkoly manages to take a heart rending, thoroughly depressing subject and turn it into a tightly wound, hair-raising post-apocalyptic thriller.
Packed with the foibles of human weaknesses, mixed with the inherent good and bravery of those shining few who rise to the top during a crisis, this story is unbeatable for an all night read.
I really wasn't sure how much I could tolerate a book about a Pandemic given that, at the time I read this, we are in the third year of the COVID Pandemic.
Steven Konkoly manages to take a heart rending, thoroughly depressing subject and turn it into a tightly wound, hair-raising post-apocalyptic thriller.
Packed with the foibles of human weaknesses, mixed with the inherent good and bravery of those shining few who rise to the top during a crisis, this story is unbeatable for an all night read.
February 10, 2016
Alex Fletcher is a former marine and father of two who is a "prepper." He and his wife, Kate, have stocked his Maine home with a year's worth of food, medical supplies, and fuel. The house has solar panels, so he has electricity when the sun shines. As a pharmaceutical rep, he is friends with doctors and gets a heads up when a particularly bad strain of flu starts sweeping the globe. The swine flu was just a rehearsal, and folks may have considered him crazy then. But this time he's right. The Jakarta flu is a very contagious, very virulent flu that has a similar mortality rate as the Black Plague. It is worst for healthy people with good immune systems.
Alex recognizes the start of the pandemic early, so he has time to get food and other supplies before the rest of the inhabitants of Durham Road in Maine are alerted. He quarantines his family early, even before the schools close. At first, his cozy neighborhood is friendly, with everyone wanting to share and help each other out. That ends quickly, however. Some neighbors who were just irritating before become more threatening when their families become sick and they get hungry and cold. Soon there are food shortages, hospitals turning people away, electricity shortages, and refugees coming from larger cities to the south. Some unsavory people start squatting in abandoned homes on his street. These people may stop at nothing to survive, even if it comes to killing Alex's family.
Alex has to deal with the problem of helping his neighbors - how much of his stockpile should he share? Is he jeopardizing his own family with his generosity? As he defends his family and neighbors, will his past history of combat transition to full-blown paranoia and PTSD? Can he keep his family safe and still keep his cool? These interesting questions are never really explored in great details, though.
The apocalypse plays out slowly, with seemingly normal family days contrasting with episodes of vengeful neighbors and sociopathic strangers confronting Alex's fortress. This is not an overly compelling read, but it does have a great sense of the world - a normal family during an apocalypse in the making. You could say they played Xbox while the pandemic raged around them.
The writing style is a bit awkward. The author tries to jam too much unnecessary description into his sentences, often resulting in statements like, "He took two copies out of the folder, replaced the folder in the cabinet, and walked back to the desk and sat down." Pointless filler.
The characters are a one-dimensional. No one has a family that gets along so well, especially when they're all cooped up in the same house for so long. It's rare that any arguments or fights occur, even amongst the kids, who pretty much act like angels. Alex is remarkably even tempered, especially considering his potential PTSD, which is brought up occasionally, but doesn't really seem to matter to the plot or the character. Considering the stockpile of supplies that the family has, there's not a lot of tension or drama in the Fletcher household. They're very well off, and the only real drama occurs with the neighbors. Even the neighbors are pretty one-dimensional. I guess there's not much time for character development when you're busy describing the filing cabinet.
I enjoyed the brief sections with news reports about the rest of the country and the world. But they seemed to stop halfway through the book. The story is pretty slow otherwise except for some excitement near the end of the book. In the last chapter there's an abrupt jump forward to the end of the winter. Apparently nothing much happened for several months? The last chapter should really have been labelled as an epilogue.
Aside from these drawbacks, it's an interesting read, and probably anyone who considers themselves a prepper will enjoy seeing Alex proven right and providing a stable environment for his family during the pandemic.
Alex recognizes the start of the pandemic early, so he has time to get food and other supplies before the rest of the inhabitants of Durham Road in Maine are alerted. He quarantines his family early, even before the schools close. At first, his cozy neighborhood is friendly, with everyone wanting to share and help each other out. That ends quickly, however. Some neighbors who were just irritating before become more threatening when their families become sick and they get hungry and cold. Soon there are food shortages, hospitals turning people away, electricity shortages, and refugees coming from larger cities to the south. Some unsavory people start squatting in abandoned homes on his street. These people may stop at nothing to survive, even if it comes to killing Alex's family.
Alex has to deal with the problem of helping his neighbors - how much of his stockpile should he share? Is he jeopardizing his own family with his generosity? As he defends his family and neighbors, will his past history of combat transition to full-blown paranoia and PTSD? Can he keep his family safe and still keep his cool? These interesting questions are never really explored in great details, though.
The apocalypse plays out slowly, with seemingly normal family days contrasting with episodes of vengeful neighbors and sociopathic strangers confronting Alex's fortress. This is not an overly compelling read, but it does have a great sense of the world - a normal family during an apocalypse in the making. You could say they played Xbox while the pandemic raged around them.
The writing style is a bit awkward. The author tries to jam too much unnecessary description into his sentences, often resulting in statements like, "He took two copies out of the folder, replaced the folder in the cabinet, and walked back to the desk and sat down." Pointless filler.
The characters are a one-dimensional. No one has a family that gets along so well, especially when they're all cooped up in the same house for so long. It's rare that any arguments or fights occur, even amongst the kids, who pretty much act like angels. Alex is remarkably even tempered, especially considering his potential PTSD, which is brought up occasionally, but doesn't really seem to matter to the plot or the character. Considering the stockpile of supplies that the family has, there's not a lot of tension or drama in the Fletcher household. They're very well off, and the only real drama occurs with the neighbors. Even the neighbors are pretty one-dimensional. I guess there's not much time for character development when you're busy describing the filing cabinet.
I enjoyed the brief sections with news reports about the rest of the country and the world. But they seemed to stop halfway through the book. The story is pretty slow otherwise except for some excitement near the end of the book. In the last chapter there's an abrupt jump forward to the end of the winter. Apparently nothing much happened for several months? The last chapter should really have been labelled as an epilogue.
Aside from these drawbacks, it's an interesting read, and probably anyone who considers themselves a prepper will enjoy seeing Alex proven right and providing a stable environment for his family during the pandemic.
July 24, 2016
I liked the premise of this - a family fighting for survival as America collapses due to a flu pandemic - but really disliked the so-called hero who unashamedly steals from his employers, antagonises everyone who doesn't agree with him, brags about how well prepared he is for the end of the world - and then wonders why his starving neighbours come to him for help. He spends most of the book spying on people from his window and feeding his paranoia, and then can't wait to start shooting people, in between nauseatingly frequent "I love you - I love you more" exchanges with his equally unpleasant wife.
The start of the book reads like a detailed prepper's manual - some useful ideas but boring in a work of fiction, then at the end it's all wrapped up and everything goes back to normal, with this awful couple smugly congratulating themselves on how they made money out of the crisis. I won't be reading the rest of this series.
The start of the book reads like a detailed prepper's manual - some useful ideas but boring in a work of fiction, then at the end it's all wrapped up and everything goes back to normal, with this awful couple smugly congratulating themselves on how they made money out of the crisis. I won't be reading the rest of this series.
Want to read
December 27, 2019My wife, Tanya, is currently listening to what we've affectionately come to refer as The Alex Fletcher Series, and having heard bits and pieces of books I and II, I must say that's quite good. I'm intrigued. Also, it's safe to say that since she loved it, I *probably* will, too.
April 4, 2013
Jakarta Pandemic: A Novel, by Steven Konkoly is a frightening endurance nightmare for the characters, and gave this reader a feeling of impending disaster as a virulent flu unleashed illness and death. However, I was propelled through this book to see what would happen to the characters and which ones, if any, would survive. Don’t think of this flu pandemic as the Swine Flu (2009-2010) that killed 14,000 -18,000 people worldwide or even as the Asian flu (1956-1958) that killed about two million people. The Jakarta flu is even more deadly than the Spanish flu (1918-1919) that some estimates say may have killed as many as 100 million people worldwide. This book focuses on a neighborhood near Portland Maine, as the Jakarta flu pandemic reaches the United States. As the disease quickly sweeps across the US, the conveniences of normal life erode. The horrendous number of deaths and illnesses causes an overwhelming shortage of workers in all industries and services. Supermarket shelves are quickly wiped out. Hospital beds quickly fill to overcapacity and medical supplies dwindle to nothing. Doctors’ offices and clinics are swamped with seriously sick patients. There are not nearly enough able-bodied doctors, truckers, police officers, or other workers to keep any industries, businesses, or services in operation. Therefore, desperate people are everywhere without the supplies and services they need to survive. The people in the neighborhood near Portland Maine struggle to survive, but not all of them have prepared for even a much less catastrophic and life threatening challenge. This lack of preparation creates desperate antagonisms and confrontations between neighbors. As the winter snow storms begin to arrive things get worse and when sinister strangers invade the neighborhood things get totally out of control. It’s a book that takes a while to build at the beginning, but delivers much tension and frightening scenarios. It also delivers a vicious punch of violence and heroism for the reader to endure and admire. I could hardly put The Jakarta Pandemic down until I finished it.
December 21, 2015
Having recently read The Last Town on Earth, a fictional account of a real pandemic in 1918, this novel is particularly fascinating, as it's about a contemporary mutated Avian Flu outbreak. I'm about 20% in and hooked. It's not the best written novel I've ever read and occasionally smacks of self-publishing lack of editing, but that's not putting me off at all. And I'm not talking about grammatical mistakes or spelling errors, but just rough writing. Here's an example:
However, the content is so interesting that I'm overlooking any such problems.
This is one of the most realistic pandemic novels I've read. It centres on one family within one small neighbourhood of about 30 New England families. Alex, a decorated ex-marine, has been preparing for an apocalypse for years. He's been warning people for years. What does he get for his pains? Accusations of PTSD and suggestions he chills a bit...
So, when the pandemic hits, he does--chill. In his own house with plenty of food, a solar generator, and lots of anti-viral medicine.
This does not endear him to his neighbours...
I'll update when done.
Finished, and I highly recommend this novel to anyone who likes a tense apocalyptic drama. The setting, basically entirely inside Alex's house or around one or two of his neighbours' places gives this book an incredibly tight narration. Alex is a great character. We get his thoughts occasionally and he's got a great (military) sense of humour.
Very good novel indeed and I'm busy reading the second one, The Perseid Collapse, now.
The screen was bright in contrast to the room, so he turned on the desk lamp to soften the glow of the screenThat sentence might have read better without the last three words. The repetition of screen is jarring--and I'm not being pedantic, because word repetition is a real feature of this novel.
However, the content is so interesting that I'm overlooking any such problems.
This is one of the most realistic pandemic novels I've read. It centres on one family within one small neighbourhood of about 30 New England families. Alex, a decorated ex-marine, has been preparing for an apocalypse for years. He's been warning people for years. What does he get for his pains? Accusations of PTSD and suggestions he chills a bit...
So, when the pandemic hits, he does--chill. In his own house with plenty of food, a solar generator, and lots of anti-viral medicine.
This does not endear him to his neighbours...
I'll update when done.
Finished, and I highly recommend this novel to anyone who likes a tense apocalyptic drama. The setting, basically entirely inside Alex's house or around one or two of his neighbours' places gives this book an incredibly tight narration. Alex is a great character. We get his thoughts occasionally and he's got a great (military) sense of humour.
Very good novel indeed and I'm busy reading the second one, The Perseid Collapse, now.
September 10, 2011
Spooky read about a scenerio that we could very possibly be living in the near future. Just the subject matter was enough to give me the heebie-jeebies and had me paranoid from about a third of the way into the book. This is the way I would imagine it would go down and seeing it in print really scared the heck out of me.
Had a few problems getting into the book at first, I found the news reports throughout the first 10 chapters to read more like a screenplay than a novel which really threw me off but once Chapter Eleven started I was sucked in and had trouble putting this book down!
On to the story...
I found Alex likable (unlike most of his neighbors) and also found most of his neighbors to be idiots and totally out of touch with what was happening around them. I believe it was a more than accurate picture of how this would go down when (not if) a pandemic strikes the world. Personally I thought Alex showed more restraint in dealing with "the Mansons" than I would have. I was verbally screaming in my head "shoot the bastard!".
Apocolyptic books are one of my favorite genres to read, especially when they are so believable and don't have zombies and mutants thrown in. This was a fast read for me, I stayed up way too late last night cause I just had to know how it ended and was not disappointed, I never saw that one coming! I hope the author continues on in this vein and writes more of this type of book. Huge Thanks to Felicia for the opportunity to read this one...much appreciated and much enjoyed!!
Had a few problems getting into the book at first, I found the news reports throughout the first 10 chapters to read more like a screenplay than a novel which really threw me off but once Chapter Eleven started I was sucked in and had trouble putting this book down!
On to the story...
I found Alex likable (unlike most of his neighbors) and also found most of his neighbors to be idiots and totally out of touch with what was happening around them. I believe it was a more than accurate picture of how this would go down when (not if) a pandemic strikes the world. Personally I thought Alex showed more restraint in dealing with "the Mansons" than I would have. I was verbally screaming in my head "shoot the bastard!".
Apocolyptic books are one of my favorite genres to read, especially when they are so believable and don't have zombies and mutants thrown in. This was a fast read for me, I stayed up way too late last night cause I just had to know how it ended and was not disappointed, I never saw that one coming! I hope the author continues on in this vein and writes more of this type of book. Huge Thanks to Felicia for the opportunity to read this one...much appreciated and much enjoyed!!
June 5, 2016
Oh boy! What to say about this book. I hate writing bad reviews because its someone's dream / life's work you're squishing, so I'll try to keep it nice.
I felt no connection with the main character Alex. He is obnoxious, ultra paranoid, condescending know-it-all. In real life you would call him an "oxygen thief" so I guess in book world he's an "ink and paper thief"?
The audiobook was 16hours long, of which a very large portion was a droning monologue of our world-leading expert in absolutely everything, explaining in monotonous, unnecessary detail of crap, basically that just wasn't necessary for the book. I just kept thinking as he preached to his kids and his neighbours, why they just didn't shoot him in the head at the beginning and be done with it.
I only kept with the book for the promise of a final battle between the ex-marine (hoping that his combat training would overshadow his less interesting traits) and the neighbourhood intruders. But without going into spoiler territory, it is basically glossed over in a summary.
WHAT THE ACTUAL F#%€!! The only interesting feature and its glossed over! Unbelievable!
So, sorry that was me being nice. Bottom line, not on my recommendation list.
I felt no connection with the main character Alex. He is obnoxious, ultra paranoid, condescending know-it-all. In real life you would call him an "oxygen thief" so I guess in book world he's an "ink and paper thief"?
The audiobook was 16hours long, of which a very large portion was a droning monologue of our world-leading expert in absolutely everything, explaining in monotonous, unnecessary detail of crap, basically that just wasn't necessary for the book. I just kept thinking as he preached to his kids and his neighbours, why they just didn't shoot him in the head at the beginning and be done with it.
I only kept with the book for the promise of a final battle between the ex-marine (hoping that his combat training would overshadow his less interesting traits) and the neighbourhood intruders. But without going into spoiler territory, it is basically glossed over in a summary.
WHAT THE ACTUAL F#%€!! The only interesting feature and its glossed over! Unbelievable!
So, sorry that was me being nice. Bottom line, not on my recommendation list.
May 26, 2017
I usually give any book that I actually finish 2 stars because that means there was something worthwhile in it. With that said, this book is not very good and I'm surprised by the good reviews. The main characters were basically super prepared assholes that watched movies, read books, and played X Box while some of their neighbors starved and died. If I were to have a years worth of supplies as well as important medication, I certainly would not keep it my house where everyone knew about it. This is basically taunting your neighbors and setting yourself up for problems. How the hell could any decent human being (which we're supposed to believe these people are)just sit there basking in luxury (relatively speaking) while the guy 2 doors down probably hasn't eaten well in weeks? I was almost rooting for the mullet guy at the end. Fuck these people.
Why did I give it 2 stars? Some of the information regarding disease, pandemics, etc. was interesting and there was a nod to Stephen King with the mention of Castle Rock, Maine which fans know is wholly a King creation and does not exist. It also wasn't too horribly written. :)
Why did I give it 2 stars? Some of the information regarding disease, pandemics, etc. was interesting and there was a nod to Stephen King with the mention of Castle Rock, Maine which fans know is wholly a King creation and does not exist. It also wasn't too horribly written. :)
August 15, 2020
I read this in 2019. One year later, during the darkest days of Covid-19 in NYC, I was mentally and emotionally prepared because I'd read this book. I'm no prepper like our hero and never will be but I found myself willing to take precautions and make sacrifices. Even with horrors of refrigerated trucks of bodies outside the hospital near my house and ambulances lined up outside the emergency room waiting for triage, the fact that we still had electricity, internet, phone service and delivery made me count my blessings. I have thought about this series a lot in 2020 and I highly recommend it.
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