readeronrehab’s Reviews > Descent: Lockdown 2020 > Status Update

The novel is an open-ended one.
Tanner survives the war abroad, the riots, and the covert operations but his family is still under threat as he continues fighting a broken system. Btw, the Beast is his survival self that emerges under extreme threat, moral injury, and trauma.

Adding more notes. Tanner and his colleague
Moss disguise themselves as masked civilians and enter the city. Tanner bypasses an armed barricade manned by civilians. He realises that no police presence is visible or responsive. The future doesn’t look bright!
Public order collapses into armed chaos.
Tanner needs to take control of his team and the field.

Adding more notes. Nico’s funeral Tanner acknowledges internally that this is where he as leader of the forces battling the enemy.
The team treats him as Alfa without questions.

Adding more notes. Tanner and Nico’s family watch a recovered footage from Taco Libertad. Nico is shown being ritually tortured and executed by organized extremists Tanner realizes the attackers are disciplined, intentional, and politically shielded. This section is brutal. The killing is not spontaneous. 😬

There’s a riot in Venice and Tanner finds out the riots were not spontaneous but permitted. Nico disappears during the riot.

“They entered Venice and headed south. Did you get Nico? He’s not answering.” Holden’s frantic demeanor added more concern.” Page 142

Lockdown ideology quickly moves from government decree into everyday social enforcement. Tanner’s world is shaken by the pandemic. Neighbours, schools, and local politics become instruments of fear. The danger is no longer distant. It is intimate, social, and moral.

The opening pages are reminiscent of life before COVID. A family plays in the snow. People are genuinely happy. The main character, Tanner, and his close friend Nico are both part of the U.S. military, living in a world that still feels stable. Then the pandemic breaks out and what spreads faster than the virus is panic. Political commentary grows increasingly extreme as civil order begins to thin.