A Distant Eden [Kindle Edition]

Lloyd Tackitt (Author)

Book Description

Professionally Edited and Formatted

December 2012, a massive solar storm knocks out the power grid. Three hundred million Americans are suddenly faced with a survival situation. They have no water, electricity or fuel. Food rapidly disappears from the store shelves, not to be replaced. Only three percent will survive. Those three percent will have much in common. What does it take to be one of them?

Product Details

• File Size: 452 KB
• Print Length: 218 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Lloyd Tackitt; 1 edition (March 24, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007ODDGUC
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,600 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

120 of 129 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Hybrid Survival Guide/Novel March 27, 2012

By Holmwood

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

The basics: The technological, civilized, industrial world comes to an end with a giant Carrington event (solar storm). The author looks at the efforts of a small group of people, led by a man who planned carefully, to survive.

If I were rating this as a $9.99 novel, it would deserve one, at most two stars. However, the author is very upfront about his intentions: he wants this to be not simply a novel, but at least as much a guide that will both provide information on concepts he develops in detail, and inspire people to search out more information on concepts he sketches over lightly.

As a result (and to give him credit, he acknowledges this), he falls woefully short on sketching realistic characters, to say nothing of showing character development. For a presumably self-published work, basics like spelling, grammar and word choice are generally quite sound with only a few errors/quirks. His female characters are particularly lightly sketched, though no worse than some fairly big-name authors like Harold Coyle.

The author's style can most kindly be described as workmanlike. That implies a bit of stodginess, but it also implies competence. He develops the story in parallel threads, each reaching a climax of suspense/violence at the same time. A trifle cliche, but in his hands he makes it work reasonably well as a technique. The quality of his dialog tends to range from adequate to penny dreadful, with most of it being adequate. As noted above, there really is no character development, something the author readily acknowledges.

The temporal flow of the story feels somewhat forced: the author is clearly trying to pack in information and forcefully present some fairly abrupt (but rational) shifts in morality.

Not surprisingly, he is at his strongest when conveying information (and opinions) relating to survival after a catastrophe. I also rather liked his dry, but competent exposition of the potential for social redevelopment and [re]construction of a trading society from the ashes.

Given his intent, I give him three stars, and a bonus star, partly for effort, partly for the harsh but rational way he presents moral choices, and partly for a surprisingly good execution overall.

If you're looking for a good disaster novel, this isn't it. If you're looking for a post-apocalypse novel with zombies, this really, really, really isn't it. But if you're looking for something that's a decent read and is filled with fairly good research (and many more starting points for your own research) on survival, then this could be it.

Overall, I commend the author. This was clearly a labour of love, and his effort shows. At $0.99, I'd definitely enjoy seeing more from the author, provided he works at polishing his craft.

110 of 123 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Not realistic and some pretty bad advice August 10, 2012

By Christy B

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I wasn't sure I should write a review for this one. It falls into the "Meh" category as liking it, meaning I didn't really. On top of that, I noted that most critical reviews have a suspiciously high number of "not helpful" votes, indicating partisanship not in line with anyone accepting unbiased reviews. Nevertheless, I had to write it simply because of the mistaken impressions it seems that many who liked the book came under with respect to the advice and the attitude.

Overall, the story revolves around a fellow named Roman who, as our protagonist, ushers us through the events following a major solar flare that disrupts our modern life by frying our electronics.

For anyone who "toshes" that this can't happen, be assured that such an event can happen and has surely happened in the past to varying degrees. For the most part, we human animals wouldn't really note much of it and haven't been significantly impacted by it. With electronics, the whole game has changed and it would present a watershed of change that we would be ill equipped to deal with. In that respect, I also respect the author's attempt to help and do so in a manner meant to be entertaining.

But that is pretty much where my admiration ends for this book.

Some of the advice is downright deadly. Food is not just for calories, it is for a variety of nutritional needs that includes fats, vitamins and minerals and so on. Anyone who believes that old dry beans and corn will do, is in for a nasty case of scurvy, bodily weakness and other illnesses in the long run. Beans become hard with age...yes, even those #10 cans packed for Long Term Storage. They require milling into meal after a while and even then will not necessarily soften but rather be small enough for a very long boil followed by incorporation into a sort of bread or mush with other ingredients. Just an FYI for folks.

As for the action situations, some of it was disturbingly arrogant, foolhardy and would not work. As another reviewer wrote and I concur with, riding a bike in the dark at high speed is probably one of the stupidest things ever. The concept of moving up in a wave like that is smarter...always have someone watch your back...but the way it was done is very likely to leave anyone who tries it in real life laying on the side of the road with a broken leg or head right when there is no technology to help heal him or her.

And the morality...good grief, who would do this? While I tend to be considered rather "hard" when it comes to the "what would you do if..." situations get spoken of, the hypocrisy and hubris here is just astounding. Killing a woman and child because the man with them poached a deer? Because they have no "protector"? So, by some miracle of omniscence Roman knows it would be better to be murdered than for them to make their way in life? And exactly how in a world without GPS where so many are dead is a wandering bunch of people going to know that they happened upon a deer that happened to belong to a person who was still alive? And then to have to thin the deer herd later. What an asshat.

Let's be real. If it is okay to go collect stuff from areas where you know folks are dead but not okay for someone to grab a deer in a desolate bit of country then someone is a tad delusional. Just as the collector knows there is a chance that the owner or their legitimate heirs may, somewhere, be alive the hunter may not know that the property he hunts belongs to a private entity jealous of it's bounty.

Also, I had to laugh about the whole special forces thing. As a 26+ year (and still going) military officer I can safely say that getting a few days of training from a bunch of shooters does NOT a special forces soldier make. The scene was to pat and far too easily done.

Overall, this book reminded me of a lot of the more poorly done fiction on the message boards done by people whose only real experience with a major "hit the fan" episodes is via the same message board and a lot of fantasies. I really can't recommend this book and utter a caution to anyone thinking to use these tactics, preparations or justifications as a part of their planning.

61 of 74 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Bad advice from an "expert" June 13, 2012

By M. Landers

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

The author says this is intended to be a combination survival manual and novel. Both are bad.

First, as a survival manual, there is a bunch advice that will get you sick or dead. As an example; "pasteurizing" water will NOT kill the spores of Giardia and, if you're in a warm climate, a whole host of other water-borne parasitic spores and eggs. Riding a bicycle without lights and full-speed on a moonless night on a road with unknown obstructions is an invitation to broken bones. Eating beans and corn as your sole diet will keep you going... until you develop scurvy in about a month. Example after wrong example; where did the author get all this?

Then I realized; it's all from books. The author read some books and became a survival "expert". Didn't check his sources, either.

It shows in the novel, too. One of the characters kills a poacher (who just killed a deer), then kills his wife and kid because "they no longer have their protector, it's the only merciful thing". After some doomsday philosophic babble, it's decided that it was the right thing to do. A few chapters later, it turns out that the protagonists have to go a kill "at least 20 deer" to thin the herd. This isn't only a moral issue (and bad moral judgments eventually have very bad consequences); these are the kind of people who are a danger to everyone. Another example: they go and attack a well-defended compound because they were spying on them and kill everyone (justification: they had slaves and were "bad"). No problems there, either; machine guns, military advice and a perfect defensive setup don't stop them because they have five SF super-soldiers who train them for a few days. And everyone they meet is either a helpless victim or an incompetent "bad" person who freezes in astonishment when they attack.

Armchair survivalist, armchair general and really, really bad neighbor if a disaster happens. But really, really sure he knows what he's doing. If you follow this advice you won't last long; if the parasites don't kill you your neighbors will.

More About the Author

I was a military brat and then joined the Army myself in 1971. I was one of the seemingly few volunteer soldiers of the era, both of my brothers also went into the military after high school; it was a family tradition. After the Army I went to college and then launched a successful 30 year career in construction as a Project Manager. I managed multiple large projects, including several multi-million dollar water treatment plants across the country. This career path drove into me a pragmatic nature. You can't successfully manage construction without getting practical.

I began writing at an early age but did not begin publishing until two years ago. My web page lloydtackitt.com has several of my short stories available for free reading. They range from humorous supernatural, experimental, to humorous slice of life stories. These stories are still in the rough stage, they all need to be edited. One day I will put them all together in one book; including several stories not on the web page, but before I do, they will be revised and edited.

A Distant Eden is my first book. The second in the series is being written now and should be available soon.

I also blog daily on fishing related matters at fishexplorer.com/TX

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#68 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure

#96 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Action & Adventure

#68 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure

#96 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Action & Adventure