Customer Reviews

After America

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Unfortunately, Birmingham fell into the same trap that so many authors before him have. After an excellent start to the series, in Without Warning, Birmingham has created a second part to the series that effectively does nothing other than move the main characters around, in preparation for what I presume will be the finale.

The main events of the book occurred within the first couple of chapters, and nothing was resolved. The rest of the book was devoted entirely to a journey to nowhere. None of the characters accomplished anything of note, once the setting was in place. The book read like filler, something to bridge a gap to the next installment.

Caitlin's story was entirely pointless after the attack at the beginning. Jules and Rhino accomplished absolutely nothing, other than meeting other main characters. Kipper's story was one of angst and indecision the entire book, affecting the story in no discernible way for this book. Milosz at least had some action, though once again, meaningless action that did not advance the story, other than to push him towards further action. Miguel's story also peaked at the beginning, and like Caitlin's was just a matter of movement through space and time. The only happening of consequence at the end of the book revolved around a new character introduced this book, and even then, he was a disposable character.

Also, I would gladly give up the line after line of intricate detail about the color of the carpets in a hotel, the specs of a weapon, or the specific military designations of disposable characters and units in exchange for actual story, which was oddly missing, or truncated in this book. It was as though he depended too much on whoever was doing his research, rather than on his own story-telling ability.

Overall, I am hugely disappointed in Mr Birmingham, because I loved the Axis of Time series and the first book of this series, Without Warning. My thought, as I closed the book on the last page was, "I waited two years for this?"

I waited with great anticipation for this book, the first sequel to the outstanding "Without Warning" , that I rated at 4 stars. Unfortunately for me, this middle of a planned trilogy just didn't do it. Whereas the first book introduced a large number of really intriguing situations, this follow-up didn't follow up on most of them. There was lots of action in the sense of military mayhem in Manhattan and vigilante violence in Texas, but not very much at all in the sense of advancing the story line itself. And be forewarned - one really has to have read "Without Warning" to make any sense of this one. Overall, 2.5 stars.

Lady Julianne and Rhino are in Manhattan on a treasure hunt that never really made much sense. With the world population decreased by 33% (I know America is important, but I'm not sure that I buy 2 billion deaths resulting from its immediate absence from the world stage), I wouldn't think that oil leases would be that valuable. I was very interested in what exactly was the upshot of Israel's nuking most of the Arab world, seemingly without reprisal, but I still don't know because it's barely mentioned in this sequel.

The president, Kipper, seems lost most of the time, barely a shadow of the take charge, don't mess with me city engineer we met in "Without Warning", and super Echelon agent Caitlin's character seems wasted running around from England to Germany and finally to Manhattan on a semi-personal vendetta.

Of all the principal characters, the only one who seemed to have grown significantly in stature and depth since the first book was Miguel. He faces a horrible personal tragedy in the beginning of the book and turns out to be a powerful, well written character with a lot of depth. His story, and that of the socio-political problems in Texas were by far the most interesting to me of everything in the book.

I was not put off, like some others who have commented, that there was no further discussion (as there was almost none in the first book) as to the nature and/or cause of the Wave. I would be perfectly happy if author Birmingham simply intended to use that as a plot device to ask what would happen if the US suddenly disappeared, and never attempted any explanation. It might be irrelevant to the story. That being said, however, I was still struck by the maps of the area affected by the Wave in both books. I would have expected that almost any natural (or unnatural) phenomenon that might have caused the effect would have exerted its effect in a spherical area. But affected area is not circular and the maps point towards a potential point source somewhere in the North Atlantic, as if someone (The Russians or Chinese, perhaps, both of whom who seem surprisingly absent from the book) set of some kind of device there. Could be just a red herring, but having read the fantastic "Axis of Time" trilogy, I know Birmingham to be an outstanding plotter, not given to emphasizing useless facts. I'lll just have to wait and see.

So IMHO, After America wasn't bad, it just wasn't nearly as great as the first in the series or any of the three parts of the Axis of Time trilogy.

So, another couple of years for the final entry. I'm still waiting.

J.M. Tepper

The first book, Without Warning, in this series of, it seems, two books was an excellent read. It ended abruptly, leaving all the characters in limbo. The catch was a second book, After America, which would be released mid 2010. A "little hidden "Got'cha!" as we used to say at homebrew computer club"
OK, finally After America was released so I re-read the first book so as to transition into the second with the first book fresh in my mind. Ahh, but a resolution was not to be had. I won't bore you with the details, I will just say that this second book leaves the reader unfulfilled and hanging, much like a looter hanging from a lamp-post, swinging gently in the wind.
anticlimactic is the word. Look it up if you are unfamiliar with this word because after a fairly good read, BAM! the book ends leaving the characters in limbo, an unfinished tale of about a dozen very interesting characters.
The author needs his knuckles "rapped" with a ruler and to be sent back to finish the story.
4 stars since its a great book, very entertaining, but unfinished!

The premise of this series was what would happen if america simply vanished and what whould happen to the world. The first book was ok. This one is a disaster. The authur simply skipped 4 years in this book post america's disappearance. He skipped the entire story and situation that justified this series entire reason for existance in the first place. The entire fallout, civil wars, survival of isolated left over american cities-now city states, politics of various parts of the world in reaction-all skipped over !!!
Instead all we get is a book about some left over USA military fighting looters in Manhatten 4 years after the event? Who cares. Why would seattle 3000 miles away even care given that manhatten no longer has any real value apart from salvage- no one lives there- and no one needs the ports.
We are told that all the major countries have collapsed into internal strife but he skipped over even general details.
What is canada doing? taking over center of america? what about mexico and the millions of people they have that may want to move up--- nothing is covered.
totally worthless read. Not even interesting in what he chose to write about. I had though Birmingham was a good authur and enjoyed his alt. history series--but this is just garbage.

I thoroughly enjoyed Without Warning and anxiously awaited the sequel. Bought it the day it was released. What a disappointment. It reads like the first chapter of the sequel, not the sequel. It is incomplete, doesn't do a good job of transitioning from Without Warning, and just ends, mid-story. Kind of like Birmingham lost interest, or just got tired of writing. Needless to say, I'm not anxiously awaiting the next book.

I LOVED the first in this series, "Without Warning". However this second installment left me disappointed. I had the feeling the author was just moving the characters around the chessboard, setting things up for the final novel. The big themes I wanted him to explore such as what was the plan for reoccupying America and what is it like to travel a deserted country with dead empty cities, were hardly touched on. Neither did he give any more hints as to the nature of the "event" that wiped out the country. And what of Canada? So many questions bypassed to put us in place for the conclusion. I certainly hope the conclusion packs more of a punch than this.

I LOVED LOVED LOVED The Axis of Time Trilogy and recommended it to anybody that would listen to me.
95% of my friends also loved The Axis of Time Trilogy.

I could not wait until John Birmingham wrote another book,

I had pre-ordered Without Warning on Amazon months before it came out.

Without Warning was just okay, great idea, but did not give the answers of why the event happened,
Then I had to wait 2 years to get the second book,
After America is total RUBBISH!!!
480 pages of nothing!!
Its been a long time since I hated a book so much.

I will not be suckered in to buying the next one,
But I still want to know "WHY" the event happened,
where did all the people go etc etc,

Maybe I will just skim the book in a book store to find out,

Birmingham's first entry into his three book series called Without Warning was tons of fun largely due to the premise and pace. And it ended with an exciting cliffhanger that is only partly capitalized on in After America. This second book picks up the action in 2006 following an event that largely took out the people of North America three years earlier. We learn that the parts that were impacted can now be re-settled and they have become hotly contested which produces the majority of the action.

The author has tied up some plot mess and loose ends created in the first effort while focusing on the more developed and enjoyable characters. But for me the best parts of the book involve the battles to reclaim the Declared Security Zone of New York which provides amazing images of conflict on Manhattan. I work on Madison Avenue so it was incredibly interesting to imagine the war zone Birmingham has created. Several other plot lines continue but they are not really developing or are as interesting. And I am having a hard time with The Echelon 'super agent' - the character seems unnecessary to this point.

Overall one has to hand it to Birmingham, he has created a complicated and scary new world that is intriguing to witness. I only ask that he focus even more in the third installment and keep the action coming along with some explanation of the original event.

If you liked the author's Axis of Time trilogy, you should read this book. If you like post-apocalyptic stories, you should read this book. However, as others have said, if you haven't read Without Warning, book one of this trilogy, don't read After America, (book two) until you do. In fact, if it has been a while since you read Without Warning, you might want to reread it before starting After America. I wish I had.

There is much to like about this book. In fact, I liked almost everything in this book. It moved the story along nicely, setting things up well for the final book of the trilogy. I laughed out loud - "Second Amendment trumps First Amendment." Best line ever. I cried - %$#@ Blackstone and his Texas Defense Force. I stayed up late to finish it.

My only complaint about the story is that the whole plot involving Rhino and Jules felt a bit too Rube Goldberg.

The reason for my 4 star rating instead of 5 is because of what isn't in the book. Although I love all the characters (maybe Milosz a teeny bit more than the rest) and I appreciated the telling of their individual stories, the book was just a bit too narrowly focused on individual people. I really wanted to know a bit more about the bigger picture. Yes, world events are touched in the various individual stories, but I didn't get enough to be satisfied. Also, I know this is the middle book in a trilogy and the story is To Be Continued, but all of the storylines were left with all their loose ends flapping in the breeze. I was hoping that maybe a few would be tied up by the final page of this book, but instead, the book just ended, leaving me a bit disappointed.

Agree with the sentiment of others, John, I enjoyed Without Warning.
This follow up went nowhere. I was really interested to see what would happen in the Middle East after the first book and this just left me hanging with no real outcome.
I hope the finale is better!