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4.0 out of 5 stars
Let the fun begin, June 6, 2008
This review is from: The Survivalist # 2 - The Nightmare Begins (Survivalist) (Audio CD)
The thing with series is that the author has time to really introduce the characters, set the scene get everything set up for future novels.
A good series, that is.
Survivalist 2: The Nightmare Begins, is a character set up. Mr. Ahern took his time introducing another major Character, Natalia Tiermerovna, as well as several minor but important Characters, such as the new president of the United States Chambers.
The thing is, if all you had were heroes in a novel, it would be rather dull. You need antagonists as well, and this novel introduces the main antagonist, Vladimir Karamatsov. He's the head of the KGB in America and as well Natalia's husband.
It's been said that your hero is only as good as the antagonist is bad. The worse the villian the greater the hero. It's been so long since I read the series, I can't remember how bad this particular antagonist is. I guess as each volume comes out my memory will return.
Now, in the first novel, you were introduced to John T. Rourke and his family. The action was there, but it took a back seat in setting up the events that lead to the nuclear exchange between Russia and the United States.
This novel was more action packed, along with being character driven. There were far more gun battles than in Total War.
The thing about a major disaster, or in this case, the nuclear holocaust, is that it shows what happens to people when everything falls apart.
There are some people, folks who would never have thought of raising a fist in violence before the disaster struck, who would suddenly revert to savagery in order to survive. Maybe the shock and horror of what happened caused them to crack under pressure. Who knows.
But with the venier of civilization, as well as law and order stripped away, it became a dog eat dog world, where only the strongest and most ruthless would survive.
The same can be said for the real world. Look at what happened in New Orleans last year when the hurricane struck. Sure, the best of humanity shone like a star, but there was also the opposite end of the spectrum. There were those who took advantage of what happened and became predators during the short period of time when the city was all but a lawless wasteland.
So, imagine what would happen on a global scale, and this is what Jerry Ahern got across in the novel.
That's what set the Survivalist apart from the other series that existed back in the 80's. Even the soviet occupation forces where shown as human, not mindless butcherers. Yes, people were killed, people in the resistance, but at the same time, when John and Paul were captured by Vladimir, they were treated with human decsencey and respect. Paul's life was saved by their doctors.
With the loss of infrastructure and order, there are few things left that a man can possess other than his life. One of the most important traits a man can retain is his honour. A man without honour is nothing more than a outlaw.
Someone who sticks to his word, who abides by his honour would be a rarity, and could become a focal point for those around him, someone to look up to.
John Rourke is portrayed as that kind of man.
Again, the second novel was more setting the scene and allowing the reader to get to know the characters.
One big thing, even though it was kind of minor in the novel, was Jerry Ahern writing about how the weather was already starting to show the effects of the nuclear holocaust. And, as any fan of the series knows, it's only a harbinger of things to come.
4 out of 5.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Oh, How I Miss Doomsday, December 2, 2011
The series' title character is John Rourke, a former CIA operative who was on a civilian flight at the hour the missiles struck. His sidekick in this book was Paul Rubenstein, a former white collar geek type with a good heart, and a mental toughness allowing him to cope and adapt well to the new world, under Rourke's hands-on tutelage. Rubenstein was on the same airline flight when the missiles struck, which crashed out West. This installment of the story picks up as the pair are making their way through Texas for the eastern seaboard, where Rourke hopes to find his wife and kids still alive somehow, and Rubenstein plans to turn south into Florida to look for his parents. They're traveling on motorcycles (Rourke in style--his is a Hog).
This series has most of what you would hope to find in a post-apocalyptic yarn: A smart, skilled, resourceful hero who is up to the extraordinary task of surviving in such a world; a wide-open Wild-West type landscape of dangerous wilderness and ghost towns; and a rogue's gallery of brigands and Soviets to ensure Rourke's quest is no radioactive milk run. And yet Ahern avoided some of the cliches...er, conventions I've come to expect in the genre. There were no human mutants, for instance. Our heroes did encounter a group of infected teenagers, but the author made it clear they were living on borrowed time--not transforming into vampires or Marvel supervillains. And though there was some sexual tension here and there, there was no prose-porn.
What about gun porn? From what I've read, Ahern has a reputation for this. Maybe I still don't understand where the threshold is defined between describing a weapon/its use and descending into "gun porn," but in my opinion the author's treatment of firearms in this book was the former, and not the latter. Rubenstein's primary weapon (a WWII German submachinegun, MP40) is so interesting that I now am tempted to seek out the first issue just to find out how it was acquired. Rourke's signature side armament are twin Detonics Combat Masters, and his use of them at one point (though nothing flamboyant enough for a John Woo movie) actually had me break reading silence and sound off with a hearty "ooh-rah!" For long range, he carries a CAR-15, arguably the father of the M-4 carbine in such wide use today in US troop deployments.
I have a prejudice against the entire M16/AR15 family of weapons due to my own experiences in the military. I did get to plink with some M16A2s when they were still brand new. Their accuracy was pretty good, I'll admit, and they were far more dependable than the A1s I had used in OSUT. Yet I was apalled by their tendency to malfunction in spite of diligent cleaning. Especially in sandy environments. Yet the AR15 and its derivatives are still the most popular assault/battle rifle with the Pentagon and in men's fiction.
OK-moving on.
The bad guys in Nightmare Begins were also a breath of fresh air. No "B" movie Nazis here--even the KGB honcho. And his wife/agent Natalia is surprisingly complex. (Rourke recognizes her, BTW, from one of his spook missions in Central America.) In addition to the knowledgeable depictions of weaponcraft, I appreciated thoughtful details like the difficulty of finding gasoline after a nuclear war. Another very popular author in this genre fails to address this issue honestly. Yet another author in the genre, many of whose books I personally like, had his protagonist once use Federal Reserve notes to pay for something in the post-nuke economy...and they were accepted! Rourke and Rubenstein find it necessary to forage (though they make an effort to deal fairly and honestly with others). This is a far more sober speculation, IMO.
Nightmare Begins has left me with the impression that at this point in the continuity, the series is just hitting its stride. I certainly plan to read the other Survivalist book I picked up, and will be on the lookout for others. Based on this reading, I recommend The Survivalist as an intelligent, well-written TEOTWAWKI series with plenty of action to keep us turning pages.
Henry Brown is author of the para-military novel Hell and Gone, TEOTWAWKI aviation adventure The Delayed Blitz(Krieg), and other two-fisted fiction. He is the columns editor (and sometimes contributor) at the New Pulp Fiction blog, and evil genius mastermind behind Virtual Pulp Press.
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