STONE AGE: An Apocalyptic Thriller

Stone Age is an extremely interesting story containing a unique twist to the normal CME novel. The character development is especially well done, offering many varied personalities. In Stone Age, multiple, interrelated groups of people struggle to survive the CME and reach their loved ones. You pick your favorite to root for. Mine is Max! Can't wait to read what M L Banner offers us next.

I really enjoyed this book, and I just started the next in the series. The story (so far) is more about surviving after an apocalypse, with the zombies added as an extra obstacle. There are a lot of things to think about when it all hits the fan, and Zach, the main character, does a good job of pointing them out. Good characters, interesting challenges, and dangers, both living and dead. I'm not sure how many books are in this series, but if they keep going this well, I plan to read all of them.

I found this book to be average. The apocalyptic storyline was interesting and the science driving it is unfortunately very real.

As is all too typical in this genre there is very little characterization. This makes it even more unfortunate that the author gratuitously inserts opinions that are not character driven. They just seem to be personal asides on the author’s part that are self indulgent and annoying. i.e. references to god/creator; mentioning that the character opens Microsoft Word and he “never liked using Apple’s equivalent”; when on the space station he says that “these particular modules were older and didn’t have much shielding, as they were built by the Russians. Enough said.” The latter two comments seemed to just be product and political sniping without any purpose.

Even more irritating was what seemed to be a lack of editing. There were so many grammatical errors and typos that it interrupted the flow of the narrative. These days I am not surprised to encounter grammatical errors, but I don’t expect them to be so constant. It seems as if the book was rushed to publication without taking the time to reread it and correct problems.

Finally my last problem is with the fact that the book just stops without any real conclusion. The reader is told to watch for the next book to see what happens. This has become so common on the part of new authors that I just feel ripped off. In my opinion an apocalyptic novel should have either a conclusion or leave the reader with a sense of the future. Personally I am getting tired of all these series. Sometimes books really would have to be too long to contain all the characters and the complete storyline. But I really like a book that is complete within itself. It seems more artful and thoughtful and less commercial.

I, God knows why, enjoy a good, realistic, apocalyptic story regarding the entire human race. This is one of those. I read it straight through on my Kindle and a since I purchased it, I will have it to read again in a few months. It was that good. If you like a great story, well written, with understandable facts then you will love this book.

I think this book really is entertaining and I will probably read the second one when it comes out. With that being said most of us are not gonna have the resources of the families and individuals in this book. Wish we did but we also probably won't have the issues of drug lords etc. Trying to take a warehouse full of super preps either!

Ijust finished Stone Age and looked for the sequel and I guess it isnt out next. I will be hard to wait to see what happens to the characters that hold your attention through the whole book. Its a good read and it is one of the better post apolyptic books i have read.

I was totally engaged throughout this story...can't wait for the next installment ..factual info was great and like another review said..an EMP may be kinder...
I read many of this genre and Stone Age is a GOOd ONE!!! thanks M.L.

I enjoyed this story and highly recommend it. Some people will be prepared, some will be lucky, and the rest will be victims. This is the first story like this where the people try to survive in northern Mexico. It looks like it will require several books to resolve this plot. I will tag along.

The book has an intriguing and realistic plot. It is also educational. I was unaware of the Carrington event of 1859. It is rare that a fictional book is as informative as Stone Age. I have been researching CME, solar flares sense I finished the book, very interesting….well done.

I was very pleasantly surprised when reading this ebook. It's difficult so entires to encounter a 5-star effort like this, and when one does it is so much the sweeter! Usually, if the story is ok, the editing is horrible or the plot and character development is stilted, or combinations of these factors.. Only rarely do all these pieces fit well together, as in this case. Very compelling and realistic interpretation of how things would unfold during a CME SHTF scenario. We'll thought out! Can't wait for book two.

Get it. Read it. You will not be disappointed. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I admit that I enjoy this genre, and this is one of the best I have read. The characters are believable and interesting and normal. I eagerly await the next book in the series.

A 5 star review due to quality story line, excellent edifying, quality characters and writing skills that keeps the reader thoroughly attached to this page turner story.

The author's brilliance and style makes this story extremely difficult to put down. So well thought out and so well told.

This author is exceptional and deserves a ton of congratulations.

This is not just a story, it is a lesson in all things of rock hard science!

I really enjoyed this book. The characters felt real without being predictable. I gave four stars instead of five because there was too many loose ends, it would have been nice if ended without most of the characters being clueless. Still, I can't wait to find out what happens to every body in the next book.

Not a terrible book; but with all the character description, it's taking way too long to move toward any actual EVENT, or build suspense. This is a competent writer who could have benefitted from good editing with regard to spelling, and especially punctuation (re commas and clauses). Also, he has a disturbing inability to use the past perfect tense at all ("had" absent in almost any context). Lots of extraneous opinions floating around these pages (the author's, masquerading as the characters'), taking up space that should have been devoted to accelerating the storyline! I don't think I'll move on to the next installment, if there is one.

I do not tend to review books very often, particularly ones I did not enjoy. I suppose I believe in the saying "if you do not have anything nice to say, just don't say anything."

In this case, however, I felt it might be helpful to add a review of this book. I believe that the author shows promise and could benefit from reading reviews of this kind. In addition, people like me, who were intrigued by the post-apocalyptic and original sounding story material will benefit from knowing that this novel has either been edited improperly or not at all.

As an author of several short stories and several upcoming ebooks,I'd like to point out that I have no particular problem with a novel that has some minor errors. I know very well how expensive it is to hire an editor and how time consuming it is to proof-read and edit by oneself. I'm perfectly happy to let typos, occasional misspellings and the odd grammatical error slide. The lack of editing, however, became an absolute distraction and I found myself ignoring the story in order to keep an eye out for the next mistake. As hard as it is, it's simply a necessity to edit a book that is posted for sale. If it isn't possible, for whatever reason, to edit yourself, find someone who can help!

Throughout the book there are many obvious sentence structure and grammatical errors. There are words that are used improperly. There are words and sentences that I had difficulty deriving meaning from at all. Sentence after sentence ends in preposition. Homonyms such as "there, their and they're" are used improperly. In addition, the author has a lot of difficulty with tense. Future, past and present tenses often appear together within one sentence.

As a personal comment rather than an editorial one, I found the dialogue within the book to be distracting, two dimensional and unrealistic and sometimes even laughable.

Additionally, some description and plot-points that might otherwise have been interesting or offered much needed insight into the character or plot development are swept under the rug. Often, I found myself encouraged by the descriptive and accurate (at least to a layman) depiction of the science driving the story. At other times, however, I was discouraged by the apparent carelessness with which this was treated.

An example of many of the problems with sentence structure and over generalization is the paragraph/spliced sentence:

"His thinking was that, if he brought in other scientists and students, who shared a common focus of study, coronal mass ejections and solar flares and their deleterious effect on Earth's inhabitants, they would be able to learn more about the science and continually warn the world so it could prepare for the inevitable. Science was the necessary part of CMERI's mission..."

On to the good:

The reason why I decided to review this book rather than simply delete and ignore is because the story itself, and even some of the writing, shows promise. The characters need work, the dialogue needs a lot of work and it needs a lot of editing but the overall story is actually interesting. It is a fairly original story compared to any others I've read and the science behind it appears to have been well researched.

As a teacher and a graduate from a humanities background, I simply could not get past the distracting editing (or lack there of). Writing like this would have been ripped apart by my professors and I myself would not accept it from the students I teach.

To sum up, with extensive editing there is promise here but at the moment, I had a lot of trouble getting through this book and could not purchase any sequel.

The story is entertaining and creative. While the number of simultaneous plot lines can on occasion get a little much to follow, they do add a richness to the tale. However, the writing is amateurish and distracting, filled with superfluous commas (and an occasional lack of commas where they would be appropriate), changes from past to present tense and back again in mid-paragraph and even mid-sentence, misuse of vocabulary and cumbersome sentence structure. A good editor would dramatically improve the readability of this book.

Stone Age is a pretty complex story, following different family members, and friends as they try to survive a massive Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). The characters are good, there is some action but the book is only the beginning of what I hope will be a multi-volume series. I'm eagerly awaiting the next book!
There are some typos and too many commas, but the one "howler" was the author's constant use of "faithful day" instead of "fateful day", Nonetheless, an excellent, if a bit too short, novel.

Having read numerous "prepper" books, this one had the least amount of interesting information. Most of the book is devoted to numerous characters going about life oblivious to the impending EMP "Event". One character is totally prepared, but there is very little to no detail about his preparation - just that he has 2 years worth of everything. There is also reference to a mysterious organization that is meant to be a haven for certain elite individuals, but no information is provided at all - presumably to be the topic of future books.

For my reading taste I would have skipped this book, and maybe started with the second one - which is not yet out; although at the rate the first book moved along, it might take 5 or 6 books to do what others have done in a trilogy.

The whole book just leads you to the beginning of the story. Some people like that type of book, but not me. I also didn't like the whole mafia drama in the story, which I am sure will be blown up in the second book. I won't be reading this type of book again.

Somehow my Kindle didn't download the first 2 chapters, so I'm missing some of the history and that is important at the end of the book. But anyway, this is a good story. Most books with a CME theme say it hits and that is it... this story doesn't do that and I found that to be really interesting. I'm looking forward to book 2 to see if Max makes it back to the Kings and how D&D do

The good? Pretty well-written and highly believable concept. Characters are more than 1 dimensional though development could be better. Bounces between places and characters in a natural and easy to follow manner.

The bad? The book (and supposedly tbs series to come) is too good to try old movie "cliffhanger" techniques to get readers to buy the next in the series. Character reaches destination only to be blindsided by a blow to the head and everything goes black. Really? Write a good book that stands out (and stands alone) and I will read the next and the next. Pull this crap and I am done. I wouldn't read the series for free or even for a fee.

Well written, unlike some of these post-apocalyptic stories. This one seems to have actually been edited! A happy surprise! I liked this overall, and will get the sequel. My only complaint is the authors treatment of Max. He's basically presented as the well prepared planner, aware of everything going on and to come, but he fails to notice phone messages, etc. Admittedly a minor nit pick, but ... Otherwise I would recommend this to anyone interested in this kind of story. I'm interested in how he presents the next chapters.