WWIV - In The Beginning

At 62 I've been reading dystopian novels and short stories for some 50 years plus! From the original War of the Worlds to Divergent, from comedic to heart rendering and some in between. Some were by big name authors some Indies. E. A. Lake has written a masterpiece that takes you on a journey that could very well be your life. As you're driving this story down Reader road there are some twists and turns that, if you're not paying attention, may make your trip a little too close for comfort!
The only thing that cheers me up when I read the final paragraph is knowing that Lake has been busy writing parts 2, 3 and 4 of this wonderful tale!
Thank you for thinking of us, waiting patiently (well, maybe) on our next dose!

This books grabs you when you start reading. Excellent story line with even better character development. Brit will steal your heart. Read, enjoy and learn what to do and not to do. Personally. I'm going to store a little food for any emergency.

Wanted to like it. Dull, unbelievable.... to the point of silly at times. By chance or design, the main character is well, frankly ,an idiot. Mistakes and bad decisions occur with such frequency that you have to wonder if he's all there. Again, wanted to like it but I think the authors attempts to make the main character seem average were overdone and simply make him look, well, like an idiot. Author is talented but perhaps needs to stop thinking like Alan Alda and direct things towards the real world a bit more.

I should have known.....the way it started out. You know it's an EMP attack and you wait almost 3 weeks before leaving the city and heading for the hills??? Then you forget your only defense sitting on the table...WHAT???? I should have realize right off the bat that this guy was a psychologist and clueless. His idea of survival is to REASON with road bandits, he has a gun in his pocket up against 5 guys and he's afraid to shoot them? They convince him they can get to him before he can shoot them?? He obviously hasn't done much shooting........how dumb do you have to be. In this world and time, you pack your food and necessities to survive, get your protection and head out. You don't pack your gun in you bike tag-along pack and you don't leave your 'stuff' laying all over the country while your digging around in your back pack....that 'stuff' is your means of staying alive.
I can't believe I wasted time and money reading this nonsense. It's almost laughable. Then to add insult to injury you expect people to believe you can actually use 'paper dollar's' (they aren't even worth anything right now, everyone is telling us to buy gold and silver) and someone will accept it in a world falling down around your shoulders?? Where are they going to spend it??
Maybe it's the difference of being raised and living in the west (not a city) where you stay prepared and always think you might have to make it alone in the desert or mountains with no help coming. If you're going to write a 'end time book' please consider the reality of end-times.

I read a lot of books about the possible terrible future. There might be an economic crisis,an EMP problem or I just fear our own government . This book spells out what it would be like in a lot of ways.

The main character made a bunch of stupid decisions that when I read them I just wanted to scream. To start, he acquires a handgun because he knows he is going to embark on a dangerous journey. The first time he gets into a dangerous situation he then remembers that he left the gun on the dinning room table with all the bullets. He goes back and gets the gun and starts again but when he runs into more dangerous thugs he elects not to use the gun to protect himself but lets the thugs rob him. Later he acquires a young female traveling companion that he is going to try to help get to her destination and when they run into more thugs that mean to kill and rob them and it is up to the young girl to dispatch the thugs with the gun that he had just left laying out during a previous rest stop. After the first two or three adventures it got to be very repetitious until the end.

Reads like a Saturday morning children's cartoon. The apocalypse is a cakewalk in the writer's eyes. I have nothing to worry about then. This writer is obviously not keeping up with current events. I need to go learn the lyrics to Kumbaya. Unrealistic.

First, the disclaimer: I received a copy free for review on StoryCartel.com.

I'm a fan of this genre and was excited to read this story, but I felt there were lots of missed opportunities for drama and conflict in the book. In fact, the first 2/3 of the story it seemed like the main character met many more nice people who wanted to help him than real threats. In a story entitled "World War IV" I couldn't figure that out. The dramatic stuff seemed to happen "off-stage" so to speak; the character "heard about trouble" but avoided it or didn't encounter it until very close to the end of the book. While I kept reading (not really "skimming" is more accurate), I just felt this book would have been so much better if more scary, dramatic things actually happened to the narrator.

Here's an example that doesn't give away too much: the narrator goes to the drug store to get medicine weeks after the power went out. There's a guy there with a shotgun,BUT he nicely agrees to let the character get the drugs, pay and leave. WHAT? This is an apocalypse story! I was expecting a dramatic confrontation. I was expecting the narrator to have to shoot the man-- only to discover the drugs he needed were long gone, taken or sold. Or that he'd have to devise a way to sneak in and steal them! No, he paid (an outrageous amount, but so what since he had the money?) and left.

Missed opportunity for conflict, for character development and excitement. That happened a lot in this book. Until the teenaged character Brit shows up, nothing much happened. That might be true in "real life" but this is a story. In a story, things should always be going wrong. The character should have to face dilemma after dilemma-- bad problems-- not just having to take the long way because militias are blocking the bridge. That made a good portion of the book really, really boring. I would have given it 2 stars if hadn't been for Brit.

Also, something is off with the formatting. My version was 1173 page-- a paragraph on each page. Weird.

At best, I'd say this one was "so-so".

Note: I received a free copy for this review. Now, with that out of the way....I was just drawn into this story and found it very hard to put down. At first, I did NOT like our main character. He was one of the sheep with pie in the sky, lets all hold hands and be as one good person type. UGH. While the world falls around him, he just cannot figure out why people are acting so heartless and uncaring of others. Then the "road bandits" start showing up in his neighborhood. I don't want to give too much away here but he hits the road looking for his family. Things happen and his views start to change to those of a shepard type of person. He finally starts seeing the light. The things he has to go through on his search and his different traveling companions see to that.

It's very well written and I have read so many post-apocalyptic books that I have lost count. But this is one of those rare gems that stay with you after you finish reading it. Well worth the money and it's a real keeper. Can't wait to see what e.a. lake writes next. If it's anything like this or a sequel to this one, I'll be one of the first to buy it!

This book is definitely different than most in this genre. The lead character is not some super-survivalist that can kills anyone and everyone at the drop of a hat. Story line was good, although it seemed rushed at times. The author also did what I believe to be an accurate job of describing how several people,especially men, will act once there are no societal boundaries to stop them from doing so.

I really enjoyed this book. Bill, the protagonist, is believable and easy to root for, which is good, because he gets kicked around a lot. I also think Mr. Lake really got the character of Brit just right. A great read and well worth the money spent. Thank you for this story.

I like a good post-apocalyptic story, but so many go down the zombie or otherwise totally unbelievable path. That's OK sometimes, but sometimes I want more realism. WWIV certainly gave it to me. Characters I could relate to (maybe too well, sometimes), situations I could definitely see happening, and a scenario that was literally in the news (EMP pulse dangers) the day I started reading the book.

Well written and well edited, I really enjoyed the book. And the ending... oh, the ending.

Note: I received a free copy of this book.

Not a bad story, need to continue the adventure, also needs a what, in any event of this nature, sooner or later what occurred would be revealed, even my word of mouth from around the country or world. Right a continuing story line

Grammar and punctuation were good. Story really sucked. Evidently it was written by a progressive liberal woman who never got out of the suburbs. If I had run across this wimp wussy main character, I would have shot him myself or even worse in the author’s eyes, I would have used really harsh language and unpleasant words. I am sorry I wasted the money on this Berkeley left-wing coward’s story.

This is a well written story. The characters are very well defined, the story has a nice easy flow, and the plot and theme has been written about by many authors. This author gives hope for man kind. Good job.

While this was well written I got discussed with the main character. I mean his glasses were way past rose colored! He also had a gun but was afraid to use it. There were several times when I expected him to pull the trigger but he seemed incapable. Worth the time to read as it was certinally original.

Interesting read. It is strange for me to read apocalyptic books when the main character is a liberal. That said, I did enjoy the book. Brit is definitely a survivor.

I know Bill is a village idiot. Bless his heart. But it's okay.
Fav quote:
I smiled at the group around me. “I have a gun with me. I’m not too worried. I know how to protect myself.” As the last words left my lips, I froze. My gun, my bullets; crap. I left them at the house".