Day by Day Armageddon: Shattered Hourglass

Definitely the weakest of his three book series. I didn't mind the fact he changed the style from a first person blog type, to a multiple story style. I just couldn't get attached to all the new characters and situations. I also didn't like the use of all the military lingo, and acronyms. My biggest complaint is the ending. I won't give it away but it seemed rushed, and completely out of the blue. I had such high hopes after two great books.

Bourne's first two books in his zombie trilogy were great. Well paced, a nice linear plot line and a lead character that speaks correct military jargon, they were enjoyable books. Shattered Hourglass is a mess. It seems Bourne wrote down several plot points on index cards, chucked them into the air, and wrote the book in whatever manner they landed. Reading the book, I kept going back thinking I've skipped over pages. Not so, the book is just a mess. Even the military aspects are wrong (I am a retired military officer). And the ending? A jumbled and rush couple of pages, as if Bourne himself lost track of what was going on. Hopefully, Bourne reads these review and will go back to good storytelling in the future.

Strangely Ok, if that can be an actual description. The author did an OK job of keeping the story moving and maintaining a little interest. For the self-publishing zombie genre it is worth kicking back in a hammock for an afternoon's read.

First, Let me say that I love this series! However the ending to this particular book seemed very rushed. I spent majority of the time being connected to the new characters and wanted to find out what happened with each individual story only to be disappointed by a very quick and disappointing ending. Don't get me wrong, I still love this book and the series but I just feel that the stories dropped in the last couple chapters. The pacing changes, and I'm left with not-so-great explanations to each story that I spent so much time (4 + yrs) investing in.
Overall, great book, great series!

Although far off from your traditional zombie novel/story this is definitely worth a read, especially from the first book through Shattered Hourglass. The writing is excellent, the details are superb you find yourself right there with Kil and the crew doing what needs to be done.

Although far off from your traditional zombie novel/story this is definitely worth a read, especially from the first book through Shattered Hourglass. The writing is excellent, the details are superb you find yourself right there with Kil and the crew doing what needs to be done.

I was disappointed by the departure from the journal format that JL Bourne employed in his first books, but it was still a good read. Bourne set a high bar in the post apocalyptic genre by writing with accuracy in regards to military and weapons, which has continued with writers like D.J. Molles and Shawn Chesser.

If you enjoy the miltary perspective over the civilian perspective, I highly suggest that you read this series.

I really enjoyed the first two books. I couldn't put them down. You just didn't know when something was going to happen next and the story kept a pretty good pace. By book three it really slowed down and jumped around a lot - too many side stories. The book was slowly building to an ultimate showdown/climax and then it abruptly ended and was very anti-climactic. It was as if the author got tired of the trilogy and just wanted to get it over with. Another possibility is that since he's an active duty naval officer, his schedule prevented him from writing the book the way that he wanted to and was forced to cut it short to meet the publishing deadline. Either way, it was a shame. It was probably one of the best zombie stories that I've ever read - there's a lot of wanna-be, cliched crap out there. Oh well. I hope that he continues to write and branch out into other topics.

The previous two books in this series were excellent. Book 3 took a different literary style and wildly changed the overall plot. Why a zombie series needed aliens (and possibly time travel) is beyond me. In fact, Shattered Hourglass is so different that I am unsure it was written by the same person. I do not recommend it. Read the first two and then assume the series ended.

Definitely not as good as the first two. Not sure why the writing style changed - but it did, and its not as good. Storyline was lacking as well. Too bad because the first two book were personal favorites.

While I enjoyed this last book in this series, to me it just wasn't quite as good as the first two. I'm not sure If Mr. Bourne wasn't sure about what to do with our survivors but there was a different feel to this book compared to the first two. I loved the first two this one was just ok.

I really enjoyed the first two books and was expecting the third installment to follow the same format. I was surprised that it did not. With he perspective change I found myself less invested in the book. I hadn't realized how important it was in the prior books. For me that was the biggest drawback.

As others reviews may comment on details I think I should only add that this was a frustrating ending to a great series. Clearly the author got uninspired or finished this last book in a hurry or something else. The other books are well above average and this last one, although a must read to those that liked the previous two, is utterly disappointing.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books. They were very well written as journal-style stories. This book was written completely different and included military jargon that most people would not understand. Bourne should have expanded on the first two books and not changed his style. I was pretty disappointed.

The other two books were fantastic. I liked the style of writing, and the story progression felt natural. For this book, he suddenly changes the narrative from a journal to more of a story line over view, and compresses seemingly two books worth of content into one. I have a feeling he just wanted to get the rest of his ideas out there, and did not want to spend any more time writing.

Anyone reading this review is here because they've read the first two books and got hooked just like I did. Day By Day is THE best book in the genre as far as I'm concerned. I discovered the series after the second book was already out and have been eagerly awaiting this third installment. Heck, I pre-ordered back in May!

I won't drag this out, but the book starts off great and then ends like Bourne gave up, got tired, or had a deadline to meet. I would have preferred that he left off the last two chapters and left it for the fourth book.

There's a rich story here with lots of plot lines converging. Bourne killed it with the last two chapters.

First part of the book is a 4 star, last bit is 2 star at best.

Shattered hourglass was a very interesting ending to what was a fantastic series. Everything did come to an abrupt end however the journey along the way was the whole point of day by day. I appreciate the work he put in by constructing an apocalyptic world and giving a detailed account of how it was all coming down.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in this series however this one was a big disappointment. The storyline seemed to be put together in a blender by being badly chopped up. The author also appeared to be in a hurry just to be done with the series and move on.

I enjoyed the technical accuracy of the book, but I also agree with the other reviewers who complained that the story was wrapped up too quickly. Issues notwithstanding, I wouldn't hesitate to read another book by this author.