A Travis Combs Post-Apocalyptic Thriller (First Wave Series Book 1)

I cannot take any book seriously that includes zombies. I don't get it. Zombies do not exist folks. That said, they are dead and then they are dead and walking. They figure things out but they are dead. They kill living people who sometimes die for real and sometimes die and then stay dead but walk around figuring things out and killing live people. Why don't zombies kill other zombies? Can they breed and have little dead zombies. Do they give live birth? lol.

The book was okay except for the damn zombies. I'm going to read the second one and hope all the zombies are dead, or whatever. The concept eludes me.

I enjoyed reading the book. It was surprising and suspenseful at the same time. I really enjoyed the main character - my husband was a marine and I sort of identified with Travis. I am not a zombie fan and I liked how the story never really focused on them. Can't wait for the followup books.....

I enjoyed this story and the refreshing take on a zombie apocalypse. The dialogue is somewhat campy, but the plot was well thought out and the length is about right. The ending is quite a cliff hanger, but fortunately the author wrote a short novella that is already available tying things up a little bit neater.

If you enjoy survival / zombie genres, I would recommend this as a fresh perspective. Don't buy it if you aren't willing to suspend a little reality in your reading.

Having the privilege of knowing 'J T', I was curious about his first attempt @ fiction. I enjoyed how he brought in real survival techniques in his story line. I found myself trying to armchair quarterback what I would do in each situation before reading how the characters did it. I was totally caught off guard when I turned the page to find he wrote a...ZOMBIE BOOK!!! Once over that shock I settled down and enjoyed it. Living in Northern Arizona, it was fun to not just recognize but actually have been to many of the locations he uses in book. Zombie genre not my usual but looking forward to the next installment.

Really enjoyed but left too much hanging ,more needed on the virus ,and why they wAnt Travis. Hope there isn't along wait for next book so I don't loose interest , that seems too be the case when you don't get the whole book

This is better than The Walking Dead! Well written; loved the depth of characters and the way Mr. Sawyer unfolds the multitude of problems they face. Read this book in one sitting and hated the interruptions while I read about Travis and his crew! Can't wait to get the second installment.

Got started on zombies with Walking Dead on television. I like some depth showing the human side to balance the gory stuff. Biker thugs interesting aspect since in the event of an actual apocalypse, we will have more to fear from each other than monsters.

Loved the characters, the survival tactics used in the book are awesome...gotta keep reading the series to see what happens...great plot..Mexican drug cartels, romance gone awry,....many good elements

JT Sawyer has something in common with Tony Hillerman and Louis L'Amour, perhaps more with the latter, which is the experience of knowing the wild country mighty well from decades of first-hand personal experience roaming the back country. Sawyer combines that geographic and ecological knowledge with knowing how individuals and groups with good survival instincts and adequate training deal with adversity,including a breakdown in the social order after cataclysmic events break loose. A particular knowledge of the Southwest shows in almost every page.

This grisly apocalyptic situation carries a certain fatalistic horror with it, as renegade scientists have let themselves be duped into creating a virus that brings to fruition the stuff of horror movies stoked with zombies, vampiric, cannibalistic zombies of the most dreadful type. But the forces of chaos and evil also include non-infected survivors of the criminal underclasses, and some mysterious high-level policy types of the very worst sort, whose high intelligence is paired with evil intent. Conflict is frequent, violent, bloody, and decisive as to outcomes for the participants.

Sawyer's lifetime experience as adventurer, guide, explorer, and primitive skills trainer shines through. His tactical studies with such combat experts as Gabe Suarez and knife-man Tom Sotis lend much authenticity to the battle and combat scenes. Extended field work with military and special operations teams, training them in wild-country survival, tracking, and evasion skills have also "honed his chops" so he writes with the authority that vicarious experience can lend, as to things he may not have actually done.

His experience in training women in knife-only survival and other back country skills may have influenced the book, so that he has a combat team of four people consist of one retired SpecOps sargent and three women. With the right training, motivation, and logistics, women can fight well enough to get the job done. This theme of social cataclysm centering on science gone madly awry and society threatened with extinction by plague, chaos, and endless warfare is not new, but the treatment in this series is novel, deeply realistic, and fitting.

Fortunately, this is not a "how to" book on primitive skills and bushcraft, but even the casual reader should be able to scent the authenticity in the skills and tactics involved in eking a living from the land for a small nomadic group. The ending is a cliff-hanger, but that did not stop Tolkien's The Two Towers from being a fine story. In fact, serial works have a long and happy history in English literature. We can hope that this series carries on with the strength and inventiveness with which it began.

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About the reviewer: Independent Scholar has published book, music, and movie reviews in several pop-culture publications, and has published book reviews and essays in several scholarly publications. He has a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree and an enduring love of outdoor adventure and learning new skills, particularly in the Southwest.