You've all seen this right ?

Well just in case:

The Best Of Both Worlds

Today I was buying my bother-in-law's birthday present (a 22 oz. bottle of Hopportunity Knocks IPA and a bottle of Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Frits and Ken Ale) when I saw it. The perfect blending of my two most favorite things.

10 Barrels Brewing in Bend Oregon has rolled out an Apocalypse IPA. The only problem? I need to wait to enjoy it until I am with such a person as can truly appreciate both parts. India Pale Ale. And the apocalypse. So I'll keep it on hand and send it to Hawaii. Then I'll share.

The Musical Stylings of Wastelander. Wardrive on CD. \m/ >< \m/

I guess it had to happen eventually. Every couple months or so I go to Google and type in 'Apocalyptic Music'. I spend some time looking around for music I've not heard of before. I listen to the song and if it grows on me I take a quote that distills the song its essence. I post the quote and the video. The song then becomes a 'Musical Interlude'. The last musical interlude was a song by Wastelander. I noticed Wastelander on another blog. I listened to an entirely random song on Youtube. It was pretty goddamn sweet. So I did the normal.

Then I listened to another song. It was even more badass than the first. I found their M'Space. I read what the influences of the band were. What the idea behind what the band was and whatnot. Here it is:

" Enter the Wasteland.

A fever dream made flesh. Apocalyptic visions from a paranoid prophet of doom long since driven insane by his own obsessions. Grinding rhythmic sonicscapes, seething with energy and despair. Casual observations from the edge of the cataclysmic abyss at the end of our time. Amongst the death of our planet, atrophying in this vapid culture, and from the voids of the mind.

THE POST-APOCALYPSE COMETH AND THE TIME IS NOW!!! Lansing, Michigan. The Infernal City. A blastscape of banality on the edge of despair. A city under siege by malaise and apathy, and filled with sheer emptiness. Boredom so crushingly harsh that it grinds the spirit down to the bone, leaving a numbed shell. Located in the lowest ranked state in the nation, it has quickly become everyone's favorite place to flee. All that remain are the desperate, the stubborn, and battle hardened individuals with wills of steel, existing on chaos, substances, and introverted mindscapes.

It is within this 21st century wasteland that two survivors rose from the ashes of their fallen bands XAPHAN ( Summon ) and MATT WAR ( Harbinger ) to distill the surrounding desolation to it's most visceral, sonic form. Unfazed by a lack of willing and/or skilled musicians, the uncompromising duo accompanied by a drum machine, systematically recorded five songs of blacknroll fury and unleashed the 2007 DEMO upon the unsuspecting masses. The debut album Wardrive was paroled Summer 2008, amidst a flurry of excitement and revolving drummers. In Summer 2009 Wastelander will join forces with Abigail to expunge the infernal split "Nuke and Puke". More surprises to come.

The stage is now set for WASTELANDER to run wild on Infernal City and lands beyond. Spreading like a doomsday virus, and trekking the terminal zones to bring you scavengers rocking road-warrior black metal. Overcoming the odds, enflaming the unbelievers, and forever ruling Bartertown, WASTELANDER WILL DEFY!!!"

Needless to say I was hooked. Now the album Wardrive is not the simplest thing in the world to come by. There are a few people selling it on Ebay. I bought the cheapest one offered. It showed up in my mail box sometime last week. I had been punishing my liver but that didn't stop me from sitting in my driveway, drinking a beer and listening to it at a high volume. The CD was pure gold front to back. Also this is my first 'Music' entry in my PA Library. That's right The Bookshelves of Doom now has a soundtrack. It's the only album I've found that is pure apocalypse.

Also since I've not found the lyrics anywhere else, I'd thought it'd be swell and neato to post them here. Enjoy.

INTRO

WARDRIVE

The battle is over
The war's just begun
An endless procession
The worst still to come

All systems go
At the start of the show
Deadly reactor
And its ready to blow
We bring the Wardrive
Full metal force
Hellbent to redline
With a boot to the floor
Head on collision
Demolition and rock
Over the limit
But unable to stop
Driven by wounds
Impervious high
Wardrive

Anomalous breakdown
Can't hold them back
Razor aggression
Full scale attack
Engorging the racing
The lust to combust
Harder than die hard
Nuclear rush

DAYS OF HELL

Nothing left but violence
And nowhere to go but down
Infernal city silence
Settles down like a burial shroud
Hotwire the hardwire
Overclocked to the point of distress
Burning up and burning out
Bound to take it over the edge

Eruption of the morning light
blasting like a funeral bell
Too much is never enough
The nights of fury the days of hell

Now it's time for mayhem
I do what I please
Systematically shellshocked
I've got the disease
On the brink of disaster faster
Than a bullet bursting into the brain
Self destruct totally fucked
As another day goes down the drain

DESSERT LAW

Just one resolution
Just one final creed
Nightriders of destruction
Fulfill their primal need
This land is ruled by thieves
This land is ruled by power
Old laws do not exist
Resist and be devoured

The law of the desert land
Beneath the setting sun
The plunder from
A dead man's hand
There will be no time to run

Abandoned highways fallen to decay
Nomadic maniacs
We're hunting for our prey
Killer instinct calculating mind
Run with the pack
Or we'll leave you far behind
Nowhere to hide
From the rolling thunder force
Crushed beneath by wheels of steel
12000 pound scrap metal machine
Your mangled corpse will make my meal


MINDSWEEPER

Not another living soul
For miles and miles around
Isolation takes its toll so all alone
Dehydrated worn
And tired senses dulled
Delirium starts to unfold
Consuming you

Sensory deprivation
Mental suffixation
Feel no longer whole
Can't maintain control

Serene oasis in the distance
Hallucinations of fatigue
Loved ones calling me
From within their shallow graves
Their voices echo in my mind

I am the Wastelander
The master of my fate
No man shall stand before me
Mine to dominate


KNEE DEEP IN THE DEAD

What do you say to a dying man
Words seem to disappear
A life before you
At the languished end
Expiration is so near
Consuming impulse swarms across
The cells burning from inside out
This march to death
Cannot be stopped
No hope of any redoubt

Pill grim and skeleton bare
Fallout blows the plague is spread
Bodies farther than the eye can see
Knee deep in the dead
No way to stop the onslaught
No comfort in this massacre
Biological tragedy
Knee deep in the fucking dead

Chemo scarred fragile and weak
Fluids pouring out by the score
Devastation the outlook is bleak
A shattered species covered in sores
Where is the savior
When comes the relief
Unebbing tide of human lives
Medication not nearly enough
To stem the tide of deadly disease

BAPTIZED IN ASHES

Tonight the city burns
Shockwaves and firestorms
Ripping through your flesh in torment
Not a fraction of life remains
Cast into a sea of flame
A crater where the kingdom fell
Armageddon at last is here
Break out the guns and beer
As we drink to man's demise

Bombs fall death calls
Population all reduced to nothing
Last blast critical mass
All alone in the land of the dead
Bombs fall death calls
Population all reduced to nothing
Last blast critical mass
All alone in the land of the dead

You looked so disgraced
With a face full of nuclear waste
Bet you wish that
You never crossed me now
Wont ever be destroyed
Rising up from the inner void
Born again from the depths of despair


FROST STORM

It comes for me a lifeless front
White hazed hell upon the hills
And through the mist an icy fist
Shattering my senses
Plowing through defenses
On every horizon
Chrystal walls are closing in
Blistering the atmosphere
Engulfing all you see
Flash frozen to a bitter degree
Frost Storm

Subzero hammer
Pounding through the frozen wastes
Brutal avalanche burying decay
The roar of a thousand angry gods
As cold scorch winds descend on you

Every single second
tears the breath away
Rapid elemental shift
Falling fahrenheit the air grows thin
Blood frozen before it's bled
Frostbitten and left for dead
Steamrolling like a tidal wave
Bulldozer from the north
Tempest howls out the arctic assault
Drowning out the light
Obscured by winter blight
Frost storm

FINAL BATTLE

Stand or fall
One last battle to save them all
Lock and load
Gaining ground as the bombs explode
Merchants of death
Dealing death till there's nobody left
Can't take much more
The final combat the final war

Get ready here it comes
Brighter than a thousand suns
The end coming that was foretold
Since the dawn of time
Doomed situation
Last stand of civilization
It's all over can't you see
On the way to world war three

Virulent dread
Breeding destruction
Cannot face the storm
Final combat


Wastelander

Enter the wastelands
That stretch before your eyes
A barren image of defeat
Chared crumbling wreckage
That reaches to the skies
Annihilation is complete

Ready your weapons
So few are left alive
So fight to live or join the dead
The right to kill
And the struggle to survive
The sky is black the blood is red

Never seen such devastation
Never felt so alone
On this dead empty world
Of broken flesh and stone
Suspended disbelief
The land stripped bare
Anguished cries ring hollow
In the poisoned air

Never seen such devastation
Never felt so alone
Wasteland warriors
Come claim your toxic home
Never seen such devastation
Never felt so alone
Wasteland warriors
Sits on his ruined throne

Renegade hunters
And mutants of the wild
All competing for your life
Creeping cancers and radiation burns
Over a million ways to die
Only the strongest
Stand triumphant to the odds
Bodies dropping to the sand
Heat singed holy books
And long forgotten gods
Are just the refuge of the damned

Wastelander will defy
The will of iron never dies

OUTRO

The Passage by Justin Cronin

I know. This book was pretty vastly hyped. At least hyped in the circles I travel in. Fine sure. Whatever. So it's mostly just The Post-Apocalyptic Forums and the Apocalypse Whenever group at Goodreads.com and the Post-Apocalyptic Community. The point being that amongst those rather vocal groups for the longest time it was all The Passage all the time. How great it was. That the movie rights had been purchased after an intense bidding war even before the book had even been released. Even Time Magazine succumbed to a bout of bandwagon jumping as it proclaimed The Passage to be the sixth best PA of all time (right between The Drowned World by G J Ballard and World War Z by Max Brooks). This was written the very day the book hit the shelves mind you. Soon after that many of my 'tweeps' began to write what could only be called 140 character love letters to Cronin. The final straw was that Megaton decided to 'book-club' it. So that being the case I was forced to begin reading it before most of it became ruined for me.

As some more observant readers may know I recently finished up my master's degree. My wife's grandmother who thinks I'm a pretty awesome guy gave me something like 30 bucks. Yes now I'm certain of it. Thirty dollars. I spent a portion of that money to get The Passage. There was a couple other books I wanted to get to before I read The Passage but not wanting it spoiled and because I grew tired of skipping over post in various places that mentioned the book in any way. So I finally knuckled under and did it.

This post will be spoiler free don't worry. I wont be 'that guy'. Without giving too much away I'll simply say this book is broken into two distinct but unequal part. The first part deals with the gathering of some individuals. It also deals with the background of the virus itself. The second part is much longer. In a move that made my head spin Cronin moved the narrative into the future. It deals with how the people live a hundred years after the release of the virus.

I read many descriptions of this book that opined it was similar to The Stand by Stephen King. Trust me the only thing that was similar was everyone dieing. That is it. I'd say it had something in common with 'Salem's Lot but no. The vampires in that book only took over that one town and then got their asses handed to them at the end. The book altogether reminded me most of 'The Road by Cormac McCarthy'. Not the material of the book but the style of the writing itself. Rich eloquent writing. It wasn't quite on the level of The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery but is was better and of higher vocabulary than most of my normal fare offers.

The opening of the book; the first part was unlike anything I have read. But the second much longer part reminded me most of the 'Emberverse' series by S.M. Stirling. Not that it had anything to do with electricity being lost or anything. It was the medieval feeling of it. Living behind walls and knives and crossbows being your main weapons. It all lent the feel of the Emberverse.

I'm not going to mention the exact part where this happens but if you've read both Watership Down by Richard Adams and The Passage you'll know what I'm talking about. If you've only read The Passage you'll recognise this: In Watership Down the rabbits find a warren that doesn't have a chief rabbit. But since Cowslip is the first rabbit from the warren they meet it's called 'Cowslips Warren'. The warren is weird. The rabbits are all happy and well fed. Hazel's group is a little ill-at-ease because they don't see predators. They let their guard down when they see all the fantastic food that is available in Cowslips Warren. The warren looses its luster when they discover that the nearby farmer has been shooting foxes and any other predators that come near and also supplying them with the great food. But he also (every now and then) will snare a rabbit for the stew pot. The rabbits of the warren have chose safety and good food over personal liberty and free will. When the Hazel and the rest discover this they make plan to leave. Other rabbits join them.

Also later a train saves the band of rabbits from General Woundwort.

Final thought: I enjoyed this book. Though not as much as all the hype let me believe I would. In my mind I've got a pretty solid top ten:

The Stand by Stephen King
It's Only Temporary by Eric Shapiro
Summer of the Apocalypse by James Van Pelt
Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon
Empty World by John Christopher
Some Will Not Die by Algis Budrys
Blood Crazy by Simon Clark
Dark Advent by Brian Hodge
Eternity Road by Jack McDevitt

With honorable mentions for:
Fire by Alan Rodgers
and Blakely’s Ark by Ian MacMillan

I wouldn't replace any of the top ten but I think I'd place The Passage in place of Blakely's Ark. I'd recommend it friends and family and all don't get me wrong. But you do have to remember I've read more PA than anyone I know.

100 Users and 2500 Posts on the Post-Apocalyptic Forum, and Free Stuff! (Reblog)

From www.megaton.us

We started the Post-Apocalyptic Forum just four months ago, but in that short time we’ve already reached the milestones of surpassing 100 Users and 2500 Posts.

In celebration, and just to say thanks for participating, I’m having a random giveaway contest. All you have to do to enter is post a reply in this thread and pick a number between 1 and 1000. Whoever guesses the closest to the number hidden in this file will win.

The prize will be the DVD set of Life After People: The Series – The Complete Season One shipped anywhere in the world.

Thanks again to everyone who’s stopped by to add to the discussions, and we’re looking forward to meeting those of you who just haven’t gotten around to registering yet.

The Aterblight Cronicles: Children's Crusade

Another man might have felt a twinge of guilt when he realised that, in some ways, The Cull was the best thing that ever happened to him. But not Tariq. He rarely dwelt on the past and seldom paused to examine his motives or feelings. He lived in the moment and he liked it there right well, thank you very much.

I couldn't agree with you more Tariq. Especially the 'best thing that ever happened' part. In the words of Gabby Johnson, 'Rerit!'

Deep Impact (more)

Just a couple more things about the movie quickly here.

Thing the First: I know this is a really old movie. I've owned it for a long time I just haven't watched it in awhile. I remember when it first came out. I was working in the theater when it came out so I was even able to watch it free. But Wait! There's more! The theater being in Oregon (Beervana) the theater served beer. And back then I was a crazy ass punk rocker so I didn't care about rules an' stuff. So I'd fill up a stealth cup with beer (it was Full Sail Amber). There's nothing quite like watching a movie with a 44 ounce cup of free beer. So yeah ... an older movie that my younger self dug and it held up well. Things that made my chest tighten up still did. My only concern about the movie was an impact like like that in the Atlantic would have ended life as we know it even if it wasn't an Extinction Level Event, the wave still went all the way to the Tennessee River Valley. That's covers our entire population center. One would have to imagine it did similar damage to Western Europe. What would a world be like Eastern Europe suddenly being the only major countries who were unaffected?

Thing the Second: Leelee Sobieski looks creepily like Helen Hunt. That's all I could think about the first time I watched this movie and it was the same this time. Just type 'helen hunt look alike' into google. She the first result. And then it goes on for pages. Just weird.

That is all.

Deep Impact

'I think it's really neat. Nobody on our block has discovered the world was gonna end before.'

-Sarah Hotchner

The Afterblight Chronicles: School's Out

"Come on then," I said. And we ran out of the tent and into the battle.

I'd never seen anything like it. It was a free for all. Everywhere I looked there were people fighting hand-to-hand; everywhere the glint of sunlight on machete blades, the smell of blood and cordite. People were being and shot, strangled and beaten. It was a melee and it was impossible to tell who was winning.

-Lee Keegan

Musical Interlude The Fourteenth

Armageddon at last is here,
break out the guns and beer,
as we drink to man's demise.




Back to my roots \m/ > < \m/

Last Survivors Trilogy by Susan Beth Pfeffer and a Giveaway

First things first. Two of them really. First is that I have written about the first two books as my first blog post. You can read about it here: A two part calamity. Second I will be writing spoilers. Don't worry though because when I do I'll write it in black font. This way you wont see it unless you highlight it. It'll look like this: spoilers will be in black. And lastly (so fine three things): I'm giving away a copy of This World We Live In. So if you're a lurker come out come out where ever you are. Don't worry I'll ship worldwide because pornokitsch did me a solid. Leave a comment and I'll do a random drawing. Do it ... you know you wanna. Contest ends September 10th.

Life As We Knew It

As this book starts out it's some point in a teenage girl's journal. Since she writes in it all the time it stands to reason that journaling is a pastime she enjoys a lot. Also that her family is used to it. At the beginning there is back story so you know a little about Miranda's personality. Take it from me she is an ordinary teenage girl. She spends time complaining that her teachers give her too much homework, boys don't pay enough attention to her and she argues with her mom. So at the beginning there are a few of these type entries.

Then the good stuff begins to happen. She mentions that a meteor is on course to hit the moon. She doesn't think much of it. She in fact finds it irritating. Now all her teachers want her to write a report on the moon, so even more homework (cue more teenagey bitching).

Everyone is out in the street having moon parties. I'm not sure this would happen. Would everyone turn out to watch the moon being hit? Would people even care? I don't know. I for one think people would watch it on the tv box but I'm not sure. Anyhow it made a fairly memorable scene with all the impromptu barbecues and the party-like atmosphere.

When the meteor hits the moon everything goes sideways. The meteor must have been more dense, bigger or might even have been going faster than the big-brains thought. For whatever reason the moon is pushed closer to the earth. When people notice panic ensues. They panic harder when they get news reports of tidal waves. And then worse still when volcanoes begin erupting.

This book is the first in a trilogy that later became known as 'The Last Survivors'. Susan Beth Pfeffer is a great author and all the people in her book acted pretty much the way you expect people to do. I think this must have been her first foray into apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic writing. I say this because there some moments that run contrary to most apocalyptic cliches.

The one that really jumped out at me was close to front. Miranda's mom picks her up at school and they drive to the grocery store to stock up on food. Since the power is out, the store is asking only $100 per cart. Everyone in her family is able to make many trips and fill the car with food. Two problems with this. Problem the first: no way would a store give a cart of food for $100. They'd be charging that much for a single bag. Problem the second: everyone acted all polite to each other. No one dies getting their food (or kills I guess). They even helped one another with food choices. Along that same line no one ripped them off. Their food was all still in the car.

This book falls squarely into the cosy catastrophe genera. No one in the immediate family dies. Even the older brother who was at Cornell makes it home. Later on the flu (Pfeffer describes it as a 1918 Spanish Flu type one) makes a pass through the town and although many people in town die, Miranda's mother and both brothers fall ill but get better. They all are hungry but that's it. Pfeffer isn't afraid to kill of secondary characters (Dr. Peter Elliott, a vital lifeline for the family, snuffs out) but she leaves the core of main ones intact.

I enjoyed Life As We Knew It a lot. The scene that stuck out for me the first time I read it was Miranda at the pond. She finally gets some alone time and skates. This time I found another scene a little more memorable. It is when Miranda has given up. She takes a death march into town knowing she won't be back because she'd like to save her mom seeing her dead. The pond scene was still great. It was a little less memorable this time but only because I knew no one was coming out of the forest to do her some serious lasting harm. Actually the first time I read it I didn't notice all the skating references, this time I shoock my head and wondered how I could have missed it. Only after being a regular visitor to Susan's blog did I make the connection.

Alright Susan. I have a couple of questions for you just in case you read this. Question the first: Where I live we have stores called 'Winco' and 'Food 4 Less'. These stores are quite a lot like 'Costco' but with one big difference. The bulk food section. Everything from powdered milk to popcorn even dog, cat and bird food can be had there. So that would be where I'd go with my $100. I might get tired of eating beans and rice after a while but I'd almost certainly not starve. Question the second: Whatever happened to Brandon Erlich? He seemed pretty important to Miranda but after she skates with him at Miller's Pond he vanishes from the narrative. Or was the pond scene a part of some delirium? Question the Third: Why no marauders? They are a PA staple. The smoke from the chimney and the light leaking from the windows should have been a beacon to any persons of nefarious repute. Last Question: When the neighbors began to die off why didn't Matt (who strikes me as having the most developed sense of survival) go out and get all the food and other supplies the dead could no longer use? Just seems counter intuitive that someone would starve to death in sight of food is all.

Final though on Life As We Knew It. I enjoyed the book quite a lot. The first time I read it I wondered why Miranda was given sort of a soft ride through the apocalypse. This time I realize that the events of the book were seen through the filter of a disaffected teenage girl. We didn't read about much of the bad stuff that happened because the book had a first person, non-omniscient narrator. Miranda not only didn't want to know what was happening in the larger world, she actively avoided it. I think that a peek into her mom's journal would be quite something.

the dead and the gone

I wrote earlier in this blog about the dead and the gone. I wrote then that I enjoyed it because it is more dark and gritty and real than it's sister book. The story runs at the same time as the events of Life As We Knew It but it looks like one of two things happened. Either Sue read a lot of PA and got ideas of how to make a harsher and more bleak world or she got a bunch of irate e-mails from other readers who asked things like 'why didn't Miranda or her brother raid the houses of people who died?' or 'why didn't they scavenge more?' perhaps even 'why did none of the main characters die?'. None of those irate e-mailers were me but I did hear them.
The second book started off well. Alex is the focus of this one. He is seventeen (I think) and is a Junior in the private (and I guess pretty exclusive) St. Vincent school. He is also a day-to-day worker at Joey's Pizza. As the story begins he is working and not paying attention to much except for school and work (and the occasional tip). That's sort of unfortunate for him because he isn't aware of the meteor that hits the moon in the middle of his shift. But that's not what irritates him. The tv box looses reception. Right in the middle of a ball game.

His grandmother has recently snuffed and his dad (and a bunch of other relatives) are in Porto Rico to attend the funeral. His mom has just gotten a job as a surgery tech. and is called to work at the hospital. So when he gets home the only people home are his two sisters.

He goes to bed thinking in the morning everything will be fine. He uncle who owns a bodega wakes him up early. Alex and his sister go to help their uncle get all the food out of the store. The uncle being a kindly sort lets them keep some. Alex and his sister Julie not being aware of the dire nature of the whole thing get sorta random food.

Soon after this events take a darker turn. Alex decides his mom is dead, that she drowned in the subway on the way to the hospital and that his dad died died in the tsunamis that wiped out Porto Rico. So they're orphans. All in the first couple chapters.

After that it settles down into real survival. This is the part I talked about before. Susan has definitely gotten some fan mail. Alex didn't have a mother who raided a supermarket. All he had was a little sister who raided a bodega for a bunch of goodies. Not her fault really. She's just a kid after all. The important thing is it drives her brother into survival overdrive. Not all at once though. He starts small. When it looks like the food is going to run out he first breaks into his dad's office. Uses keys he found there to enter other apartments. It's not long before he runs dangerously low on food again. He 'lucks out' when he's befriended by Kevin, the guy at school who can get you anything you want. He introduces Alex to 'bodyshopping'. When they see a person who has snuffed on the street they strip them down and take all stuff to the local black market guy and trade it for food.

Before when I wrote about this book I said the part that stuck out the most for me was when Alex was going to the stadium to look for his mother's corpse. I guess I wrote that because I forgot about the elevator. I must have blocked that out because I was still caught by surprise. I won't spoil it for here (if you even read this far in a very long rambling review). Just trust me when I say it. That part will stick with you.

Last word on 'the dead and the gone'. I'm glad I own this book so that I could enjoy rereading it. It was darker much more 'real' for me than Life As We Knew It. I highly recommend it. Also don't be fooled by the YA classification. It's hardcore PA. Trust me.

This World We Live In

First things first. If you haven't read this book don't read the inside flap. I haven't read a synopsis that was more spoilerific in forever. So whatever you do don't read the flap alright?

This book was quite a bit like 'Life As We Knew It'. It was voiced by Miranda in the form of a continuation of her diary. It also had the same tone as the first. It was exactly what I had anticipated. And also much like 'the dead and the gone' it was a dark and pretty frightening book. At the end of 'Life As We Knew It' the people in charge give each member of the family a bag of food. So the family of four gets four bags of food. That helps them get by. That continues in this book. So it's a near seamless continuation of part one.

As the story continues Alex joins the group when he shows up with Miranda's dad. Not a big problem though because they are able to get food from the town too. Also true to form Susan has either listened to some critics or has read other apocalyptic books, Miranda begins 'house hunting'. This is a lot like body shopping but with dead and empty houses and not corpses. She strips them of all useful items. Also her brothers discover that food can be had in the forests and rivers. Those where two of the major gripes about the first book. There were no attacks by raiders/scavengers on the house or on any surrounding houses.

All in all this was a great book and well worth the wait. It ended well with some happiness and parts that must be pretty awful to have to live through.

12 Monkeys

'You won't think I'm crazy when people start dieing next month. First they'll think it's some weird fever. Then they'll find out. They'll catch on.'

- James Cole