| Title | : | The Last Survivors (The Last Survivors #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 278 |
| Publication | : | First published September 30, 2014 |
Three hundred years after the fall of society, the last fragments of civilization are clinging to life, living in the ruins of the ancient cities in nearly-medieval conditions. Technology has been reduced to legend, monsters roam the forests, and fear reigns supreme. But that is just the beginning...
The wind-borne spores are spreading, disfiguring men and twisting their minds, turning them into creatures that threaten to destroy the townships. Among the townsfolk, political and the religious, dissension is spreading.
Through it all, a mother must protect her son...
The Last Survivors (The Last Survivors #1) Reviews
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I had mixed feelings about this book the entire time I read it. It's well-written with very few errors, which puts it a step above many books I've run into over the years browsing Amazon and other booksellers. However, it missed one very important thing for me--a connection with the characters. The chapters in this book come fast and furious, and as soon as I was just starting to get to know a character, the authors made the decision to switch gears to a new character.
The result? I had no real sympathies for any of the characters. Of them all, Ella / William were the ones I liked the best, but I still had no real connection with them. The short space they were given didn't allow for them to really stretch out and grow--or be developed as thoroughly in their chapters as I really wanted.
The story had so much promise, and there were some really interesting things that happened, but I just couldn't get into it nearly as much as I wanted. It's a very brutal book, and characters die in higher frequency than in Game of Thrones, so by the halfway point, when the characters started converging and some points of view became more common, I no longer trusted the author to keep the characters alive. That formed even more distance. Bad stuff happens to everyone, and because it does... I went from being unable to forge a connection with the characters to being unwilling to, as I have the knowledge one or more will inevitably die.
Could this have been a great book for me? Sure--the premise is there. But, if you're like me, and like sympathizing with one character throughout a book, this one probably won't appeal to you very much. If you don't care if characters are discarded, you'll probably like this. Chapters are about as short as many of the character lives. Some of the characters are also so foreshadowed as they'll die it makes it very difficult to want to get into their POV, too.
That said, the book was very well-written, it just wasn't for me. Too brutal, the society a bit *too* primitive, and the lives of characters were just too cheap. Death is the most common currency, and not even the characters really care that much who dies at the end of the day, because they're so used to death it doesn't really touch them all that much.
I really liked the nature of the apoc in this one, though. It was interesting. It was two-fold, which gave the situation depth. I think I would have really liked this book a lot more if the chapters hadn't been so short. It really took away from the development of these characters as people. -
Only the rocks and the trees stay the same. This is a post apocalyptic saga that takes the reader on a circuitous literary trip to a predictable end. It is strange but true that science fiction writers invariably revert civilization to a Middle Age state after an apocalyptic event. Clothes, weapons, mannerisms, beliefs, morals and sometimes even speech are consistent with this time frame. What this historical period has in the cycle of history I do not know but it seems to be used universally as a reset point. This book is no different, like so many before it life reverts to a time in the distant past; making this almost an historical novel.
The story takes place around three English cities, Brighton, Coventry and Davenport. People (especially women and small children) are subjected to bi-annual inspections for blemishes and warts, both real and perceived. After a degrading public physical inspection, the unfortunate few are sent to the pyres and are soon screaming for a swift death. Ella Barrow and her son William flee. William had a physical blemish that would surely cost him his life. Forget political correctness, this nightmarish society is sure to turn the stomach of everyone. Witnessing the helplessness in facing the hopelessness isn’t my idea of entertainment and without a single fact, which is all that’s left.
One of the many traits of the human species is their power to change. I think the word power isn’t exactly right as humans change as a natural course and the power (if anyone had it) would be to stay the same. People mature and grow old; this is a part of nature. Other, less obvious changes also occur, that are not physically displayed. Once, a long time ago, I was an avid science fiction reader. The power of man’s imagination astounded me. Their insights into what might someday come to pass left me mesmerized. With the passing of years my reading interests atrophies in that quarter and other genres came to the forefront. If one trait hasn’t changed with the passing of years, it is my love for bargains; especially ones that are FREE. I am not, and never will be, someone to look a gift horse in the mouth. Unfortunately with this attitude one must reasonably expect the occasional horse with rotting teeth. This story isn’t quite at this stage but the horse is in dire need of dental attention. -
I really hate to give anything from Bobby Adair anything less than a stellar review. Unfortunately, this book was tedious, boring, and wrought with cliches. I'm currently reading Dusty's Diary and judging by the content in that one, I'll blame the other author for everything that is wrong with this book. The worst part of the book was the overdone then beaten to death then run over with a tractor cliches. Character archetypes were so overdone, I was rolling my eyes at first then just skimming passages with character descriptions. The general sentence structure and descriptive mode basically ruined every scene with how improbable and/overdone it was. Then there were the other annoyances. 'Omg this wall circles the whole village how will we escape?' Oh, except for that passage about how the wall is crumbling. And the huge unguarded opening where a freaking -river- comes through it. Also, 'prairie' at the top of a mountain? Wth? Dramatic descriptions of structures taking 'months or years' to collapse? Dafuq? The book is set God knows how long in the future and these buildings are still standing. 'Months to years' before they collapse? Pretty freaking sure they've been there waaaay longer than 'months to years'. Ugh. And apparently, Ella and her aunt and uncle have email and a car because they -would- have shown up for Ethan but..... How dafuq would they even know in a twelve hour time span, much less show up? Then there's the one kid, despite over a decade a marriage? Oh, so they -did- have birth control then?? Even the opening scene was so f--king stupid, I almost stopped reading right then. These are the ones that annoyed me the most but the book is full of crap and generally plagued by poor writing. Most likely not going to continue the series at this rate.
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Mini-Review on the Last Survivors Series on 06/08/2020:
4 Stars for Narration by Sean Runnette
2 Stars for 2D Characters
3 Stars for Meandering Plot
3.5 Stars for Handful of Cool Ideas
The Last Survivors is about how people scrap together to live in a dangerous world without modern technology and threat of dangerous men/women/beasts of the time.
Good:
- Clearly structured societies that were more on the sadistic & depraved side than not.
- Interesting hints of how the world imploded.
- Couple of neat twists with side characters & events.
- Abuse/rape/etc scenes were kept to minimal description or the books would have been 2x longer.
Mediocre:
- Characters are not well developed. Bodies to move the story instead of being key elements that drive the story.
- Too much focus on the dark aspects & why it happened. Not much spent on the extremes of the various choices that line up on the good or middle ground. Very little time spent on the more positive elements except as a way to manipulate events & reader response.
- The story as a whole would have been great if it was not a polished brainstorm of ideas. This still comes across as a brainstorming session vs a well thought out & developed story. The whole thing needs to lose half of books #1-3, the characters fleshed out a bit more, and clear plot points established. If the whole series was a bit more like the last book, I would have enjoyed reading the books a lot more than I did.
Bloopers:
- POV changes should not also mean repeat everything that happened that was already described by another character that was in the same event/scene.
- Moral/etc ambiguity is great. No one is 100% good or bad. Trying to show the different shades are fine but a lot of the characters came across as brainwashed robots vs real people. People make dumb decisions all the time. We are a product of our environment, even if we don't fit in the one we grew up in.
- Affects + Effects of the disease should have been one of the key points of the series. That should have been one of the coolest elements and it was not.
- Most of the books are good about having active scenes to show the reader what is happening vs telling you what is going on but the lack of depth given to the characters made the stories bland & not as interesting. You don't have to like a character or event to be engrossed by what is happening but a reader should be responding in a manner that wants to read more. Not think: Oh right, that again.
04/22/2020 Notes:
Great Narration by Sean Runnette
A solid intro for the series. I'm probably not in the right mood to appreciate this story right now, but it held my attention enough that I know I'll keep reading the other books. -
awful. couldn't bare to finish it. Life is too short to read badly written, generic fiction. Just a waste. Glad I didn't pay a cent for this.
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Forgettable. The worldbuilding was interesting, and the characters could've been had this had a round or two of professional editing done
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So. Yet another Kindle freebie. Yet another instance in which I side-eye a publisher who's taking something that in theory should be good enough to pay for and giving it away for free.
Yeah, I did not go into this one with my hopes very high.
The beginning of the story... was not promising. One of the first things we learn about this society is that it's regressed more or less back to the Middle Ages, giving us gems like this:"Women are weak," Franklin droned. "Women must be weak to love a baby enough to hold it to their breast. Women's hearts must be weak to sacrifice for their children. Women must be weak to take the seed of the man. Because women are weak, a woman cannot keep the truth. Love triumphs over truth. So a woman's words are lies[...]
"When boys age seventeen years, their hearts become hard like stone. Until then, boys are not men. They are not women either. But they cannot be trusted. They must be Cleansed. Father Winthrop Cleanses us. The only people excused from the ceremony are men who are of age and too busy with their work."
So... if I understand this right, basically what they're saying is that they don't ever bother to regularly check grown men for any sign of infection because they honestly believe that grown men can always be trusted to turn themselves in to be put to the sword or burned alive if they get infected.
Look, you could go back and forth for eternity on how justified it is to portray a backwards misogynistic society after the end of the world, but this... this is just illogical! This is actively detrimental to the survival of their community! Natural selection should have weeded these people out generations ago!
So yeah, let's talk about the misogyny.
Granted, given that
the last After the End post-infection post-apocalyptic story that I read featured women as soldiers and scientists and military strategists and leading expeditions and chopping infected monsters' heads off and thorougly enjoying what they were doing, the bar was already set reeeeeeeally high on the count of How Not To Be A Horribly Sexist Writer, and pretty much anything I read after that would've had an uphill battle to impress me. This, though... look, I'm not saying that every last infection apocalypse out there has to have a Sigrun Eide. Just... treating women like people, people; is that really too much to ask?
But wait! This story was advertised as a dystopian society. And we've already seen even a supposedly-simple child questioning the status quo and turning the priest's words back on him when he tried to feed them this bullshit that men can't lie. So this is the part where the writers go all Fury Road and deconstruct it... right?
Yeah... about that...
See, the authors seemed to be giving this whole thing a self-aware nod... but it was handled in just about the most self-contradictory way possible. See, when we finally get the story of the founders of their society, Lady and Bruce, we learn that Lady was in fact tough as nails, probably a soldier, capable of beating any man in a fistfight, and that twenty men were kicked out of the community shortly after its founding because they couldn't get over the fact that she was stronger than them... and this has not been lost to history in favor of turning her into a feminine angel! Literally all of this is coming out of the mouths of the priests who are responsible for upholding the status quo of religious oppression and subjugation of women! And they don't disapprove of Lady at all! As a matter of fact, they openly admire her strength. So seriously, what gives? Your whole society was founded by a strong, barren woman, but... women are all weak and can't ever be trusted to do the right thing?
Unfortunately, I never got any further than that. Because this story's complete inability to stick to a narrative that made sense just drove me far too up the wall for me to continue. Take this gem, for one:She knelt down on the riverbed and began scrubbing at the top of her dress. To her relief, she was able to get off some of the blood, but some of it remained, and she did her best to dilute it. If someone inquired as to its origin, she'd blame it on a food spill, or perhaps a wound from a sewing needle.
What kind of needles does this woman sew with? Does she substitute rusty nails? Take it from a chronic finger-pricker who due to reasons of budget has sewn on a whole lot of patches over the last few years: I have never once managed to get blood from a sewing injury anywhere near the top of my shirt, nor has it ever been enough to leave more than the tiniest smudge. For that matter, I've never managed to stab myself with a sewing needle in the neck before either. What was she going to claim - that she'd been trying to fix her dress while she was still wearing it, and punctured a major artery???
Then, there was the fact that no one was allowed to do any sort of research into a way to preserve their crops from locusts, or even to try to prevent people from catching the plague, because when anything bad happens, it's supposedly "God's will".
...
...
YOU DESERVE TO GO EXTINCT.
Worse than the cliches, worse even than the misogyny, was the way this story regularly snapped my suspension of disbelief clean in half and then stomped on the pieces for good measure. Desperate people fighting progress that would save them from starving to death or turning into monsters? Bloodstains from committing a murder being excused away as a sewing injury of all things? A whole society based around the subjugation of women in spite of the fact that they were literally founded by a strong fighting woman whom they still remember and admire? Every last protagonist in the story, right down to the children, being suspiciously and unbelievably genre savvy as to how backwards the society they'd grown up in actually was? Even the monsters rape women, and only women - why? Why would you feel the need to do this? Look, I don't care how off the deep end the premise is, it's science fiction, suspension of disbelief is a thing, I get it - but the internal logic of your story still needs to make sense. Sell me a fungal infection turning people into ravening monsters; it's right there in the synopsis, I'm fine. But if you're going to throw in references to things that the average person does know a thing or two about, up to and including the way your characters behave, then you had better make it believable. -
First, if books were rated like movies this book would be rated PG13 or maybe R for violence and sex. The sex is not explicit but its there and in the area of rape and prostitution. It's used to illustrate the corruption and depravity of the community. The violence, although graphic, is expected because this isa Zombie story.....of sorts.
This is the first Zombie book I have read. The Zombies aren't the real focus of the story. The story-line follows a mother and son as they escape a corrupt community and travel to a distant community to live with family. Zombies are a constant part of the story but only for brief periods.
This is book 1 of ?. There was some good character development in this book but the story did not develop very much. Hopefully the following books will move the story along. -
I enjoyed reading this book. The idea is that "our world" has gone under and people are living under conditions similar to the Middle Age. They don't have a lot of knowledge of the world as it used to be. New religions and beliefs have emerged and life is hard, unless you're the ones in charge. And there is always the zombies to be scared of. Or the chance you might get infected from the spores. And 2 times a year are the Cleansing, where everyone that has anything resembling signs of infection gets burned alive.
All in all this was as good book, especially considering I got it free in Amazon. But I'm not sure it caught my attention enough to buy the other 5 books in the series.
Would definitely recommend trying it out if you think the story sounds interesting though! -
A great read!
The Last Survivors is the first book in a series. The world has been infested with a spore that causes human to become aggressive and dangerous. As a result the world has lost all mover advancement and been thrust back to the Stone Age where a totalitarian government rules. If you enjoy zombie or post apocalyptic books then I’m sure your enjoy The Last Survivors. -
Began reading 3 days ago. I tried book 1 of another dystopian series but that one was not for me. (No Direction Home) but this one is interesting and well written.
Especially the parts about Ella are excellent.This book has various characters with their own chapters. Finished last night and very curious to where this is going. Enjoyed! -
content warnings (Threatened Child Death, Cult Vibes, SA)
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It’s not terrible but it’s not great either. I wanted a lot more history of the world and more information about their political structure. I know people complain about info-dumps but this book sorely needed a few!!
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Like it.
Think boy and his dog at the end of the world -- only the entire story is actually done so you don't have to wait. -
ABR's full
The Last Survivors audiobook review and many others can be found at
Audiobook Reviewer.
I couldn’t wait to get started on The Last Survivors when I found out who the authors were. T.W. Piperbrook and Bobby Adair couldn’t write a bad book if they tried and together, I thought they would be unstoppable. Post-apocalyptic stories are by far my favorite and when you throw zombies into the mix, well, let’s just say I was kind of excited.
I went into this book with absolutely no knowledge of what it was about, other than the book description. 300 years after the end of the world, the few people left on Earth are struggling to survive. People are being turned into monsters and nobody is happy. As I listened to the book, I expected to hear a little more about the spores but I was disappointed. It took awhile for the action to build and I felt the story lacked some much-needed character development. However, Adair and Piperbrook left the ending wide open for the next book in the series and although I wasn’t as blown away by this story as I hoped to be, it has a lot of potential and I am looking forward to the next part.
Since this was a collaboration, I worried that each author’s part would be easy to pick out and I’m happy to say I was wrong. It was hard to determine which author wrote which part and it flowed seamlessly.
The audio quality of The Last Survivors was excellent. The narrator, Sean Runette, speaks clearly and adds the right amount of tension to every scene. I’m sorry to say I had never heard of this narrator before being given the opportunity to review this book, but he impressed me so much, I will definitely be seeking out more of his work.
Overall, The Last Survivors didn’t go where I expected it to go. It was a little slow in spots but was good enough to leave me curious about the next part of the story. If post-apocalyptic stories are your thing, I urge you to give The Last Survivors a try.
Audiobook purchased for review by the ABR. -
If you ignore the mechanics that plagued this book, the story is great, well, maybe very good.
I was glad to see that the authors used a scientifically sound principle on which to base their zombie like creatures. I got the feeling throughout the book that the Changed were evolving and that feeling was confirmed by the arrival of the mysterious Jingo. Twenty years after the battle that made the new General Blackthorne, he is portrayed, and acts like, a psychotic despot, until .....
SHAZAM ! He sees the light after a single lucid presentation by the Scholar. NOPE, doesn't wash.
The authors apparently don't have any military experience and little concept of barter. In the time after the fight with the soldiers, Mom picks up one sword, but they leave three others behind. Estupido ! Can you say valuable? Can you say a weapon for Billy if he is able to grow up? Swords don't last forever, can you say spare or back-up?
The scene at Davenport didn't ring true. There were no dead soldiers mentioned and the town had to have it's own soldiers. There is no sign of any dead Changed. Good food stocks were destroyed, not pillaged. There is no indication any of the women were raped, just killed and mutilated. In a civilization that has devolved back to the Dark Ages, that's totally unnatural. Children were killed and not taken as slaves or replacements.
The authors had a good concept but didn't take the time to get the details right. I feel they rushed to get this out and were totally enraptured by this, their second draft.
Too bad. Could a been a Five. -
I thoroughly enjoyed this book!! Sure it was a little bit predictable and some of the editing was irritating (but it's self published I believe, and was also free, so I can let that slide) but this story had me hooked from start to finish. I just adore post-apocalyptic/dystopian stories and this had pretty much everything I love about them. Ruined societies struggling to survive, heroes and villains, a strong woman on the run with her son and the man who first helps them and then betrays them and then helps them again (predicting the inevitable love blossoming here in future book installments) annnnd.....zombies!! Ohhh yeah!!
Hey, it's nothing overly complicated but it's an interesting story and it has left me intrigued and hooked enough to purchase the next in the series. It's a fun, easy, quick read and I can't wait to see what happens next (although I DO have a vague suspicion already ;) .............)
As a side note, this book is also my first foray into the world of e-books. I will never give up my paper books but I am definitely less "anti" e-book now and will purchase the second one on my kindle app. Huzzah!! -
Original and different for these authors
It took me a while to decide to get into this very new bit of writing from these authors. It takes place in a world where modern society has collapsed 300 years ago. Mostly it is about a young woman, Ella, and her son William.
The town they live in is isolated, walled off and full of superstitious. There is some kind of disease going around that causes warts and lumps and the leaders have a "cleansing" where people, although all I heard about was the women have to parade themselves in front of the entire village naked so it can be seen if they have the signs of the disease.
I won't tell you more, don't want to ruin it. It is a very different story for both of these authors, each of whom I love. I have bought the second one and hope it continues to involve and surprise me. -
Loved this book! I got this as a free ebook and I admit I didn't expect much. It was my first ebook and I really liked the way it read. I found the storyline very engaging and easy to get hooked. A great new twist on a post apocalyptic world and it ends on a great cliffhanger! Can't wait to get a hold of the second one in the series! My only negative is that the ebook version is not available on Goodreads so when I updated my progress, it wasn't accurate.
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This was a good beginning. I loved the idea of the last humans getting spores that turned them into demons and the scary world the author built around the characters. My only real complaint is that I hate the cleansings and spikings. And that the book is too short. Cliffy here, folks. I love little Williams character.
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Could not wrap myself up in this world
I love Bobby Adair and T.W. PowerBook but for some reason I couldn't get myself wrapped up in this world. You may like it's just not for me......
Happy reading. :) -
This book is just a bit beyond the zombie post apocalyptic thing I want to read. It kind of takes you back to the stone age.
I finally finished it. I didn't like it at all. I should get 5 stars for forcing myself to finish it -
I wasn't expecting much from this little book, but honestly it's a lot better than I imagined. Simple, YA/teen-friendly, & easy to read.
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Nice start to the series
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This is a six-book series and if you are a fan of these kind of stories then you'll love "The Last Survivors". The story moves around and readers are introduced to different characters in just about every chapter; seems to settle down midway through as the story seems to focus on a lady, her son, and a monster killer. All we are led to believe in this first installment is that "spores" from the infected monsters get airborne twice a year and infect others living in settlements. These small communities examine their citizens during a "cleansing" festival and kill those who are infected.
The timeline is 300 yrs. into the future after an apocalypse and doesn't give any back story on what originally happened back then and how was the virus delivered to infect people. Many of the cities lie in ruins, Mother Nature had taken over and not much remains from the olden days. In fact, many of those items we used everyday are considered myths and magic to those living at the time...it was too incomprehensible for these villagers to understand; many couldn't even count.
These creatures outside of the settlements are ruthless and prey on normal people, ripping them apart - eating every morsel on their bones. Guards man the fenceline and gates, hunters track and kill these monsters - receiving bounties from the village leadership for each scalp presented. Other hunters also roam the forests for meat to supply the villagers.
The woman's son is infected and they manage to sneak out of the village during one of the cleansing ceramonies to save her son. Armed with only a small knife, they are attacked by guards soon after leaving the village. As they are preparing to rape her, the twosome kill their abductors and excape to the forest. They are soon attacked and overwhelmed by montsters but were rescued by a hunter who agreed to guide them to the next town. Meanwhile, after discovering the dead soldiers and discovered the identity of the missing citizens, armed guards were dispatched to track the family and return them to be burned at the pyre. The guards are also ruthless and would surely kill them if caught.
When finally reaching the next village, the threesome are not at all ready for what greets them. Interesting story - sort of reminds me of the bronze age during our own history and tales of knights and rebelling peasants. The first installment ends there and it's time for book two. Fortunately, the entire series is already available and readers won't have to wait months to find out what happens next. Slow moving in parts, but worth the read. -
My Book Review Number 145:
This review is on The Last Survivors by T.W. Piperbrook and Bobby Adair. This is the first book I have read by these co-authors.
The book begins with a Prologue that describes the infected human beings that roam the forests and broken down cities from ancient times. They hunt in packs and attack all living things to feed. They looked ugly and smell like death. Humans in this dystopian post apocalyptic period easily become infected by wind-borne fungus that deforms the body and eats away at the mind until a person truly turns into a blood thirsty monster.
The survivors live in a dangerous medieval world that is mostly agrarian and lacks modern technology. The first character we meet is General Blackthorn and his young son leading a small army of soldiers with swords on horseback. They are fighting back a swarm of infected humans closing in on their small village. They must defeat them or die trying. If they lose, the village is lost and everyone will die.
One of the biggest events in these small protected towns is called The Cleansing. Everybody must gather in the town square twice a year to be inspected by the village leaders. Everyone must disrobe in public and be checked for physical signs of the deadly infection. If marks are found, that person will be burned at the stake; a truly horrific and traumatic scene for family and friends. This is the only way the villages can survive what is happening in the world.
The story builds from this point to show what society has become and how village leaders justify their actions. Much of the justification comes from the town’s religious leaders who interpret the “Word” for their own purposes. Eventually, some people begin to see how these draconian attempts to stop the spread of the infection will lead to their complete extinction if not stopped.
I give this book Four Stars because the story is so engrossing you cannot put it down. I read the whole story in two or three sittings. The writing is fast paced with interesting plots and good suspense. The characters are believable and convincing in their actions. The collaboration between both authors is seamless. I could not tell who wrote each chapter or who the narrator is. Good job by both writers. There are six books in the series. I look forward to reading the next book to find out what happens.
Keep reading good science fiction and let me know when you find an interesting novel or author.
