The Survivalist series by Arthur T. Bradley is one of the best and the worst of the post-apocalyptic novels I have read. What do I mean by best? Well, I read the first six in the series, and they all overflowed with page-turning drama, suspense, gore, guns and ingenious ways to survive. And they satisfied my opinion of how character and plot should interact to be a page turning story... Storytelling is the art of compelling readers to admire and respect the characters, cheer for their success and identify with their problems. But every effort to escape the jaws of the enemy puts them in greater peril. We become more and more anxious for their safety and frustrated they are repeatedly unable to outwit and overcome an increasingly vicious and powerful enemy. Just when the conflict takes its darkest turn, our hero snatches victory from the jaws of defeat. In a story well told, we share in their success as if it were our own because it's psychologically valid and emotionally realistic and therefore more true than if it really happened. Another way to express my opinion of "best" is to say that fact and fiction dance in every story. The author of Survivalist does an extremely good job of using fiction to tell the truth about humans and how they typically react to disasters. Civilized behavior, for example, is only skin deep and three days long. The story makes it clear that one way to distinguish good guys from bad guys is that a savage lives just below the surface of good and bad guys. But good guys keep their savage under control whereas bad guys don't. Yeah, good guys resort to violence to protect themselves and their loved ones. But bad guys resort to violence to satisfy their appetite for hating and hurting others. So, what do I mean by the worst? Wading through the overwhelming number of incidents made me become more and more numb to the drama, the suspense, the guns and the gore. There were just too many things going on that had nothing to do with the problem that motivated the characters to journey from where they were to where they wanted to be. The vast majority of these incidents were side issues that didn't advance the primary plot of the story. Another way to say what I mean by "worst" is that even though each of the six that I read were page turners, the next page was just another incident that delayed the characters from getting on with their primary mission. None of these secondary incidents were previews of coming attractions. Well, they were, but the coming attraction was just another incident like the one before it. So, I began turning pages and skimming through these incidents to get to the end of that book in the series. Then I realized that the series was a book turner. Each of them ended with a cliff hanging ending that left me hanging. Smart economics, of course, because most readers would be motivated to buy the next book in the series. Well, I'm not most readers, so I read the synopsis of the 12th and last book and discovered that it too merely held the promise of another book. Hey, your mileage may differ...
I just checked and I did indeed read the first one but not sure why I didn't follow up on the series, could be a number of reasons. I could have considered the books mispriced - meaning - too expensive for what they were or, like you said, the series gets too mundane, repetitive. Lots of genre of books have done this, for example, the Zombie genre. That's a genre that has been beat to death and while I use to like them for a fast, fun read, now, I don't bother, nothing new, nothing fresh. Actually, a lot of genre does this, post-apocalyptic stories are another. I recently started reading a series by S. M. Stirling - The Emberverse series. Good author, good writing but so burned out on the post-apocalyptic stuff that I didn't finish the first book. I will have to take another look at the Survivalist series. I don't remember but imagine it's the same old theme. EDIT: I just checked Amazon and he has 12 in this series now! I guess it pays. LOL! Seems priced right at $6, which is the maximum I pay for an eBook so I don't know why I didn't read more of the series, seems it got good reviews; however, I honestly can't remember it until I start to read it of course.
I read a few many years back, but didn't get hooked by the series. I was more into the 'Ashes" series by Johnstone, but it became repetitious after the fourth book. All these postapocalyptic series are pretty much similar. I crossed over to Johnstone's western series and was much better satisfied.
Yeah, I remember reading the first one in PDF (hate reading it that format) but couldn't find the follow-on books in eBook. I need to check and see if they are back in print. I remember it was pretty good...but I am pretty burnt out on post-apocalypse.
Yeah, I don't like to read a book in PDF or EPUB because that means I have to sit at my desktop to read it. I'd rather read them on my Kindle so I can sit pretty much anywhere to read them. I also prefer to get them free, so I use Overdrive. I've uploaded several of my own books to the Resource pages here at Survival Monkey. Most of the ones other members have uploaded are in PDF so I followed suit with mine. There are several ways to convert a PDF file to other formats, so I'm thinking about letting everyone here at SM know how to do that. Not sure where to post a thread like that. And some of those ways are, well, not fair to the original author who expects to be paid for his or her efforts. At the very least I'll probably upload my books to the Resource forum in EPUB and KINDLE formats. Perhaps some of the other SM members will follow suit. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks!
I read both series, both Ashes and Survivalist, i enjoyed the first half dozen of both but i agree with Seawolf1090 and Qwertyportne that after that 1st handful of books they became formulaic & repetitive. I still have my 1st Ashes books (a bit worn now) but haven't seen The Survivalist books for a while. Mr. Qwertyportne, I thought the author of The Survivalist was named Jerry Ahearn or Ahern, honestly don't remember the correct spelling, sorry.
of course I had to look after seeing this thread, and there series named "Survivalist" or "The Survivalist" by A. American, Jerry Ahern, AND Arthur T. Bradley.
i read 1 or 2 of A. American's books, (so far), read J. Ahern's books (5-6) but never saw or read any of Mr. Bradley's. I hadn't realized Mr. A.A.'s books were also titled "survivalist", on vaca. at this time , so i can't check my library at the moment. i have collected a selection of fiction books on SHTF subjects, such as the Ashes series, Alas Babylon,Lucifer's Hammer, etc.. these books i know are fiction but i read for entertainment as well information.
Yes, A. American's stories, like the others, are a realistic look at what might happen in the near future. I label all these SHTF novels FACTION because they are, in my opinion, a realistic mix of fact and fiction. At the very least, apocalyptic stories give preppers a preview of how to face the possible collapse of the way things are now. I'm definitely not an anarchist, but I would embrace the collapse of some of the way things are now. Like you said, if nothing else the stories are a good mix of entertainment and information.
I like that word, "faction" if you don't mind i'd like to use that word in conversations. I also agree the stories offer a preview of what may be, i look at them just like the military does "wargaming", doing various "what if's", trying to cover all the bases, trying to predict the future. i too am not an anarchist either, but there's a saying "I didn't start the fire but i'm not putting it out either"!
Yeah, WHAT IFS are a good tool for prepping. Better to have it and not need than to need it and not have it. And I don't mind you or anyone else using the word FACTION. I've been using it for so many years I can't remember if I coined it or borrowed it from somebody else.
