There has been a little uptick in the number of books and news articles about super volcanoes lately so I thought I would give this book a go and see what I thought.

It took me a few chapters to get into the book due to the differences in the style of writing the English author uses versus what this Texan is used to, but once I got used to his style I rather enjoyed the book. Not to give too much away, but think Yellowstone super volcano, dust cloud wipes out U.S., British government hides fact but eventually tells everyone. The book then goes on to describe the crumble of British society as the earth faces the beginnings of a nuclear winter which will wipe out almost all life on earth.

The main character in the book struggles with keeping his old lifestyle (wine, women, booze, parties) while the world falls apart. Eventually, his lifestyle (black market) catches up with him and he has to flee London. He travels north into an increasingly violent world of starvation, might over weakness, and growing piles of the dead. In the end, author has a chance to lash out against communism and socialism before the main character meets his fate.

Not a bad take on what would happen if the world faces a nuclear winter whether through a meteor strike, super volcano eruption, or nuclear war.

What I like about the book was the author’s description of the decay of society matches what I believe. I don’t believe in a modern society one day and a mad max world of zombie bikers the next day. I think we would slowly slide down into chaos. A first there will be people still in charge. Some people will still have jobs (although eventually most of those will be in the seedy entertainment business or security business and get paid with food or shelter). There will be a large class of entrepreneur criminals who grow a very large black market and tend to kill each other and leave their customers alone. A large portion of the people will be jobless, starving, homeless, and doing whatever they can to survive day to day.

This is what I think will happen. Severe depression for the first part of the decay and then as the author of this book portrays – the violence will come out as supplies run out. I don’t believe in large organized gangs, more of something like small gangs taking food and supplies. Hit and run gangs scavenging and then going back to home base to be with their families. The example that comes to my mind is the Vikings raiding England and other northern European countries. Raid, grab, return home, maybe settle here and there, but all the time raising families, working farms, etc. Not the full-time gang armies that are in so many of the end-of-world books in the genre I write in.

Violence yes, mad max biker gangs – no.

My two cents worth. If you want to read a book that is different than almost all the others – this one is for you. Like I said, I had a hard time at first getting through it but I either became accustomed to the author way or writing or the author became better after the first few chapters.

The post Book Review: Fatal Shroud appeared first on Randy Dyess.