Aftermath (The Remaining, #2) in Apocalypse Whenever

Nov 20, 2013 ambimb rated it it was ok

Shelves: dystopian, thriller, apocalypse

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Review: The Remaining: Aftermath

This is a strong follow-up to the first book, and if you liked the first book you'll like this. All the mayhem and zombie apocalypse continues, with a serious dose of trouble from the redneck warlord faction to make it all that much more dramatic and ratchet up the stakes and the danger.

This gets only two stars from me, though, because of two things: It seriously needed and editor, and it's just so rah-rah soldier and testosterone.

First, the editor: There are so Review: The Remaining: Aftermath

This is a strong follow-up to the first book, and if you liked the first book you'll like this. All the mayhem and zombie apocalypse continues, with a serious dose of trouble from the redneck warlord faction to make it all that much more dramatic and ratchet up the stakes and the danger.

This gets only two stars from me, though, because of two things: It seriously needed and editor, and it's just so rah-rah soldier and testosterone.

First, the editor: There are so many places where words are spelled incorrectly or simply the wrong word is used that I lost count. Molles frequently writes "bare" when it should be "bear," for example, "staid" instead of "stayed," "pale" instead of "pail," "stare" instead of "stair," etc. Sure, these homophones will make it through a spell checker, but a spell check is completely different from a meaning check, and that's why a good writer needs a good editor.

The plot also has some serious problems which an editor could have pointed out and given the author a chance to address. The biggest plot hole is Lee's side trip to Smithfield. It makes no sense that Lee would finally make it to his bunker, finally get a load of supplies for the people at Camp Ryder who are on the verge of starvation, and instead of going back there w/the supplies immediately would instead head off into the middle of an infected city on a completely different mission that might very well get him killed. No. I don't buy it. It's just dumb. If he's as smart and savvy as he's otherwise portrayed, he would have made sure the supplies got back to the people who needed them, and *then* gone on his mission. If he'd done that, Camp Ryder would have loved him and would have given him many more men and resources so he would have been much better able to accomplish the goal of checking on Maria's sister/looking for other survivors in Smithfield.

And even if we believe he's going to go off on this fool's errand before he makes sure the supplies get to Camp Ryder, it goes completely against his mission not to at least take some steps to ensure that the supplies get there w/o him. He wouldn't take the supply truck and all of his little team into the infected area. That was just stupid. Sure, it ended up making for some good drama, but stupid.

And the whole Doc subplot was also implausible. I can buy that this Doc guy was a spy for Milo and was trying to deliver Lee to Milo all in order to save his girlfriend, Nicole. Fine. But if that's what he was doing, then why, when Lee said he was not going back to Camp Ryder but was instead going into Smithfield, why would Doc say "I'm going with you?" How would that have helped Doc's plan to get Lee to Milo? Are we to believe Doc thought he might capture Lee and drag him to Milo somehow on his own? Again, makes no sense. Not plausible.

So while it all comes together in the end, how we get there needed more thought, and a good editor would have helped encourage Molles to think about this plot a little more and smooth it out before it went to press.

Finally, on the rah-rah: If Molles is not former military himself, he's done a great job on research because the details of the weapons and the gear and tactics and terminology of a special forces military operator seem very realistic and convincing. This is great, but it comes along with a sort of military boosterism that just bugs me. It could be worse, so it probably won't bother most readers. It's just not for me.

The fact that I'm already reading the third installment in this series shows that I'm enjoying it and have become engaged enough with the characters and the situation that I want to find out what happens to them. That, alone, is no small achievement and reason enough to consider giving these books a read. ...more

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Apr 10, 2016 Colleen rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, zombies

Not quite as strong as the first book, I think because of the narrator's penchant for getting distracted. I can see why he wanted to check out Smithfield (oddly enough I was just talking about Smithfield NC the other day) for the cook and to link up with more survivors, but he should have sent the supplies back ASAP and/or gone alone or split forces better. I was like wait, what about all the starving people who ran out of food yesterday? Don't go wandering off on side mission! Those always blow ...more

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