Into the Guns

America Rising, Book 1

By: William C. Dietz

Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine

Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Legion of the Damned® Novels and The Mutant Files comes the first novel in a postapocalyptic military science fiction series about America rising from the ashes of a global catastrophe.

On May Day 2018, 60 meteors entered Earth's atmosphere and exploded around the globe with a force greater than a nuclear blast. Earthquakes and tsunamis followed. Then China attacked Europe, Asia, and the United States in the belief the disaster was an act of war. Washington, DC was a casualty of the meteor onslaught that decimated the nation's leadership and left the surviving elements of the armed forces to try to restore order as American society fell apart.

As refugees across America band together and engage in open warfare with the military over scarce resources, a select group of individuals representing the surviving corporate structure makes a power play to rebuild the country in a free-market image as The New Confederacy.

©2016 William C. Dietz (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Great "what-if"

With any natural disaster there is bound to be chaos, this series takes a look at what happens when the few exploit the many. As well as those who rise to confront them. While it was a little slow at first, it picks up and really gets interesting. Excellent mix of action and politics that paint a brilliant tale of war and recovery.

Dietz can spin a good tale

A fanciful, but good story overall. It was refreshing to see a writer of military fiction not fall into the well worn "liberals bad/conservatives are patriots" narrative that plagues so many novels in this genre. In this series, a natural disaster destroys the national framework and a corporatist cabal of libertarian (ish) oligarchs fire up the old Confederacy in the 2nd Civil War. Overall an fun story, but it very much a work of fiction in its improbable narrative.

If you're a diehard conservative you'll probably want to skip this one. There is no Obama bashing. Multi-culturalism, Antifa and Muslims are not vilified as the core reason for American decline and moreover, this novel series features several strong female characters in combat leadership roles.

great story..great pace

Gotta l9ve a good future civil war story. can't say I find it all believable, especially the style of .gov the south supposedly adopts, but it's a great story anyway

good listen

enjoyed the book and looking forward to vol 2. Mac character is very engaging and I am rooting for her

Great book

Love the story and everything about it,I'm just mad that it's going to be awhile before part two comes out

Excellent !!!

Loved it !!!! My first audio book. I was surprised. Pleasantly surprised. I will recommend it to everyone.

Definitely a progressive story

Definitely a progressive slant on a American civil war, but not a bad read. Why do I call it progressive?
1. During a town hall an assassination attempt on Sloan's life was stopped by one of the locals. Then everyone started shooting at the opposite political party.
This is how progressives see gun owners .

2. The confederates were seen as money grubbing idiots. A CEO instead of a president. All about profits and not the people. According to progressives this is conservatism.
Living in the South I find most confederates care about their neighbors, want smaller government, and want people to be responsible.

But again, all politics aside not a bad read

America the Beautiful

I found this near future alternative history of a new American civil war to be entertaining. It only requires that you believe that Americans would turn on each other during a time of national crisis. I purchased the next two books in the series after the first few chapters because I’m interested to see how this ends.

Uh what did I just buy? Not as good as the ratings

Would you try another book from William C. Dietz and/or Noah Michael Levine?

I may pass on future books from this author. While I don't like the progressive angle of this book it is not why I really dislike it. I can read other views, but I need to be entertained by an actually engaging story. This is just a road trip for some of some lost tribe of sorta soldiers and an implausible presidential story line with outrageous stereotypes of what conservatism is.

What could William C. Dietz have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Readers of dystopian/military fiction tend to understand firearms, military strategy and maneuver and know military equipment so if you are going to write in this genre understand that you may need to employ people knowledgeable in the subject. There are so many errors in the technical aspects in this book like an M1A2 Abrams tank having a 105mm gun, and Apache helicopters that fly everywhere without maintenance, but the Striker vehicles need new engines after 1000 miles. Did I mention that this book is boring and the battle scenes involve days of driving and 5 minutes of battle with little depth of action.

Which character – as performed by Noah Michael Levine – was your favorite?

Nobody really stood out.

Could you see Into the Guns being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin, Woody Harrelson, and Whoopie Goldberg.

Any additional comments?

I don't know how this book ended, because I have to move on because it just can't get into it after 5 hours of listening.

Edge of your seat Story

The story keeps you listening for what next for sure and the large scale of the plot that works into the other books I think was well thought out and makes you wonder, what next?
The Narration is alright also but the man playing a mostly Female voice through the book kinda gets droned out and salty after awhile but soon has you chuckle a bit to easy the strain.