299 Days IX: The Restoration

299 Days, Book 9

By: Glen Tate

Narrated by: Kevin Pierce

Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

When the Patriots finally launch their strike against the Loyalists, Grant Matson’s leadership, bravery, and training are put to the ultimate test. The 17th Irregulars are teamed up with regular military units and they must put their differences aside in order to successfully overthrow the Limas. While the battle rages on, the Loyalists outside of Olympia start to pay the price for their allegiances to the wrong side of the Collapse, while well-intentioned others welcome the beginning of New Washington that recognizes fairness and hard work. The battle winds down and a new day begins as the Team recognizes that victory does not come without loss. Grant, now a celebrated war hero, is not without his own personal hardships, and fears facing a new life without his family.

©2014 Sellerman & Sweeney, LLC (P)2014 Sellerman & Sweeney, LLC

What a let down

I finished book 9 a couple of weeks ago. I've listened to a couple of more books by my favorite author to find a comparison to what I like. This is my complete review of the entire series.

The first book was good, it was about prepping. The detail seemed well thought out and planned. Told a good story and the reader I think was the perfect voice for the main character "Grant Matson".

The book has a very distinct line drawn in the sand between the two political parties. Liberals and Conservatives, and for general purposes that is fine. This is suppose to be about people and the author even says that he wanted to write a book about a true depiction of what a partial collapse would be like. The author did a state that there are more people who tend to just fall in line with what ever is popular in the political sense, but it stops there and puts most people in the dumb and liberal category.

An example of this is gun control. You will always have the hardliners of either side that will probably represent about 20% of the population will be very liberal, and 20% of the population will be very conservative about gun control. Where as 60% of the population will more or less be swayed one way or the other based on their own personal experience with the issue, but are not hard lined based on principles.

The author takes a stance that the majority of the population are under the impression that a gun will just go off by looking at it. Maybe that is the way that it is in the state of Washington, but I've lived in a multitude of states and haven't found that to be the case in the general public.

The first book was good enough that it kept me interested, but that is all it really did. I spend a lot of time traveling across my state and it gives me a lot of time to listen to books. So when I finished the first book it was pretty well written and thought I'll keep listening.

Well, that is about as good as it gets being a prepping book. The story was more about a list of coincidences that really played a bigger roll in his survival more than the prepping he actually did himself, and I found a lot of holes in his prepping. The story was tidy and neat and doesn't represent what a normal person is going to go through in a time of a partial collapse.

The author starts off with a prologue that essentially gives away the whole story, but you don't know that you got the whole basis of the story till you get to the 9th book, and you are left wondering wtf.

The author also starts off saying that a lot of mistakes where made by Grant. Where? I didn't see a single mistake that almost killed him and his family. Like I said this was a neat little tidy story that Grant is given every ounce of possible coincidence to survive that really no one would be that lucky.

Characters like "Special Forces Fred", and terms like the "Rental Team" are names of characters and references of certain industries that really make no sense. No special forces guy that I know would ever want to be called special forces anything. They don't want the recognition like that. Most of them won't even come out and tell that they are special forces, and the people who do know are generally close and would never nick name their friend Special Forces Fred, or Navy Seal Timmy, or Green Beret Scotty, ect. It silly, and so is the name "Rental Team". It is a true reflection of the books 2-9 that show that there is a lack of solid development, and instead I know nothing about this topic and will just throw in a name that sounds cool to me, but really gives the author no credibility on the topic. The term the author should have used was a security team for hire. But the author did use that to describe another group in the book, but why it didn't translate to other parts of the book are beyond me.

The National Guard. The Author really fouled this up. The picture is painted that the National Guard is a bunch of unskilled, pussies that have never seen combat. In truth, most of the wars being fought in the middle east in the last 14 years has been done by...the National Guard. To say that your only good forces are going to come from the real army is yet another indication that the author took no time to really research his idea, and again shows that he wrote his book behind closed doors. This is either because he has no idea how it really works, or because he has some military friends that really don't acknowledged the how big a roll that the National Guard, Army Reserves, and just military reserve forces have played in this war over the last decade and a half. It is baloney.

If you like the word Ah-May-Zing, then you will love this book. The Author must have a very small vocabulary if the only way he can describe something is amazing, or a few "it was perfect" then he had no business writing a book. BUT, he did write a book, and he did a pretty good job in terms or putting a story on paper, but he took no time to find different ways to tell me that it surprised him, it horrified him, it was Ah-May-Zing that the reader didn't throw this job out the window and ask the editor to give him something better to perform.

As the story continued I felt like I was listening to my Grandpa tell me a story. Kind of watered down, not to violent to make me (his child of a grandson) to have nightmares.

This whole series could have been written in about 4 books, that would give each of the following books after the first a lot more substance, and I wouldn't have to waste money, or credits to finish the series.

There was very few life or death conflicts, there was not a lot of drama. There was not a lot of story that played against the prepping that was so heavily centered on the first book. In fact the main character ate a lot, and never really seemed to have gone hungry at any point, and that wasn't because he prepped, it was because the author tied the whole story in a nice little bow that didn't require him to create too much of a complex story.

The series of books gives me the idea that this was one man's fantasy of being the hero in an impending collapse, doesn't give any kind of a guide of how to prep.

If you want to hear a good story, read "The Grey Man" that is a story that is well thought out, well told, and leave you wanting more. It took that author 15 years to write that book, and it shows with how well it written.

This was garbage, written by an amateur...that had me yelling at the book after the 100th time the word "Ah-May-Zing" was used.

If you find this book to be as good as the stars indicate you are as delusional as the guy who wrote it.

Great Book

What made the experience of listening to 299 Days IX: The Restoration the most enjoyable?

This is a great second to last installment of the series. Definitely keeps you wanting more and flows nicely into book 10

What did you like best about this story?

Again, its a great build up to the last book.

Which scene was your favorite?

Without any spoilers, the most moving was when a certain character dies

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Great build up to the final book.

I'm a libertarian, this is too much

I'm not a fan of slandering your people who disagree with your viewpoint. Or the contempt with which the author writes about people who don't conform to his ideas of right. The main character of this series has outside thoughts, that somehow fail to tell him not to murder unarmed incarcerated women? This whole series has been a massive right wing propaganda device. Almost no information about prepping is actually contained in this series. There are plenty of chances to explore how to solve real problems, but they are just used as pulpits to lecture about how the author thinks things should be. All in all, I think the author takes what could have been a good opportunity to help people, and squanders it on mental masturbation. Don't bother unless your a huge Rush Limbaugh fan.

Wearing thin

Seems like the author is getting long winded on speeches and politics and running out of story ideas. This series started out great but is rapidly dying. The whole statewide battle lasted two chapters. Grant Matson took more chapters to shop for oatmeal at the beginning of the series. Sorry to say but I will not be buying the last book in the series. The first 4-5 were good, then just filler for the last 4.

299 Days is about 6 months too long

What would have made 299 Days IX: The Restoration better?

Overall the series was quite good. It started off very strong but progressively got more and more tiresome to listen to. There is a reason there are editors... to take something that is rambling and tighten it up making it more enjoyable. As this series progressed the rambling got worse. By this - book 9 - I barely made it through (I really didn't need 45 minutes of an award ceremony for the main character). I returned book 10 as I just couldn't stomach any more

Has 299 Days IX: The Restoration turned you off from other books in this genre?

Definitely not. Series was good overall just toooooo long

What about Kevin Pierce’s performance did you like?

Kevin's performance was great. He really made the series enjoyable

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Probably a little of all of these things and more. Full range of emotions. Well written.

great series.

Loved this series. Hard to put down & very possible/plausible. Sure wish they had a proofreader who knew proper grammar. Really spoils the flow of the narration.

Don't Tread on Me

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes! Absolutely!

What does Kevin Pierce bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

His slight, varied inflection for each character truly brings out the story

Any additional comments?

Love 299 Days.

Thank God we live in Free Society

Any additional comments?

I like this series because it gives you a chance to see what side you stand on. Rememeber, IN AMERICA we have the CHOICE to be Demoncrate/Republican/Libertarian, whatever. Some will agree, some will not. If it's not your cup of tea, don't buy the book. YOU HAVE A CHOICE! But if you look around the world, people are changing. They are fed up with the way things are going. It can not go on this way forevery or all of us will be living this scenario. Libertarian, Democrate, Rebublican, what every. The culture is changing in the world and you need to keep your eyes open and make the best CHOICE for your belief and circumstance. Don't be idle, don't stick you head in the sand, look, listen, get engaged and make a choice.

Good listen

Very much a good listen, I highly recommend this series and suggest you give it a listen

Excellent ending

Such a great book and a wonderful series. What a great way to end this book.

Too much right wing politics

I like the main story of this series. And the story continues in this book. Allthough there are some cheap plot twists and "hand to forehead" moments, its dumbtainment enough to leave me satisfied.

Be aware however that the author keeps going on long tirades about how bad socialism is and how good old fashioned anarchy is. The author calls it liberalism, but for a norwegian with social democracy, it really sounds like anarchy. The US ranks amongst other third world countries in many statistics. Crime, murder, auto-theft, to name a few. The scandinavian social democratic countries rank among the top safest countries, while also having the most happy citizens. Few countries are as heavily regulated as the scandinavian. Did you know that Norway tax american oil companies 78% on their evenue? Thats how Norway became super rich, instead of the wealthiest 1% in america. We protected our riches. We regulated.

In Norway, we have a common saying when things get completely out of control: "Its Texas!".

Norway is also a gun loving country. We love our guns, an i am a gun owner myself, but i want heavy restrictions on gun ownership. The author obviously does not, and he tries to polarize gun owners and non-gun owners too much. In the book its just one out of two posibilities: Either you own guns and love them, or you hate guns and think they go off or explode just by looking at them. People are not that stupid, and especially not in the gun-loving US.

Besides the oddities throughout the book, its still good dumbtainment. Great for survivalnuts and fans of the nuts like myself.

A European Perspective

For American listeners this is a thought provoking story.
Very believable, too Godly for Europeans, especially most British.
A bit padded and long winded at times, trying on one's patience, but I persevered though glad to have finished book 9.