After the Shift: The Complete Series

By: Grace Hamilton

Narrated by: D.C. Newman

Length: 25 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

In the dawn of a new Ice Age, families everywhere are taking to the road to escape the frigid landscape - but you can’t outrun the cold. 

No one could have predicted the terrifying impact of human interference in the Arctic. Shifts in the Earth's crust have led to catastrophe and now the North Pole is located in the mid-Atlantic, making much of the eastern United States an unlivable polar hellscape. 

Nathan Tolley is a talented mechanic who has watched his business dry up due to gas shortages following the drastic tectonic shifts. His wife Cyndi has diligently prepped food and supplies, but it’s not enough to get them through a never-ending winter. With an asthmatic young son and a new baby on the way, they’ll have to find a safe place they can call home or risk freezing to death in this harsh new world. 

After the Shift: The Complete Series includes:

Freezing Point
When an old friend of Nathan’s tells him that Detroit has become a paradise, with greenhouses full of food and plenty of solar energy for everyone, it sounds like the perfect place to escape. But with dangerous conditions and roving gangs, getting there seems like an impossible dream. It also seems like their only choice. 

Killing Frost
Nathan and his family are on the run from a catastrophic polar shift - but the bitter cold is the least of their worries. 

Nathan was led to believe that Detroit would be the proverbial promised land, but when his family arrives they find a city struggling just to survive in the frigid conditions. 

Black Ice
Losses pile up like the snowdrifts of a never-ending winter in this post-apocalyptic series conclusion. 

As circumstances continue to deteriorate like the weather, Nate turns their sights south, but the past is about to catch up to them in ways none of them will see coming. And in order to embrace an uncertain future, sacrifices must be made. 

Survival of the fittest gets real - fast.

This boxset contains violence, referenced sexual content, and referenced sexual violence.

©2019 Relay Publishing (P)2019 Relay Publishing

Too long and too many unbelievable tangents

The opening act of this story felt a little amateurish with the overuse of euphemisms. It felt like the author was trying too hard to be well written. Thankfully this habit mellowed out as the story continued. Or maybe I got used to it? I think I recall feeling that the narrator left much to be desired at the beginning but we’re talking a 26hr book so I think I was able to just get past it after a while because he didn't bother as much during books 2 and 3.

There’s also this start stop, drag on, speed up, skip around sensation that throws you off. We moving along at a particular pace then boom its miles or months later. What?? The author also makes a habit of using a writing technique of skipping to the climax of a situation and then back tracking to show you how we got there. But I think it’s often falls short of success. Most of these instances I’m confused how we got here from the previous chapter. I end up rewinding to see if I skipped a part by accident or something. Then I think “oh, why’d you do that right here in the story, when everything else up to this point has been linear?”

The sheer amount of “WTF how can these preposterous things keep happening to this group?” is a bit much…or a lot much. Very little feels plausible. My suspension of disbelief is all used up by book one. Then the start of book 2?? Geeez. Enough already. And it just gets worse as the story goes on.

The characters are mostly likeable although Striker, Sid and Lucy make you roll your eyes a lot and they feel a bit unbelievable. It feels like there’s some plot holes on how the baby can thrive in these desperate times. Diapers, formula, medicine, clothing?

This family, a mechanic, his newly pregnant, prepper wife, their asthmatic son (I may have missed how old, but youngish) and their mechanic friend decide to uproot from their post-apocalyptic wherever-in-America-home to find greener pastures or hopefully a better place to seek prenatal care. The world has had a catastrophic tectonic shift, moving the polar arctic to the mid-Atlantic Ocean. This forces the USA into a totally different set of climates and they’re currently living in the Big Winter. Perpetual snow storms and ashen skies. They decide to head to Detroit where Nathan, the father, has a friend who’s promised a greenhouse wonderland with plenty of room and amenities and more importantly, a hospital where Nathan’s wife can give birth.

They take to the road and slowly gather a ragtag group of fellow survivors. They’re met with one crazy catastrophe after another and come across enemies who seem way too set on revenge that one might think when survival should be at the forefront of life. Their resources to seek out Nathan's group seem unending and totally over the top given how desperate life in America has become.

I feel like it’s an endurance challenge getting to the end. Many times I’ve wanted to put it down and say ENOUGH ALREADY. All these misadventures are just ridiculous and one after another. Hour after hour and it all becomes rather predictable. Had I not listened to a ton of post-apocalyptic stories already this might have felt more exciting for me but it just felt very over done and a few of the subplot details copy cats from other stories. I was glad to have some resolution at the end but we did another dizzying fast forward getting there.

While I sound extra critical, I didn’t hate the trilogy. It just was a bit too excessive on the adversities the group came across. I’m glad there was a clear ending and a bit to leave to the imagination to wrap things up.

If you're into long stories and you've just begun dabbling in this genre, this is probably going to be a great adventure for you.

Uncertain...

I'm usually a fan of purchasing box sets, you get more bang for your buck and it only makes sense. I feel like this set would be best if purchased over a period of time. The main storyline is exciting and entertaining but there are quite a few "fillers" that made me not-so interested at times. I'm still uncertain about my exact feelings. I'm only about halfway through, I'll certainly give a full review as I finish up in order to provide a fair opinion

*This audiobook was provided to me at no cost in exchange for my unbiased review.

I do not recommend this book

Everything repeated over and over. Nat makes a mistake and someone saves him. The idea of the earth crustshifting is bad enough but there is no attempt to explain why it happened.

Entertaining but tedious and a bit contrived.

I bought this because I could get the whole set of 25 hrs for the price of one. And I wanted to have a book going in my earbuds on a days long construction project. The story was entertaining and helped pass the time.

It was kind of an odyssey that kept going, with a predictable cycle. Good guys just want to survive through a permanent natural disaster. But bad guys want to steal from you and enslave you. There’s always a bad guy who takes your resistance personally and is so insulted that he will chase you thousands of miles to take revenge. OK. That’s fine. But a flying saucer alien Nazi religious cult taking you as a slave because of your Aryan blood, and letting all your mongrel race friends loose? No. You lost me there.

And every time you get captured it’s because you let your guard down (again!), and you’ll never escape it this time. Unless an earthquake shakes your building, or unless the roof falls in.

But, even though the bad guy wants to kill all your families, you still won’t kill him because “you are not a murderer! You are better than them.” So you let them live to attack you again next time.

As I say, I was entertained, but without having to think much. It’s worth the $13 but only for one listen. Never again.

All action, little prepping

This is a stereotypical, highly contrived, all-action, post-apocalyptic story about a small group of people experiencing one miraculous escape after another. There's good character development, but virtually nothing about day-to-day survival. There are plenty of unreasonable and unrealistic decisions, though.

D.C. Newman performed well. I heard only a few mispronunciations.

NOTE: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

A Solid Nature Apocalypse Story

Right now, it seems like the post-apocalyptic genre is all the rage right now: either a plague has decimated humanity, or nuclear devestation has occurred-- all of it a result of humanity's short-sightedness in one way or another. This is a refreshing change in that, a natural phenomenon, plates shifting reassigning the Arctic regions of the earth, and how those in the affected area adapt.
This is a complete 3-book set which I requested from the author agreeing the review it after reading.
I enjoyed the story although I thought that the protagonist was slow to adapt to the changes (especially moral/ethical adjustments to the situations and what is required to survive).
The narration was solid and, in no way, detracted from the book.

What grown man calls their father Daddy?

Not a horrible book but quite difficult to endure all of it. I have not and don't intend to finish it. I respect the time and work that goes into writing a novel this one's just not for me...can't stand when the main guy reminisces about his "Daddy". Really bothers me. Not much more I can say without disrespecting the authors hard work.

This series is an insult to anyone from Detroit

**warning spoilers**
The storyline is “eh” I was hoping for more cataclysm than just endless winter. Being an asthmatic who grew up in the Detroit area in some of the worst winters on record I promise the following:
Tony would have needed to have long term hospitalization for his condition after just a few months of that kind of weather. A simple inhaler would not have cut it at all. The likelihood of Brandon surviving any amount of time either pre or post birth also extremely low after what Cindy went through in her 2nd and 3rd trimester. Lastly how easily everyone is traveling with all that snow is laughable. Detroit is hard enough to navigate on sunny days in July (because typically major entry and exit roads are under major construction of some sort) having that much snow with no snow plows would not allow any type of vehicle travel at all. Lastly, and this is what I think I was bothered by the most, is the author’s judge of distance. You absolutely cannot see Detroit from Lake Huron especially from the road (maybe from a boat or plane) and the distance from Detroit to the Detroit zoo is significantly farther than it is made out to be. Attempting to travel that far with unplowed roads would be impossible and the entire zoo by that point would be completely covered in snow deeper than any of the enclosures.

A must listen to book!

What a well written and really well narrated book. Awesome book to listen too. Great job too the author and narrator of this book series!
I hated to see it come to an end!

monotone narrarator

could have been alot more exciting with the right narrarator. he didn't put much effort or emotion into the read. seemed extremely monotone to me.

Typical

Ok so it wasn’t a bad story.
Enjoying sci fi, this sounded original... it’s not! It’s the same old downfall of American society and prepper hero saves the day... AGAIN! I listened all the way through because I’ve returned the last 3 books that were exactly the same storyline as this! I’m sick of the same old crap! (Yes I pick the book but I like the post apocalyptic genre with a sci-fi element)
Writers/publishers take note:
Society won’t break down in days
Government and officials won’t turn into murderous gangs overnight
If nobody is controlling satellites, they will enter a decaying orbit and burn up.
Preppers are lunatics until proven otherwise
Cattle can’t survive a continuous winter without vegetation
In 20-30 hours of book time, crossing hundreds of city’s and towns and not finding one normal person or group or society that’s not worshiping aliens or Satan, then give up the country has clearly resorted to medicating with meth!
Oh and don’t get me started on the bullet was fired and something miraculous happens to save the hero... every ten minutes! Man these guys are the luckiest sob’s in the world! And not once do they have to change their underpants!
Bit of realism wouldn’t go a miss?
Sorry but this is a slog without reward! I’d honestly rather remove winnets from an aggressive Yorkshire terriers prolapsed anus without oven mits than listen to this or a sequel again!
I hope I’ve helped you make an informed decision without revealing too much.
CC

ok box set

No one could have predicted the terrifying impact of human interference in the Arctic.
bit long for me it was just ok sorry to say