Darkness: After the EMP

By: Harley Tate

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Kevin Pierce, Gabra Zackman

Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's Summary

If the power grid fails, how far will you go to survive?

Madison spends her days tending plants as an agriculture student at the University of California, Davis. She plans to graduate and put those skills to work only a few hours from home in the Central Valley. The sun has always been her friend, until now.

When catastrophe strikes, how prepared will you be?

Tracy starts her morning like any other, kissing her husband Walter goodbye before heading off to work at the local public library. She never expects it to end fleeing for her life in a Suburban full of food and water. Tackling life's daily struggles is one thing, preparing to survive when it all crashes down is another.

The end of the world brings out the best and worst in all of us.

With no communication and no word from the government, the Sloanes find themselves grappling with the end of the modern world all on their own. Will Madison and her friends have what it takes to make it back to Sacramento and her family? Can Tracy fend off looters and thieves and help her friends and neighbors survive?

The EMP is only the beginning.

After the EMP: Darkness follows the Sloane family as they attempt to survive after a geomagnetic storm destroys the nation's power grid.

©2017 Harley Tate (P)2017 Podium Publishing

Very good with a couple of irritations

I enjoyed this book overall and I'm a big fan of authors that stay true their characters, but unfortunately this one doesn't quite do that. The majority of the characters do, but Madison most definitely does not. One minute she's resolute in her accepting the situation and what needs to be done (sometimes ugly things and sometimes selfish things) and the next minute she's whining about needing to divert to save a stranger even though the odds of success aren't good. She never manages to shake her 'people are actually all good if you just get to know them' and 'we have to help people even if it means one of us might die' notion. I understand people would definitely have an internal struggle with this, but her struggle is every chapter and just makes you wanna slap her.

If you get past that, like I said I enjoyed the book. It's nothing new along the lines of post apocalyptic, but I think it is a pretty accurate account of what life would be like within weeks of an event. The narration is awesome, switching between the 3 family members with 3 different readers. I would definitely recommend this book.

Good if you are a teenager

Stopped listening with 1.5 hours left to go. Did not want to listen to the immature, irrational characters.

Spoiler Alert: Major mistakes of characters - trying to help strangers or people they barely knew over their own immediate families with bad results. Tracy hesitant to shoot a man pointing a shotgun as her daughter and talking when immediate action was needed. Threatening instead of action - threats a sign of weakness, broadcasts your intention. Brianna, Payton, Madison - college kids with college kid minds.

One good quote - Never ok to give up.
Nice information about sustainable gardening

Disrespect for headship - Tracy over riding her husband's decision when he was right. Madison thinking she knew more than her Dad. Madison had already encouraged a disastrous course when instead of going to the refuge, they went to try to rescue college students and walked into a trap getting members of their group killed. Then Madison decides she wants to take revenge. That is when I stopped listening.

Madison had not learned from the previous mistake - just focus on getting to your bugout location. Revenge is a stupid motive and a time waster.

The women and kids seemed mushy brained. The Dad should have gone with his gut instincts on 2 separate occasions.

I would have preferred more examples of good sense.

This might be enjoyable to a teenager.

This book made me want to shot the main character!

A whiny little girl that I wanted to put out of my misery. So maybe I could hear how her parents and friends survived

not the best book I've ever listened to on Audible

Kevin Pierce is an awesome narrator. these other two women suck. don't waste your money

Too much hand ringing

I tried to give this book a chance, but in the end I just can’t give this book a good review. It’s hard for me because I don’t like to be critical. I mean some one put their heart and soul into this book. But, the author just needs to try again. Here is some advice. Once a character makes a decision...let that be it!! There was way too much agonizing over past decisions! Let your characters get a grip! I realize they are Californians, but even they can get it together. This group would have never made it out of their neighborhood. The narrators were good.

most infuriating characters

Usually with survival/EMP stories you start to like and care about the characters and worry about if they survive or not. The characters in this books were all so naive and ignorant it's a surprise they survived the first few days at all. I couldn't stand how whiny and childish the main character Maddison was. I only listened for about 6 hrs before I couldn't stand it anymore. It was like listening to the same conversation over and over again; there's no power! we can't go to the police! we have to save these strangers! The narrorators did a nice job, and the story line could have been okay it was just the bickering and constant bad dissicions of the characters.

Finally a realistic story

Finally a book that doesn’t involve the main characters owning thousands of dollars worth of automatic weapons and hand grenades and a friend with a blackhawk helicopter. Realistic characters, who struggle with the inevitable moral decisions that will be encountered in a end of the world event. Very enjoyable story, well told and well written.

Could have been great

Was so boring. The audible actors are reputable and usually fantastic. I honestly think it’s the material. It’s so dull. Usually if Kevin pierce is reading I’m there. Period. But not even Kevin pierce could keep me engaged. Idk. Maybe it’s me.

3 hour to go and I couldn't do it!

I couldn't finish these book. The book has nothing to keep the reader excited. Just bland nothing.

A little less than exciting

This was a decent enough book. I wouldn't give it a complete thumbs down. But it has nothing new to add to the genre and it lacked excitement. I enjoyed some of the characters, the mother was interesting, but the author was sure to kill off any characters with a weakness rather than have them grow through the storyline. It became easy to tell which characters would die. There is a lot of hypocritical proselytizing such as the main characters ranting about looters while on their way to loot a department store or break into someone's house. I eventually ended up sleeping through most of the last part of the book and I probably won't go back to it for a while.