End Game

By: Ginger Booth

Narrated by: Laura Bannister

Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Time ran out on climate change.

Super-storms. Government surveillance and breakdown.

Tech whisperer Dee Baker seeks safety.

Because the climate science was almost right. It was already too late. Weather disasters spin out of control. Food prices skyrocket. Refugees spill everywhere, including Americans fleeing the dust bowl, floods, and hurricanes.

Congress has a plan, the Calm Act. Its public face is martial law. The secret measures are worse.

Dee's job provides her classified access to the truth. They promise her an ark berth, secure in a sealed biosphere. But she doesn't trust them to deliver. She's also dating Adam, a fun ark-itect, and Zack, who plans to organize the community and take a stand outside the arks.

In this apocalyptic adventure, set in the Northeast, ordinary people face a mounting climate crisis, and a government that seems to have betrayed them.

Dee needs a plan. Because the storms won't wait.

If you enjoy vivid characters, compelling world-building, and page-turning action, you'll love this first book of Ginger Booth's day-after-tomorrow Calm Act series.

Get it now.

©2015 Ginger Booth (P)2017 Ginger Booth

Great Audiobook!

Where does End Game rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is by far one of the best audiobooks I have heard. The sound quality is excellent, the narrator has a very nice voice and the pace and enunciation are perfect. The book itself has a tight plot and likable characters dealing with a very plausible climate change disaster.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Dee Baker, a savvy programmer learns to adapt to a fast-changing world with humor and compassion and you come to see she has unexpected depths.

Which character – as performed by Laura Bannister – was your favorite?

The narrator captures the spirit of Dee Baker very well.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

This Is Your Tomorrow!

An Important First Novel

Would you listen to End Game again? Why?

I would. I've listened to it and read it, and I think it's an important contribution to spreading the word about climate change and the consequences that will befall us all, albeit in a very entertaining story.

What other book might you compare End Game to and why?

I've never read anything like it except for the other books in the Calm Act series.

This is Ms. Booth’s first novel and it is a promising start. The dystopian future she envisions is “near turn” and feels plausible. It is a dark and horrible future—it is the end of the species after all--but our heroine and the rest of the cast are strong and engaged and we breeze along with them with faith and with hope for their (and our) future. I think this is an important subject and I hope the book is widely read.

What about Laura Bannister’s performance did you like?

I think she's well captured the softness of Dee Baker while revealing her strength and creativity.

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

So many, so many. The aborted "last trip" to Montreal. The escape from Adam's house. The formation of the food cooperative. How Dee discovered and used the "truth" that had been hidden from the population, including the armed forces. Her abduction from the Ark and incarceration by Homeland Security. The death of Zack.

Any additional comments?

The world has failed to come to grips with global warming and with climate change, and it is now too late to do anything about preventing the crisis. There are global water and food shortages and massive migrations of people seeking a place and a way to survive. Equally bad, weather patterns are violent and unpredictable and capable of dramatically reducing population levels.

Internationally, each nation finds that they must commit draconian acts to ensure their own survival. Russia nukes the Middle East, the European Union reverts to banishing all Moslems who won’t convert (something they last did in the Middle Ages), and the United States blockades their coasts and secures their borders, both internationally and within the country. Freedom of movement and most of our guaranteed freedoms have been effectively abrogated. Canada is doing what it can and may even absorb some new provinces from the northern tier of US states as a way to “help out.”

The US government and their Homeland Security Apparatus are building “arks,” protected areas where some level of the population can survive the killing weather, the shortages, and life inhibiting atmosphere. The rest of the population--the government won’t say this--but they are probably to be considered expendable.

Good and bad!

The world as we know it is ending. Earthquakes and extreme weather are becoming more and more frequent. Countries are closing their borders, food shortage is becoming a big problem and the only way for people to survive is to get a place on the Arks the government are building. Dee was told she will get a place on her companies ark, but it's apparent that that isn't going to happen. How is she going to survive?

This book was extremely frustrating to read. On one hand, I enjoyed the idea behind it and the author does a great job with the world building and making the whole thing feel like something that could happen. But on the other hand, there's Dee. While I did like her for the most part, I just found some of the stuff she did a bit stupid. Plus there is a very unnecessary love triangle.

I liked that Dee was intelligent, willing to bend the rules to help others and an all round likable girl, I just found the idea of her love life silly and the way she acted was something that brought her character down. I mean, what was the need to have her in a relationship with 2 men and those two men seemingly ok with it. I want to say a lot about this but I will spoil something!!! I generally loathe love triangles, though there are a few I can abide because the girl handles it well, but this one just made me want to stop reading. Plus something happens and Dee ends up with someone different way too easy and too soon and that really annoyed me. She started off such a strong character but ended up weak in my eyes.

In all, this is an ok read, (once you get past the love triangle that is). It shows a bleak future that is plausible in this day and age. The plot is slow and doesn't really get going at all, but being book 1 I was kind of expecting it. This is more setting the scene for the next book. I really hope Dee gets her stuff together in the future books and becomes the strong character I hoped she was.

Laura Bannister read this well. She had a few tones and voices for the different characters, though I wanted more emotion from her. I think if she put more into her performance, it would have been perfect!!

I was given this free audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. This in no way affected nor influenced my thoughts.

This story could very well be the US future

This author has made a fictional story that could very well be this countries actual future. To many things in this story written in 2015 are happening right now in 2018. Great story but real scary that it is so possible. Heck of a good read!

Hope for the future

Plausible story of the near future. Descriptions the human behavior is right on. Love Ginger’s stories

Excellent

Loved this book, her characters were built until I felt like I was in this story. Can't wait for her next book. I recommend this book and always loved her as a writer.

thoughtful

End Game is very insightful and keeps you thinki g what if this were to really happen? or is it already?

where is book 2 and 3?

loved the book wish the other book were available. This has happened to me too often that the remaining books are not available on audio.

The END is the BEGINNING

A truly enjoyable story about the near future of the end of Earth and the beginning of the next chapter which hopefully will be better.

Um ok.

So the last 15 minutes or so just felt very rushed. I don't love some of the choices the author made near the end either. Mostly I enjoyed this story but I'm now not sure if I'm going to read any further in this series.