Long Road to Survival

By: Lee Bradford, William H. Weber

Narrated by: Johnny Heller

Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's Summary

After container ships carrying black-market nuclear bombs are detonated in American port cities, millions are killed and the country is thrown into panic.  

In Greenwood, Nebraska, Paul Edwards learns about the devastating terrorist attacks on the news. As the power grid goes down, his fear is magnified by the knowledge that his wife and daughter are a thousand miles away in Atlanta.  

When his prepper father-in-law, Buck, insists on being part of the rescue, things go from bad to worse. Paul and Buck have hated each other for years. Now, with deadly radiation sweeping in from the coast and the rule of law crumbling around them, the two men must put aside their long-standing feud in a desperate race to bring their family to safety...that is, if they don't kill each other first.

©2015 Lee Bradford and William H. Weber (P)2018 Tantor

Entertaining.

This was an entertaining read, and while I didn't love it, it was still a good read.

The plot centers on the fact that some container ships have detonated in a lot of port cities, with a nuclear bomb and changed the US almost overnight. Pauls' wife and daughter are in Atlanta, roughly 1000 miles from where he is. Buck, Pauls father in law arrives in his old hummer and insists on driving to get his daughter and granddaughter. Only thing is, theses two do not get on at all!

While I did enjoy this, there were enough inconsistencies that I couldn't love it! Lets start with the fact that the two set out to go get the girls. Buck is a prepper and has a lot of know how with everything, yet the first time they pull over for gas, they get their vehicle and all their equipment stolen! I thought this was a little hard to swallow as Buck is made out to be an expert prepper. Then we have the gang, (I'm not going into specifics here because that's spoiling it, so sorry for being vague!) I also found it hard to believe that they would go so far out of their way for revenge, when they can basically do anything they want now. Plus when Buck and Paul get back on the road, they are behind the gang, yet they manage to get back in front of them easily. Then we have the fact that a military man, a stranger to the group, gets Paul, Buck and the two girls a place of safety so easily. It was things like that that had me shaking my head!! There are other things like this in book 2 that I had a hard time with too. I'm not going to say what because, again, it will spoil stuff.

I did enjoy the back and forth between Paul and Buck. Buck is a cantankerous man, and poor Paul takes it all in his stride. I liked the characters and they were all well developed and, for the most part, likable. It's an ok read and I will check out the authors in future, but it will be hesitantly because I had so much trouble connecting with the story here.

Johnny Heller on the other hand was awesome!! He is the only real reason I kept going with this because he brought the book to life. He has an impressive array of tones and voices and was so easy to listen to, he drew me in right from the start. I will definitely check out more from him.

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

6 people found this helpful

Amazing story!!

I very much enjoyed this story! Alot of the survival genre gets repetitive after a while but I didn't really find that happening with this. I did think some things were a little over the top. BUT those things are generally true because preppers like the real kind tend to get over the top. I have a friend who is only a little bit into the prepper world and he goes a bit over the top on weird stuff from time to time! So I think it all fit in perfectly with how this story is written and whats taken place. I loved the pace of this and the narration was amazing! Johnny Heller did a killer job on this! :) The first book leaves you with such a cliffhanger so it is great these are in a bundle! The plot twists were amazing to be honest. Alot of that I didn't see coming and it kept the story moving forward with more interest and investment in the characters. I LOVED BUCK!! He is a hoot. Hes like the perfect cranky old man that has so many layers to him. I highly recommend this story!!


I requested and was given this audiobook complimentary at my request and have voluntarily left this review with my honest opinion.

1 person found this helpful

Highly entertaining

I love survival fiction and must say I found Lee Bradford/William Weber's Long Road to Survival set to be highly entertaining. Weber puts his own twist on the genre. The first plays out like many books in the genre with a 'quest' to reunite a family after horrific incident. The journey is kind of like a twisted mismatched buddy comedy road trip as Buck and his son-in-law Paul set off to find Paul's wife and daughter. The two couldn't be more different, and there is plenty of tension and humor in their interaction. Book 2 takes quite a twist, with the story becoming a kind of espionage/conspiracy story. I definitely didn't see this twist coming but I enjoyed the heck out of it. Wish there was another book in the series to see what happened to Buck and the rest. This was just a fun, action packed story, one you could just sit back and enjoy and not have to think too much about. And I mean that as a compliment. If I had to complain about anything I guess I could say that society breaks down a bit too quickly, but honestly that would just be nit picking.

Johnny Heller does a really great job with the narration. His voice and style sounded familiar and sure enough after checking my library I found I had heard some of her work before (How to survive a Horror Movie...and amusing little book) but more than that his voice and narration style also reminded me of Kevin Pierce, who I absolutely love. Also checking audible, I see that he's recorded a ton of books so I know I'll be checking out more of his work in the future.

I received a copy of this audio title in exchange for an unbiased review.

1 person found this helpful

ok, I really liked Buck!

I read a lot of survival type books. This one definitely has a fresh take on the story line. It's just not all about running and bad things happening there is definitely a new twist to this book. lot of it is actually written from everyone inside a "camp". I love the characters but I do think that the cranky old Buck what's my favorite.

Narration was good, and definitely on point.



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

1 person found this helpful

Absolute Garbage

Horribly written, poor character building, almost unlistenable. The end was garbage too. You could tell the author was sick of writing. She died, the end. Bad,

left on a cliff hanger only want more

the story was great didnt like the constant detail about the bootlegging of shine but still was great book cant wait to continue series a must read for those into survival thrillers.

Good Book Strange Choice of Weapons

The book was entertaining, had a good story line and was somewhat suspenseful, but the gun choices made me think the author doesn’t know much about SHTF or Guns. For example there are multiple time where a 22 caliber pistol is carried and used. One of the characters also used a Sig Mosquito 22.

Although I’m a little critical about the weapons I’d listen to another one of their books.

Nothing new, nothing interesting

This book has no new ideas or preppier information. And all of the characters can be found in better story.

Don’t waste your time or money.

solid story

great story with a fantastic character build up. Bradford and Weber always deliver quality and Johnny Heller did a great job bringing the characters to life.

a great post apocalyptic story

the story was interesting and very entertaining it was challenging in some parts of it but the author came on faced so I think the writing was good and the story was interesting enough that I couldn't stop and listening to it actually it was very good in my opinion I enjoyed it quite much
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review