Without Warning

By: John Birmingham

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

Length: 17 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

On the eve of the U.S. invasion of Baghdad, as the world waits for war, a miles-high energy wave cordons a vast area from southern Canada to northern Mexico. In a moment, 99 percent of the U.S. population has been wiped from the face of the earth.

To fill the vacuum, heroes rise to meet the unimaginable challenges of the city of Seattle: James Kipper, chief engineer of the city of Seattle and Caitlin Monroe are on the trail of a Muslim fanatic ready to take advantage of what becomes known as The Disappearance, while General Tusk Musso and Admiral James Ritchie try desperately to keep the peace in a world gone mad with fear.

©2009 John Birmingham (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Solid, entertaining listen

Really a compelling listen. Tense, exciting writing, hard to put down. Author's choice of characters was unique and a bit unexpected, but managed to tie things together at the end. Epilogue was somewhat of a letdown... the huge mystery was left unrevealed, but I understand there are sequels in the works.
Narration was a bit gruff, but it worked for most of the characters.

End of the World?

I like John Birmingham's work--crazy Aussie. It's exciting. While this book postulates the end of 98% of the USA by a strange thing, the idea is well developed and the author offers several political, social, legal and economic vignettes that could result from massive loss like that. I found the several parallel stories fascinating. I'll read the next book in the trilogy.

Once I started reading I couldn't stop

This story is like a combination of Stephen King's Under The Dome and a Tom Clancy political thriller. And the "wave" seems like something from Left Behind. This story is something like all of all those together. My favorite characters so far are Jedd and, of course, Kipp. I am on to book two now and I am excited to see where things end up in book 3.

not what I expected but very good!

A really fun, maybe not fun but interesting book. It sucks you in and has some neat twists to it. I'm glad the whole trilogy is out - don't want to wait months to keep moving with the story.

Come on 20th, where is that new credit ...

Truely without warning!

The charactor and acton had depth but the story jump toward the end, There seem to be parts missing or edited out. The last few chapters jump in time and the end was so abrupt it was disappointing.

Good but not great

I injoied this book but there were several instances where things were just totally Unrealistic. It was fun to read When you keep in mind that it's not real but a fantasy

entertaining

I enjoyed this book. very interesting to hear a prospective what would happen with a major disaster with most of the United States being wiped out.

Intense

Really a compelling listen, very tense, hard to put down. Author's choice of characters was unique and he did a very good job making you think that more than one person was narrating the story. Epilogue was somewhat of a letdown... the huge mystery was left unrevealed and a few loose ends,unless there is a sequel...

Great story with a new slant on the apocolypse

I finished the book this afternoon and ordered two sequel books this evening. Solid character development - always a crowd pleaser, Solid story line that weaves several story lines together very successfully. Really appreciate that he brought a new perspective to just what would happen if the US government disappeared. Thought provoking. Excellent narrator as well.

This book pulled me in and kept me!

The story was very interesting and kept building upon the very real issue of how does everybody else survive when America just disappears. I enjoyed the military aspect about trying to come together to defend the nation, without falling into a military dictatorship. However, the Clancy-like spy story never made much sense and just dragged the story out. DEFINTELY worth the credit spent.