The Darkest Winter: An Ending World Novel

Savage North Chronicles, Book 1

By: Lindsey Pogue

Narrated by: Sarah Ruth Thomas, Luis Bermudez

Length: 15 hrs

Publisher's Summary

X-Men meets The Walking Dead in Lindsey Pogue’s superhuman survival story, fraught with Crazies (not Zombies), dynamic characters, and bursting with raw emotion you can feel deep in your bones.

The virus spread. Billions died. The Ending began.

A group of orphaned misfits.

The wildlands of the last frontier.

Superhuman abilities, harrowing adventures, and heartbreaking secrets.

Elle

Haunting shadows are nothing new to Elle St. James - she’s been running from them all her life. But since the outbreak spread from the lower 48, new monsters lurk in the darkness. After Elle wakes from the fever, capable of horrific deeds, she fears she’s one of them. When she stumbles upon four orphans, Elle’s forced to discover what happens when her greatest fear becomes her darkest secret and her only hope of surviving.

Jackson

After the world goes mad and takes his family with it, Jackson Mitchell tosses aside his badge and decides a bottle of bourbon and the depths of despair are preferable to any semblance of living. All of that changes, however, when a group of young survivors are in dire need of his help, and Jackson sacrifices his blissful oblivion in order to keep them safe.

As they trek further away from the collapsing cities, Jackson must rely on his knowledge of the backcountry and the traditions of his people, or succumb to the dangers of the Alaskan wilderness.

Brought together under the worst possible circumstances, Elle and Jackson must face the inexplicable realities of the new world. Their past lives are over, and the arctic isn’t all that’s savage anymore.

Rated R for violence and possible triggers.

The Darkest Winter is the first book in Savage North Chronicles.

©2019 Lindsey Pogue (P)2020 Lindsey Pogue

Maybe better than the original Ending series?

I had already read the book about 7months ago and loved it and was really excited about the audiobook release. This book is full of danger, tension and action, exactly what you expect to feel if the world had ended and you were part of the last 10%. Not mentioning the weirdness and fascination of realizing your organism was changed forever and abilities were the norm.

I might even like Elle and Jackson better than the characters in the original series, but we are still at might. Or I love them just the same!? They are well developed from the start and each has their fears and history to face and overcome. Not only do they have to trust strangers to get through the day, they have to cross miles together so as to find a safe haven. These characters pop out at you instantly and you eat up their story almost too quickly.

I cannot wait to hear book 2, even though I have read the whole series. It is a whole new experience on audible (and I get so much house chores done in the process haha)

The performance of the two narrators were also really good. Sarah seems to have a slight lilt in her narrator sections, but it is easily ignored and I think she got better and better throughout the book. Luis has a fabulous voice and matches perfectly to Jackson.

Pretty difficult to finish.

I'm having a really hard time finishing this book. It's boring and I've increased the narration speed to just get through it. I like apocolypse novels and this has a weird mishmash of tragic R rated backgrounds of two of the main characters but the entire rest of the book is wholesome G rated and family oriented. There's almost no external conflict; it's all internal. Every characer is worried about *big secret* and when *big secret* comes out it's no big deal. The children are extremely annoying. It's like a YA novel was rewritten to age up the protagonists. The first third was really entertaining but the last two-thirds are like an entirely different author took over. I like the two narrators and switching for the character POV.

I really loved this story!

I honestly wasn’t sure i was going to like this book but was very pleasantly surprised when i couldnt stop listening! The characters drew me in, and they felt believable to me. They didn’t make stupid choices for the sake of it (don’t get me wrong they did make stupid choices, but because of how they were personally handling there traumas, it made sense to me). U should def give this a listen. The narrators did a very good job too.

For Younger Audience

I can see the appeal for this story, but for a young crowd. The narration was too dramatic and at many times slow. The characters lacked the depth of many good novels, there was an attempt to develop them, but it was clear the author didn't have an understanding of different personalities or the behaviour of varying types of people. Way too much explaining rather than showing. Inappropriate use of cursing, made the characters seem shallow, very obvious statements that I felt were meant to be impactful but it just made me facepalm or cringe.

Good Story But….

I liked the he story but the narrative was too slow. Not going to continue with the series.

P. J.

I absolutely loved this audio book. I can't wait for the next one in the series!

A plus book

Book was good but the female voice actress sold it! A plus! Want to hear the rest of them!

SO HARD TO FOLLOW!!

Two Narrators, two points of views, two sets of voices, dream sequences and different timelines. This book should come with a pdf map of the story-line.

awesome book

I haven't read such a good book in a long time. thank you so much, keep writing.

more romance story than apocalyptic

It was a great idea but fell apart at the end. The main character is either so sad of losing his wife and child he drinks himself into a content forgetfulness and then bam 4 months after their death he has moved on. This shallowness of a character really bugged me. At least let the guy morn for a year and work on his sobriety over that year his character would benefit a rewrite. And how callace is the 20 something adult just wishing to be his from the start...ugg this was more romance material than post apocalyptic.

loving this series.

of books, spoilt by the very short novellas, I got part 2 free on you tube