Nicholas Antinozzi

It was not my usual type of read . I thought it was about the economy which I would really rather leave out of my reading. I can get depressed on my own without anybody's help. However this book really surprised me. I couldn't put it down. The story is told through the eyes of Jimmy. It is a story about what could happen. Here in the United States. The home of the brave. The land of the free. Where we have let much of our rights be put in jeopardy. Where we have handed over too much power to Washington D.C. and a few chosen agencies such as FEMA. This isn't about who is in the White House. It really doesn't matter - the power is given to whomever is sitting there. What matters is do we really want to give over all these rights? If not how can we get them back? Read this book and you will understand why I am questioning this.… (meer)

The book is distopian to an extreme. The president of the United States declared that all guns must be turned in. Within days, communication channels are turned off and society degenerates into anarchy.

Masses of people flee from Minneapolis, as police, soldiers, National Guard, and even the UN swarm the country. A couple of small communities are observed to have been destroyed. Just as in all wars, with limited communication, all that is known is what is immediately observable, and that is pretty grim. Just when I think that Gary Smith has arrived at a safe spot, he is facing yet another gun, and seeing more death.

I managed to push myself to 61% through Stealing Second: I keep debating about finishing this book. I wanted to read the wrap-up, to see if the author makes some sense of it, but just don't care for all the drama. Perhaps a great book if you are into fiction, but I didn't come here to read fiction. Alas, the possibility of this actually happening is not as remote as I would like. Prominent civilizations have collapsed in the past just as suddenly as in this book.


Okay, I throw in the towel and mark it as read - the "never-finished" shelf left it showing as one that I am still reading.… (meer)

For me, Desperate Times had some very good things going for it, but also a few negatives thrown into the mix.

Desperate Times is the story of Jimmy, an average blue-collar kinda guy, with an average job, living in an average home with an average live-in girlfriend. Jimmy's boss, and family friend Ken, predicts a financial collapse in the very near future, and has planned for the possible consequences. With his finger on the pulse, Ken has prepared his cabin in the woods and has invited a select group of friends to join him for 'the duration', including Jimmy and his girlfriend Paula.

However, Ken's wife Patty has other ideas, and invites along far more people than Ken wanted, and as the woman wearing the pants, gets her own way, no arguments.

As the impact of the financial collapse spreads across the state, Jimmy and his group find themselves thrown into a world where humanity's morals are rapidly falling to the wayside. Throw in a bunch of bad guys (motorcycle gang, insane extremist pastor etc.), some more good guys (the town doctor, Patty's hair-stylist) and a whole bunch of easily influenced people, and you have the making of a good PA drama.

The characters are a little cookie-cutter, but also have some flaws that make them much more likeable than the characters of some other PA novels I have recently read. They make mistakes, don't believe that everyone has a good side, have complicated relationships and don't miraculously become ninja-warriors when faced with baddies. And sometimes good people die.

There are small excerpts at the start of each chapter make for interesting reading and add some more realism to an already possible scenario.

On the negative side, the dialogue is a little stilted in places, there is no mention of what is happening outside the lake and small town where the book is set, no travellers turning up out of the blue bring news from other places. There are also some editing issues, but I've definitely seen worse.

Overall, if you enjoy PA novels, this one will most probably appeal to you.… (meer)