"The Remaining: Refugees" by D.J. Molles

Title: The Remaining: Refugees

Author: D.J. Molles
Publisher: Orbit

Book Three of The Remaining

Blurb:

He has fought the fight, and run the race.

But the enemies never stop coming, and the race has no finish line.

It has been three months since Captain Lee Harden found the survivors at Camp Ryder. With winter looming, Lee is on the verge of establishing Camp Ryder as a hub of safety and stability in the region. But not everyone agrees with Lee’s mission…or his methods. Growing tensions between camp leadership are coming to a head, and as Lee struggles amid the dissention and controversy, new revelations about the infected threaten to destroy everything he has worked for.

Synopsis:

By the end of book two, Captain Lee Harden, one of 48 coordinators, has established he can be trusted. Book three picks up the story three months after the end of book two. Dissention is in Camp Ryder with two sub groups not wanting to accept the way the world is and challenging Captain Harden's mission.

Throughout the book, we learn more of what is happening in the United States through the arrival of various new refugees to Camp Ryder. One of these is a CDC scientist who was studying FURY, and was rescued by one of the coordinators. The coordinator dies and charges him with locating Captain Harden with vital information.

Later in the book another coordinator turns up with disturbing news of the new government, and the fact that Captain Lee Harden is now a "non-viable asset". Without wanting to give away the story, Lee's life is on the line....

Verdict:

At 375 pages, this book took me about 8 hours to finish. I am not sure I am completely happy where the story is going, (pregnant zombies being killed, hence a lower rating), but as the storytelling is great, I will see what book four brings.

Rating: 4/5

"The Remaining: Aftermath" by D.J. Molles

Title: The Remaining: Aftermath

Author: D.J. Molles
Publisher: Orbit

Book Two of The Remaining

Blurb:

Nothing has gone according to plan.

To Captain Lee Harden, Project Hometown feels like a distant dream and the completion of his mission seems unattainable.

Wounded and weaponless, he has stumbled upon a group of survivors that seems willing to help. But a tragedy in the group causes a deep rift to come to light and forces him into action. In the chaos of the world outside, Lee is pursued by a new threat: someone who will stop at nothing to get what he has.

Synopsis:

By the end of book one, Captain Lee Harden, one of 48 coordinators, has rescued a mother (Angela) and her daughter (Abby) and a young lad (Sam). They end up at Camp Ryder, a refugee camp located in a Ryder Truck compound 3 miles south west of Angier in North Carolina.

He offers the leader (Bus) of the compound help, but shortly after their arrival, a gang of criminals/miscreants cuts the wire into the compound and lets some infested in. This results in the death of a young girl, and Harden is soon blamed for being in league with 'Milo', the leader of the gang. His task then starts, not only to get the compound supplies, but also to get their trust.

Heading out to one of his supply caches, Harden finds a preacher and his flock camping outside of the bunker, he gives them aid and the directions to reach Camp Ryder. On the way back to camp, Harden and a few of the Ryder refugees detour to Smithfield in search of one of the refugee's sister. 'Milo' has his own plans for Harden, and things get interesting....

Verdict:

At 296 pages, this book took me about 6 hours to finish. Once again the story is well written and keeps you enthralled for the whole journey. I can't wait to see what is in store for Harden and the Camp Ryder refugees in book three.

Rating: 5/5

"The Remaining" by D.J. Molles

Title: The Remaining
Author: D.J. Molles
Publisher: Orbit

Book One of The Remaining

Blurb:

In a steel-and-lead-encased bunker 20 feet below the basement level of his house, a soldier waits for his final orders. On the surface, a plague ravages the planet, infecting over 90% of the populace. The bacterium burrows through the brain, destroying all signs of humanity and leaving behind little more than base, prehistoric instincts. The infected turn into hyper-aggressive predators, with an insatiable desire to kill and feed. Some day soon, the soldier will have to open the hatch to his bunker, and step out into this new wasteland, to complete his mission: TO RESCUE AND REBUILD.

Synopsis:

Captain Lee Harden, one of 48 coordinators is ordered into his bunker below his house when a plague known as FURY starts to spread within the United States on June 15th.

June 28th was the last day most news websites were last update. By July 3rd, he loses contact with his superiors.

On July 23rd, Lee finally leaves his bunker emerging into a world of destoy or be killed. He immediately learns how the living have changed into those that are the hunters and those that are the hunted. Violent people group together now that law no longer exists to commit whatever crimes they chose, leaving decent people or the meek to be preyed upon.

Lee has to resuce a boy and learns just how far people have come in just a month. Lee must become judge, jury and executioner in the eyes of the law. His mandate requires him to deliver swift justice.

The book focuses on how the character focuses on his mission and the problems he faces in trying to re-establish society.

Verdict:

This story took me a little over four hours to read (219 pages) and has that "don't want to put it down until you have finished it" feel. The story is really well written and keeps you on the edge through the whole book. The description Molles uses in his writing allow you to really picture what is happening as though you were watching a TV series. This would sit right alongside "The walking dead" as a good show.

Rating: 5/5

"A Beautiful Friendship" by David Weber (short story)

Title: More Than Honor

Author: David Weber
Publisher: Baen

This is the first short story in the book "More Than Honor" which is the first volume in the Worlds of Honor series in the Honorverse.

Synopsis:

The story takes place in the year 1518 PD (Post Diaspora) or 3620 AD, approximately 382 years before the events of "On Basilisk Station". The story centers around the first treecat/human interaction on the planet sphinx.

Climbs Quickly, a young treecat scout of the Bright Water clan, ventures to a human settlement intrigued by the plant known to the treecats as "cluster stalk", a plant unlike any known to the 'cats, with a delicious taste.

Stephanie Harrington, an eleven-year-old girl whose family has recently migrated to Sphinx from the planet Meyerdahl is determined to find out who keeps stealing celery from greenhouses and gardens all over Sphinx.

In the middle of a nightime thunderstorm, Stephanie finally catches Climbs Quickly sneaking out of the greenhouse. The two young beings experience a moment of deep psychic connection, the first bonding between a human and a treecat has just occurred.

Wanting to know more about the treecat, Stephanie sets out to track them, with consequences she could not of thought could happen....

Verdict:

This story took me a little over two hours to read and is well written. The story stands on its own merit, with no knowledge needed about David Weber's Honorverse. It was an enjoyable sunday afternoon read.

Rating: 4/5

"By The Book" by Charles E. Gannon (short story)

Title: Beginnings

Author: David Weber
Publisher: Baen

This is the first short story in the book "Beginnings" which is the sixth volume in the Worlds of Honor series in the Honorverse.

Synopsis:

The story takes place in the year 2352, (1650 years before the events of "On Basilisk Station"). It centers around Lieutenant Lee Strong of the Earth Union Customs Patrol, whose current mission as the story starts is to board a hijacked space liner on the outskirts of the Sol System's asteroid belt. The story develops into understanding the earths future history and political strifes up to 2354, the politically split Earth Union is divided between two factions, whom do not have a common agenda.

Without giving the story away, Lee Strong has to discover who is behind the hijacking and the wider implications that are behind it. He must decide where his political allegiance lies and what if anything he is going to about them.

Verdict:

This story took me a little over an hour to read and is well written. If I did not know anythng about David Weber's Honorverse, it would not make a single difference as the story stands on its own merits. What this does do is set up an area for David Weber or other authors to fill in the gap between mankind living in our own solar system and the point where we are colonising the galaxy.

Rating: 4/5