Book Reviews -- "A Distant Eden" and "The Walk"

I decided to review a couple post-disaster fiction novels today.

The first is A Distant Eden by Lloyd Tackitt. This book follows 4 groups of survivors following a solar storm on the order of the Carrington Event that destroys electrical grids world wide. The story takes place in Texas.

The first group of survivors is Roman and Sarah, an elderly couple living on a small farm retreat in North Texas who have been preparing for the collapse of civilization for years, stockpiling food and seeds, weapons, and other supplies. They are situated in an almost ideal survival land with good climate, plenty of water from a stream, a nearby cave for emergency shelter, game animals and fish, and fairly isolated.

The second group of survivors is a small Rangers or Special Forces team from Fort Hood led by Roman's nephew, Adrian. After the disaster, the military seizes major food warehouses and distribution centers, and begins moving the food onto the military bases to feed the soldiers and their families. However, after this is accomplished, the plan is to discharge the single soldiers, with their firearms and several weeks of MRE rations. Adrian's team decides to follow Adrian as he heads north to his uncle's retreat. Conveniently, in their journey, they rescue a group of young, fit, single, female nurses and doctors, who join their little group.

The third group of survivors are Roman's son, Jerry, and his family, living in Dallas in a small house. The disaster finds them unable to leave their house for several weeks, and so having to shelter "in site" while attempting to avoid human "predators" and solve issues such as water and security. Living in an old-style Southern home raised off the ground with an open crawl space (i.e., mesh wood screens around the bottom edges), they end up moving into a location under the house to give it the appearance of having been abandoned. After Adrian reaches Roman's place, he later leaves with his team to retrieve Jerry.

The fourth group of survivors are Roman's friend, Matt, and his family. Matt is described a a minimalist survivalist--little in food, but heavy on weapons and ammunition. His plan is to evacuate to a wild game preserve in West Texas. However, after arriving at the preserve, he realizes that the carrying capacity of the land can't support his family plus the couple that owns the land, and eventually he decides to head back to Roman's retreat.

The book is intended to be instructional as well as a story, so there are long explanations and monologues about certain topics. Generally, this would be a big turn off in a novel. However, given the nature of the book, to both instruct and entertain, I accepted the speeches. Even with the explanations, I found that the story flowed well and was a quick and easy read. Unlike other books, it wasn't a struggle to get through the book. I believe it is the author's first book. If so, the author clearly has talent, and I would be interested in seeing some other books from him in the future.

Having said that, there were some issue that I have, which I've seen in other survivalist novels and certainly not limited to this book.

I have to say that I was somewhat discouraged by how casually the characters, who are supposedly Christians, would kill people. Anyone scavenging or hunting on their property are looters (ignoring that most of the characters spend the majority of the book doing exactly the same thing) who they have no problem killing. In one scene, Matt and the owner of the game preserve discover that a man, his wife, and young child, have killed one of the deer on the preserve (which by the owners admission, has too many deer anyway). They confront the family, during which the man is killed. The owner then shoots down the woman and the child, justifying it as a mercy killing because they would have starved or been killed by someone else. Who, but God, is to know that? And why have forced a confrontation in the first place over a deer that probably would have been culled anyway? In an odd flip, they catch another "poacher," but let him live because they determine that he is a Christian (and, by chance, is a wildlife biologist that can help the game preserve).


Roman's main concern throughout the book is the so-called "Golden Horde" of people following a collapse. However, the author actually spends very little time on the issue of dealing with large groups of refugees or what happens to them. They essentially disappear during the book, as if swallowed up by the earth, and all that the characters deal with are a few surviving gangs of cutthroats.

Although the military is well organized at the beginning of the book, confiscating/stealing food from warehouses, there is nothing further said on this topic. Nothing else is said about possible "continuity of government" plans or efforts that would surely follow such a disaster.

Although the characters are adamant about rebuilding civilization, they are essentially isolationists with no interest in helping anyone outside their own small group. There is some lip-service paid at the end with establishing a "colony" at another farm (who's owners were killed by looters or gangs), but the focus of the characters is to absolutely avoid drawing attention to themselves--a candle hidden under a bush, so to speak.

In short, it was a quick easy read, but with some standard survivalist clichés and deux ex machina such as the group of military professionals as part of your group, rescuing the nurses in distress, and so on. For 99 cents for the Kindle version, it is worth the read. $7 for the paperback version, though, is probably too much. The book ends with a clear set up for another book. If it is made available at a similar low price for the Kindle, I will probably give it a try.

The second book that I read is The Walk by Lee Goldberg. This book follows Martin Slack, a television network executive, on his journey across L.A. and Hollywood to return to his wife following "the Big One"--an earthquake that has devastated the city. Although Martin has prepared for "the Big One" at his house, he has little or no survival supplies at work or in his vehicle. However, he was lucky enough to have a gym bag in his car with some athletic shoes, and scrounges some water bottles, food, and a first aid kit before heading across the city.

His plan is to not be a hero, but to focus solely on his task, which is to get back to his wife. During his walk, however, he finds a mortally wounded woman who pleads with him to take care of her daughter (who is at a daycare on the other side of the valley), rescues a boy trapped in a car balanced on the side of an overpass, is nearly killed by a flood from a dam collapse, a poison gas cloud, and various explosions from leaking natural gas and gasoline. He also is forced to confront his own personal flaws and demons.

Although primarily a work of entertainment, the book is based on research on what could actually happen in such an earthquake, and so would be a good read for anyone living in an earthquake prone area, and especially the L.A. basin. The main character is woefully unprepared for his journey, so in many respects, the book tends to raise a lot of "what would I do" or "am I prepared for that" scenarios.

There are obviously some points of melodrama, such as a confrontation with a group of Mexican gang members breaking into an ATM, and the various near brushes with death, but it raises very valid points of how would you get back to your retreat or your home if you were forced to get their on foot.

Given the obvious research on what a big earthquake could do, I was surprised by how little attention was given to food and water. The character stuffs his pockets with a few bottles of water, gets some drinks at a couple other locations, but the author pretty much ignores the water issues.

As with A Distant Eden, this book is a very easy read. It was not a book I had to force myself through. I would recommend it.