Freefall

A Violent Anthology

By: Bearded Heathan

Narrated by: Aldus Chapin

Our way of life didn’t end with a bang. There was no pandemic, no foreign invasion, no EMP, and no natural disaster. Our way of life was rotting away in front of our eyes for decades before the violent collapse, but it was an inconvenient truth that no one wanted to address and only a few dared to speak of in private with close friends. It wasn’t discussed in the news, nor was it debated in the capital. It was ignored for as long as it could be until it couldn’t be ignored anymore.

The Parkers were a normal family, well, normal for the 1940’s and 1950’s living in the 2020’s. Sam traveled a lot for work as a risk management consultant and Andi decided to put her career on hold to raise their two girls and homeschool them. They lived on a small homestead in central Missouri and tried to preserve some of the good that came from the nuclear family example all those years ago. They raised their own food as much as they could, preserved what they could, and tried to pass some of this forgotten knowledge on to their girls for future generations. They did this because they felt it was the right path and because they saw the writing on the wall. The nation and society were circling the drain. Society was one spark away from igniting the powder keg to send it over the edge into a free fall.

They thought they were prepared as well as they could be for just about anything. Pandemics, financial collapse, and even the fabled EMP. What they weren’t prepared for was for Sam to be at the epicenter of the event that lit the fuse, while he was half a country away in Colorado. He had to get home. That was his promise to his girls, Daddy would always come home, no matter how long it took or what he had to do. But they’ve got their own fight at home, too. How far would you go to get home? How hard would you fight to make the 800-mile journey home? For Sam, he had to go pretty far to make it. But getting home is when the real trouble begins.

©2024 Samuel J Palmer (P)2024 Samuel J Palmer

Hard to put down

It is a scary how quickly the story went from normal society to collapse. It is a very fast paced story that grabs your attention from the very beginning. I cannot wait for the second book!

The narrator was great!

Sit Down and Hold on

Sit down and hold on for this fast-paced thriller of a post-apocalyptic ride that seems a little too realistic. An unexpected event is all the spark needed to change the world for one man and his family. He picks up people along the way who refuse to agree with the false narrative being spoon-fed to the rest of the country, It is a little too realistic and possible for me because I hate the thought that something like that could happen to any one of us. (think of the Mike Brown debacle in Ferguson, MO) It is a treatise on how anyone can be villainized by the powers that be even when they are in the right.
Sam Parker's dedication to making it home to his wife and kids and protecting them at all costs reminds me of the weaknesses in my own life and family. The story moves fast and I had a hard time getting out of the car when I got to my destination because I wanted more, He left it at a cliffhanger suggesting a sequel will be necessary and I can't wait to see where it goes.

Great listen

If you like action movies, let this book play one in your imagination. With only a 30 minute commute, I had to sit in the driveway several times to finish a chapter. The author did a great job laying the groundwork for the series. Looking forward to the rest of them. The narrator also did a great job.

Great read

Not the same old story in this genre. Great read, highly recommend. Hope for more in this series in the future.

It has a lot of true to the events of today

I really like everything about this book. It is easy to follow and it is hard to put it down once you start reading it

Interesting “apocalyptic” take

So nice to have a non-Zombie story! If you’ve paid any attention at all to the news in the last couple decades you can totally see some of this happening. Yes, conspiracy theories, yes, doomsday preppers, yes, the title is true about violence! But aside from some atrocious grammar and non-Missouri pronunciations, I rather enjoyed this! Kept me interested & wanting to see where the author was going to finish with his main characters and honestly, I’d like to see a book 2!

Gore at the end of days

I received this book for free in exchange for a review. This book wasn't for me. It was focused in the short-term about the few days when things go haywire, less about the aftermath which I enjoy more. I wasn't sure I could make it past the first chapter because the writing was so detail focused on the arms and ammunition (plus some slanderous language that made me cringe). This continued off and on throughout the story and I just couldn't relate. It was definitely gory and detailed. Three stars for me because the idea was good, but the details were far to much for me. I'd have preferred more depth to the story and less to the weaponry and devices of torture.
The narration was...pretty bland and robotic, but not the worst I've ever listened to either.