The Cabin on the Mountain

Post Apocalyptic EMP Survival Fiction

By: Carter Woods, Alexandra Clark

Narrated by: Ramona Master

A riveting post-apocalyptic thriller boxset with over 150 reviews!

The Longest Night

What happens when an EMP sends the West Coast back into the stone age? What happens when all means of transportation and communication suddenly vanish? What happens when you can’t call for help? What happens when the only person you can rely on is yourself?

As society falls into dismay, Carolyn Towne charges headlong into the escalating chaos to protect the only thing she holds dear: her family.

Blackout

After an EMP bomb detonates over the United States, frying the entire electrical grid, Georgie Fitz decides to take refuge at her estranged father’s cabin in the Rocky Mountains with her boyfriend and his family. When they arrive, Georgie discovers that a group of survivalists have already erected a camp there, and her father is nowhere to be found. As she adjusts to her new normal, she has trouble adhering to the survivalists’ rules. Can she fit in at the camp and find out what happened to her father?

©2020 DBS Publishing LLC (P)2020 DBS Publishing LLC

Hard to turn off.

Great book. The beginning was slow. I’m glad I continue listening! I truly recommend this audiobook.

Great book

Great to read. Keep my attention the whole time. Great story telling and details. Will recommend

Awesome story.

This book totally held my interest. Hated to see it end. Likeable characters and fast paced.

Excellent

Good example of how people handle an apocalypse and what they do to survive. The authors are known for the edge to their plots and was well done. Enjoyable narration. Given audio for my voluntary review

Really disappointed in the first story

This review is for the first story of this set. There is so very much wrong with this story.

First, I’m wondering if the writer knows much about horses at all. It seems every horse is a stallion, all of them are bombproof and there is apparently a horse in every garage in Colorado. Within a couple of days after the EMP attack, horses (and guns since everybody has one) are plentiful and every single person not only has acquired one, but knows how to ride. Also, every single horse is completely tolerant of people firing guns off their backs. The very first appropriate horse reaction just happened in the book and I'm a solid 3/4s of the way through it and there’s been at least 5 gun battles already. I’m fully aware there are horses trained to tolerate that, but your average horse absolutely will not. Also, at one point a character fills a container with their canteen for her horse and the ‘horse drinks it’s fill’. Ummmmm nope. A canteen full of water would barely be more than a mouthful for a horse.

Let’s talk about the action. Even though there isn’t clear definition of days passing I think I’m only at about day 3 or 4 at the most. So far there are at least 2 gang armies that have been training together and planning their overthrow of the entire county with a group they just put together. I know society will fall quickly, but this is beyond realistic. The author wants us to believe that society will fall, understand what is happening and the main villain will put together an 80 man army within 2-3 days after an EMP. Oh, and even though these armies have been training (albeit for about a day) oooo-we! They can’t manage to hit a damn thing with a gun. Of course our hero’s can’t miss. They’re all crack shots. (Insert eye roll)

As for the gun battles, the children (12 year old boy and I believe 17 year old girl) shot and killed several people in the morning of day 2. No reaction. The girl was flirting with her boyfriend in a matter of hours after. Again, not realistic. The parents didn’t seem even remotely concerned their children had to kill several people while they were away from the ranch either. Speaking of the 17 year old girl, a stranger is taken in on day 2 and it appears a romance is brewing between them already. Based on his telling of his experiences I’m guessing he is close to 10 years her senior and apparently nobody seems to care. Well, I’m sure her age appropriate boyfriend will eventually when he learns about it.

While I know we don’t fully understand the effects of an actual EMP, unlike the impression this book gives, I’m confident the effects of one do not ‘wear off’. If an electronic device is fried, it’s fried. It doesn’t wear off and start to work again. If transformers are blown they have to be replaced. They don’t start to blink back on. TVs and stove clocks will not turn on for a few seconds as told by the book.

Another reviewer mentioned prepping. The main character family likes to refer to themselves as preppers.....a lot, but the only thing anybody mentions regarding stockpiling is ammo. At one point when food was discussed the mother said she just went to the grocery store so they were set for awhile. What?! They have no back up system in place for cooking, water or anything else. Other than the plentiful gun battle scenes, there isn’t much in the way of survival in this book so far.

I’ll touch on the narrator. I generally avoid books narrated by her. This is seriously not the genre for her. She often sounds incredulous and surprised, both at completely inappropriate times. While she has gotten better and her inflection isn’t quite as bad as earlier books I’ve listened to by her, I think I’ll continue to avoid her with this genre.

Update: Again, the above review was for the first story of this set. The second story I have actually already listened to before and enjoyed it enough the first time that I'm listening to it again. Both the narration and characters are quite good as is the storyline.

the Hallmark version of post apocalyptic fiction

The main characters in this book are perfect people. They might as well be superheroes. But even superheroes have some character flaws, but not the Townes. They are perfect country people. Perfect citizens and perfect preppers and perfect shots. This high fructose corn syrup Colorado ranch family has all the resources and skills they need to survive the EMP - so why even talk about it! Probably one of the worst books I've ever listened to. Poorly edited and poorly written. I'm returning this one.