The Historian

Life Before and After

By: Ray Wenck

Narrated by: John Schultz

Twenty years after the horrific nuclear events that devastated the world's population, an organized city of survivors sends out a small exploratory force consisting of scientists and their military escorts. Their mission is to locate new supplies of food and water for the growing community. Few have ventured from the city since the war and fewer returned. Lucas Sanderson is one of four Historians. His job is to document events, both past and present, for future reference and teachings. His appointment to the team is not a popular one with either the military or scientific team members. The journey, though fraught with danger, offers wondrous opportunities. That is, until they are captured by another community whose goals are the same as theirs - find new sources of food, which, by capturing the research team, they have done.

With time running out, Lucas must find a way to rescue his teammates before they can be roasted alive. The fate of the team rests on the shoulders of the one person no one wanted to come along.

©2018 Ray Wenck (P)2021 Ray Wenck

Book one?

The story wa good and the character development good but the narration was terrible. So monotone. I made it through but they couldn’t end it so we see them get back? Instead we buy another short book. No thanks……

Unripened Post-Apocalyptic Adventure

Although this is a fast-paced and uncomplicated action story, it doesn’t seem to have been written for mature adults by an author who has done his research. Some of this might be purposeful, since in many ways, it is a coming-of-age story for a thirty something man (Lucas). Lucas seems to be largely motivated by a desire to please and grow-in-the-eyes of his father and to overcome his perception by his peers as a no-skills book nerd (historian). His thoughts about and interactions with the main female character seem to be pegged at the level of a 17 to 22-year-old introvert with almost no social skills, rather than a 30-something man who has had to fight and struggle to survive for 20 years in a post-apocalyptic world.

A few examples of apparent weak research follow that unnecessarily strain credulity. The reconnaissance team takes off on a hundred-plus mile excursion into unknown territory with an accompanying support truck with food and supplies. In one instance, the squad is fed sandwiches, potato salad and coleslaw. Hot eggs are served for breakfast. It sounds more like a 21st century miracle deli truck than a truck with small field kitchen that can serve hot food to mobile troops. Are we expected to believe that in a post-apocalyptic world with few petroleum resources or other energy sources that there are resources to power a truck with refrigerated storage space and a cook grill and to provide this diverse and calorie-rich a diet? There are abundant gauze dressings and triple antibiotics and spray-on anesthetics to treat injuries 20 years post apocalypse in a small city with no apparent significant raw supplies or manufacturing capability. In several scenes, Lucas fights off the cannibalistic hoards with his AR-15 using full-automatic mode as part of his spray and pray marksmanship style. The AR-15 is semi-automatic (one shot per trigger pull). This is all really simple stuff. The reader can reasonably expect a little more research effort by the author.

The narrator has real problems voicing women.