Zero Hour

Dark Waters, Book 1

By: Bruno Miller

Narrated by: Andrew Tell

The hardest thing and the right thing are often the same.

Spencer Hayes, along with his girlfriend, Kate, and their dog, Finn, enjoy a life most people only dream about. Living aboard their 31-foot sailboat, Restless, they make the most of all that paradise has to offer. But that changes in the blink of an eye when EMPs strike the east coast of the United States.

Spencer quickly finds himself struggling to survive as the once laid back little town of Marathon in the Florida Keys is thrust into chaos and destruction. To complicate matters further, Kate is out of town visiting her parents in Stuart, Florida when the nuclear attack disables the grid, leaving Spencer with some tough choices to make.

His prior military service gives Spencer an overwhelming sense of duty to his community. But the responsibility he feels to help his fellow man clashes with his desire to reunite with Kate in a world turned upside down.

As humanity unravels, desperation becomes the new normal, adding to the seemingly insurmountable odds he and Finn must overcome in order to survive. Spencer is forced to make decisions he may regret. Only time will tell if the hard thing was also the right thing.

©2023 Bruno Miller (P)2023 Bruno Miller

good

loved it makes you realize how fast people go greedy and all for themselves interesting

Average EMP tale

Drags a bit. Not much action. Man comes back from excursion out on his boat at sea to find EMP left his Florida town a mess. Within 24 hours it’s hell, not sure that’s a true expectation. MC determine to head back out to sea and around to a town where his girlfriend is, but dawdles around before leaving checking on friends and helping people.

Good listen, not superlative

There's multiple reasons for me to rate Zero Hour favorably. Spencer and Finn make a good team and I enjoyed their relationship and interplay immediately. The author gives just enough details, and doesn't get bogged down. The dialogue is believable and profanity isn't overused, I mean Spencer IS a sailor. On that note, I enjoyed the bits and bites about sailing, navigation, fishing, and general nautical discussion. For that alone, I would want to hear book two.
I found the secondary and tertiary characters interesting and look forward to seeing if the author chooses to include any of them in future participation.
However, there were a few reasons that kept me from giving it five stars. The way Marathon degrades to Dante's Inferno almost immediately I guess I can get over. And in the plot summary, it states that Spencer wrestles with what he still perceives as his 'duty'. And there's at least a couple of his decisions that I simply think are utterly ridiculous, moral dilemma or not. I think it's a bit light on word count. The abundance of AR's is... forgivable I suppose. I guess the circles I travel in, they are not so popular.
Generally, the narrator gives a good performance but I guess there's always a discrepancy about pronunciation for a few words. I can blame it on regional dialects. He reads with just enough enthusiasm and doesn't go overboard.