Forsaking Home: The Survivalist Series, Book 4

Great realistic, relatable and sometimes funny as hell. I'm only up to book 4, but I bought the rest of the books and everything else in my library is collecting dust until I finish this series. For those of you who gave the series 4 stars because you thought the language was too fowl, try living this rough existence and see if a few four letter words escape from your mouth as you wipe your ass with something other than Charmin. This author obviously did his research and also has a very good idea of how different people would react to difficult situations. Each book flows and never lags or gets repetitive. Can't wait to read more.

I have very much enjoyed this series. The main Character (Gordon) tells his part of the story from a first person-real time running narrative. The rest is told by the omniscient author. The thing that stood out in this book is the educational value, it's like a training course for survival with a very interesting story going along at the same time. And this was no boring, mono-thread, or repetitive how to book either. There was a wide range of interesting characters that you come to root for, and some that you want to cheer as they get their just rewards. And the story spins through situation after situation that would definitely occur in a life where all the things we take for granted are suddenly gone. The sad part is the terror and cold blooded acts that people can do unto others when society breaks down. in a matter of days, Gordon's life (and everyone else's ) turns into a bitter nightmare. As we traveled and fought beside Gordon, his family, his growing group of trusted allies, along with the Sarge and his boys, you really get a feeling of being there with them. Struggling with them. But, I was very pleased with how this book finished up; his frayed life and those of his family and friends that came together along the way get to finally return to their abandoned neighborhood. it was not a fairytale ending. But it was closure. And left the reader with a thought that maybe things would, someday, return to SOME semblance of normalcy for the people of the (forever changed) United States. A American leaves us with something precious at the end....hope.in this fourth and finale book by A American, Sarge and his unit plot to save the people in the DHS' so called "refugee" camp, which in reality is a brutal "prison". A prison in which the illegal branch of a military contractors are filtering through people to send to work camps spreading out across the country. They lure people in with the promise of food, security from the anarchy running amuck everywhere across the country. desperate, and starving families flock to the facility only to find out that they are separated; the young and strong put to work, the old, infirm, or those branded as trouble makers ....just disappear.Gordon and his group hiding out, at their secret spot near the river have to stay on constant alert for marauding groups of thieves and killers. It's a never ending struggle for Gordon to keep his people safe and fed. Since the day the world 'stopped', he and his ever extending family has had to do extraordinary and take extreme measures (some most undesirable, indeed) to survive. The harsh reality is a thing that in and of itself would be the end of a lesser man.This is one of my favorite post apocalyptic series. It's DETAIL and humanity as well as the strength of the average everyday 'Joe' stepping up to the plate, and find himself reaching deep down into surprising depths of fortitude.

[Update: after re-reading my comments, I'm dropping my review to 2-stars. I started with 3 because still had a lot favorable memories of the first two books. To be really honest, this one didn't do them justice.]I really enjoyed the first two books of this series and I was pretty much hooked. The third, Escaping Home, was good, but not great. This fourth book was my least favorite by far. While I appreciate how much work an author must do to keep an expanding "world story" coherent, most of Forsaking Home was light on detail, too formulaic in the story line and too simplistic in outcomes. This is a 3-star book, at best. Worth buying to stay with the story, but not much more. This felt more like a quick turn to cash-out by the author than any inspired creativity.The best way I can summarize this book is an episode of Little House on the Prairie crossed with an episode of the A-Team. Lots of pseudo-action, some simplistic drama (teen suicidal ideas because no more internet? Really?), a few non-life-threatening wounds, all the kids safe and everything neatly wrapped up in the end. Happy? Sure. Great writing? Not so much.My disappointment started with the discussion on soap making - I thought this would be a great way to incorporate some "survival knowledge" into the book while expanding the character development of the families at the river camp. But after a lot of buildup, some discussion of technique and starting with soaking wood ash, it just...petered out, and suddenly the soap was done.Morgan's execution style murder of the old hermit disturbed me. No harm had truly come to Little Bit, and the circumstances of her "abduction" were pretty sketchy. Clearly the old guy was weird, maybe even creepy, but not warranting a snap shot to the head. This was especially unbalanced considering Morgan's ultimate disposition with Andy's little group of misfits after multiple attempts at robbery, shooting at the boat on the river and veiled threats about future encounters. The level of the river camp's security and daily routine was just woefully substandard - something I found surprising given Morgan's otherwise very thoughtful approach to being prepared.At the bigger level, I found the whole DHS camp situation and it's take-down via Sarge's "trojan horse" plan far too stereotypical, too pointless and too simple. The "enhanced" interrogation of Shane was silly. And what the heck happened to the evil Niigata - nobody wants to know? The camp's connectivity to other internment areas and overall command and control was completely missing in any detail. Why would the "government" go to all the trouble of setting up an EMP attack on America, establish DHS control and camps, and then not have any reaction forces or air support? No expected supply convoys? No preparation for putting people out on the mentioned "plantation" farms? This is where the depth of story-telling just flopped.Finally, concluding with the move back to their old neighborhood, I just found this to be too easy and convenient. So one DHS camp is removed from the equation and all of central Florida is now safe? If anything, I would expect the action in that part of the country to heat up with a government counter-response, not let things go back to normal. And if Sarge is connected back to patriotic military forces opposed to the DHS take-over, why wouldn't there be some sort of larger picture or future planning involved?Overall, you get to follow Morgan, Thad and Sarge for some more light adventure. The females are all neatly type-cast as toilet-paper loving support pieces or cutesy-pie kiddos. And the bad guys are two-dimensional henchmen of an evil government conspiracy. If there's a fifth book, I will certainly wait until it is deeply discounted before I buy it.

I am enjoying these books apart from one thing, I cannot stand Morgan's wife she is such a pain in the neck and so can he be sometimes. Love it when its Sarge and his men, Thad and the bits about the internment camp. Good read all round.

I love theses books, the characters keep growing and all the survival tips are awesome.

read over a weekend very fast compared to books 2&3, can't wait for deliveries of rest in series.

more of the carter clan and friends, keep 'em coming

loving this series