Wednesday
Aug192009
A Pittsburgh Storm by David R. O'Keeffe
Wednesday, August 19, 2009 at 2:37PM
I just finished the ebook of A Pittsburgh Storm by David R. O'Keeffe, which I picked up on Smashwords for just $1.25.
Here's the summary from Smashwords: "Early next year, a deadly and unexplained virus emerges on the US continent. Within weeks, the entire world's population faces extinction. Amongst the chaos of a ruined world stand a few mysteriously unaffected individuals. Lost and alone. This is the bizarre story of one of those individuals as he travels through the Pennsylvania country, in search of meaning in this newly desolate world."
I was excited when I first came across it, because it's in my absolute favorite sub-genre of post-apocalyptic fiction; specifically, near-term story of survivors of a plague-type event which leaves the infrastructure intact, but removes the majority of the people. Though I haven't read it in 15 years, I still count The Stand as my favorite novel of all time, and A Pittsburgh Storm sounded like it could have taken place in the same universe.
It's short, only 190 pages formatted on my Bebook, and it was pretty good, though I can't say I loved it. I liked the exploring the empty city parts, but some of the events didn't strike me as likely. For example, just a few days after the plague kills 99% (or more) of the population, the main character finds and joins an organized group of survivors who are already trying to rebuild. Then they start raiding apartment buildings for food and supplies, and I kept thinking that no matter how bad the riots were during the plague, there must be a Costco or a food distribution warehouse somewhere that wouldn't be entirely wiped out yet. And the dynamic of the group was a bit forced. I couldn't understand why the characters would think the way they did, and the whole episode seemed like a setup for a fairly obvious revelation.
Those events only take up about the first third of the book, but there are a few other situations that made me think "Huh, really?", and overall, there didn't seem to be an overarching point to the story. It was kind of "two weeks in the life of a survivor", but there wasn't much of a closing at the end. It kind of just stopped.
I know this sounds basically negative, but I really did like the story. I could never write a book like this, and have great respect for those who can, especially when it's in my favorite genre. I have no problem supporting independent authors like this, particularly if it means they'll continue on to bigger and better things.
If you don't want to shell out the entire $1.25 to read it for yourself, Mr. O'Keeffe is serializing it for free on his blog, and it's almost finished so you can get most of the story so far.
Up next for my reading enjoyment is another Smashwords ebook, The Jetty Journals by Ian Buchanan. That one's supposed to be very 28 Days Later'ish.
Here's the summary from Smashwords: "Early next year, a deadly and unexplained virus emerges on the US continent. Within weeks, the entire world's population faces extinction. Amongst the chaos of a ruined world stand a few mysteriously unaffected individuals. Lost and alone. This is the bizarre story of one of those individuals as he travels through the Pennsylvania country, in search of meaning in this newly desolate world."
I was excited when I first came across it, because it's in my absolute favorite sub-genre of post-apocalyptic fiction; specifically, near-term story of survivors of a plague-type event which leaves the infrastructure intact, but removes the majority of the people. Though I haven't read it in 15 years, I still count The Stand as my favorite novel of all time, and A Pittsburgh Storm sounded like it could have taken place in the same universe.
It's short, only 190 pages formatted on my Bebook, and it was pretty good, though I can't say I loved it. I liked the exploring the empty city parts, but some of the events didn't strike me as likely. For example, just a few days after the plague kills 99% (or more) of the population, the main character finds and joins an organized group of survivors who are already trying to rebuild. Then they start raiding apartment buildings for food and supplies, and I kept thinking that no matter how bad the riots were during the plague, there must be a Costco or a food distribution warehouse somewhere that wouldn't be entirely wiped out yet. And the dynamic of the group was a bit forced. I couldn't understand why the characters would think the way they did, and the whole episode seemed like a setup for a fairly obvious revelation.
Those events only take up about the first third of the book, but there are a few other situations that made me think "Huh, really?", and overall, there didn't seem to be an overarching point to the story. It was kind of "two weeks in the life of a survivor", but there wasn't much of a closing at the end. It kind of just stopped.
I know this sounds basically negative, but I really did like the story. I could never write a book like this, and have great respect for those who can, especially when it's in my favorite genre. I have no problem supporting independent authors like this, particularly if it means they'll continue on to bigger and better things.
If you don't want to shell out the entire $1.25 to read it for yourself, Mr. O'Keeffe is serializing it for free on his blog, and it's almost finished so you can get most of the story so far.
Up next for my reading enjoyment is another Smashwords ebook, The Jetty Journals by Ian Buchanan. That one's supposed to be very 28 Days Later'ish.
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