Book Review: Lights Out in America's Dairyland by Victor Marbury

After A devastating EMP event. Ben, a dedicated prepper and police officer is caught away from his home and supplies when a naturally generated EMP knocks out the world-wide electrical grid and all unprotected electronics. With the help of his new friends, Simone, Robert, and Mitch, Ben tries makes his way back to Milwaukee and his extensive stockpile. During the ride, Ben and company will encounter new friends, enemies and an old nemesis from the past who harbors a grudge from years before.

Before the EMP hits, Ben is on a police bike riding course where the instructor Gary is determined to fail him for no other reason than deciding he dislikes him. Forced unfairly to take the test again, Ben is with fellow rider Simone when the EMP hits and a runaway truck kills Gary and another cop. Ben, Simone and Robert decide to stay together and head home, but self appointed leader of the rest of the group Judy (who fancied Gary) attempts to stop them, making them stay. When this doesn't work she then demands they hand over Ben's supplies and weapons. She even pouts, yells and stamps her foot when Ben decides to ignore her and they leave her and her other cop cronies to their own fates.

At the same time, the EMP has the President and his people headed onto the underground train along with his Congress of Horrors. The Speaker is plotting to murder anyone at the safe bunker that tries to stop her getting control of the President and ruling him, thinking up some accidents that could occur. The weak pathetic President is being yelled at by his foul mouthed harpy of a wife. Meanwhile we find out that the idiot President cut funding for maintaining the tracks of the railway and nobody bothered to check it before they left, so when the train hits a weak spot at top speed, a crash occurs and everyone on it is suddenly killed. How convenient! And why exactly were all of the line of succession to the Presidency all travelling together in one train, hmm? 

Between evil bike man Gary, pouting foot stamping Judy and the cast of Wacky Races on the train, I did a lot of eye rolling as the first part of this book progressed. Ben himself had a habit of preaching to rather than just explaining all his thoughts about survival as they went along but at least this group of three were tolerable. The best characters were prepper shopkeeper Mitch and his loyal dog Rommel, who joins with them after raiders try to take his property from him. They pack up and leave in the direction of the homes of Ben and his friends. After proceeding through a roadblock set up by the people of the town, they can rest for a bit.

It was in the town that I lost patience with the book. There was the evil cult who had brainwashed dumb women into becoming whores and spies for their warrior men who were looting all around the area. The problem was that the male leaders felt like more Wacky Races bad guys and I couldn't take them seriously. Meanwhile the spy, despite everyone thinking she was a spy, is allowed to roam free and kill someone before being caught. Meanwhile Ben fancies the female top cop and gets laid. Of course he does. I lost interest here. 

The characters just never felt like real people to me. They were cardboard cutouts and total cliches, with Mitch being the one character that I really liked, along with his loyal dog. But even wanting to know what happened to them didn't keep my attention enough to want to enter the second part of the book. Having a female chief was great...until she of course had to have sex with our intrepid hero. It was just annoying. The whole treatment of the spy made no sense. When someone new arrives claiming to have escaped the bad guys you are fighting with, you can't just let her wander about to guage your strength and weapons! You contain her until she is checked out!

I just wanted Rommel to eat most of them...

Read January 2018
DNF-1 stars