Book Review: Unexpected World by Chris Pike

Author Chris Pike's debut novel is a gritty and compelling survival tale about human courage and steadfast determination to live, to endure, and to persevere against all odds.

Assistant District Attorney Dillon Stockdale is on the phone with his daughter when an EMP obliterates the entire electrical grid of the United States. Anything relying on a computer is fried, including the plane his daughter is on. Gripped with the terrifying realization the plane has crash-landed somewhere in the expansive and dangerous landscape of Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin, Dillon sets out to rescue her before it’s too late.

A harrowing survival story with non-stop, pulse-pounding action, Unexpected World is a story of good vs. evil, of a complex narrative of fight or flight, and mind-bending choices resulting in profound consequences. Dillon Stockdale is determined, he’s well-equipped, and nothing will stop him. Or will it? 

My Review: 
Dillon is a deputy DA who thinks he is on the verge of a big win and calls his daughter, who is on a plane to share his excitement. As they talk an EMP hits, causing her plane to crash and another plane to crash into the building that he is in. With his rival defence council Holly, he is able to escape her veangeful client and get out of the building alive. Dillon has to get home first so he can gather the supplies that he will need to set out on the dangerous journey to get Cassie, knowing her flight went down in the swamps.

The first thing that attracted me to the series was the gorgeous set of covers. I mean who can resist a colourful cover for an apocalypse book that also features a faithful hound! The down side to a dog on the cover of course is the fear for the fate of the dog, something that I always get nervous about. I also like these dangerous journeys after the apocalypse type stories where we see the gradual breakdown of society and how our heroes cope with the new world that they are living in. The book begins with a bang as the EMP hits and the planes begin to crash. Dillon has to travel 5 miles with the injured Holly to get to his house where faithful hound Buster awaits his return and then the next stop is to be Holly's house, from where Dillon will set out to find his daughter.

I was disappointed that the book pretty much skipped out the usually interesting part of the dangerous journey home. We get nothing about Dillon's trek to his home at all and we don't get a great amount of detail on the actual trip to find Cassie. We get a couple of encounters with a helpful man and a hungry alligator but not much else. Most of the focus is on the time spent at Holly's house and the start of a steriotypical apocalypse love story beginning between them. I found the focus on their attraction somewhat annoying when it was there instead of good apocalypse moments. If that wasn't bad enough, Cassie has decided to love the guy who was sitting beside her on the plane like a lovely little Twilight moment, and of course he happens to be the long lost son of Holly...how wonderfully convenient! Gah!

Holly was really annoying to me. She is the steriotype female character who doesn't quite believe how bad things are going to get and she questions every decision that Dillon makes. It left me wanting her to just shut up. I got really mad at her when she just decides to go and look at the jewellery of Dillon's dead wife and start trying it on and when she is almost caught by Dillon, decides to keep wearing it for the journey. Listen lady lawyer, that is called stealing and you should never be doing that in these circumstances! There is also the fact that Dillon pandering to her delays his trip to get his daughter when that should've been his first priority. And of course Holly never bothers to mention the fact that she has a bad infection that requires medical treatment so again Dillon when he finally finds out has to detour for medicine before looking for Cassie. Jeez, Holly is a pain.

It was a bit of a silly plot at times. Holly doesn't know who her son is and it is just so convenient that he has hooked up with Dillon's daughter so there could be cozy double dating in their future. Yeuch. Holly's psycho client Cole just happens to be the daddy who has blackmailed her into representing him as he knows where their son is and if she wins the case he'll tell her. Of course Cole then decides to take over the town where Holly is living and naturally only Dillon is willing to take a stand. It is just too farfetched even for an apocalypse book for me and every bit of plot seems to centre on the irritating Life Of Holly and not on the more interesting parts of the apocalypse that we aren't seeing!

It was more angst that apocalypse tension and I felt that it was just lacking the tension and excitement that I expect in this genre, and that was really disappointing. The plot was slow and didn't greatly excite me and the characters weren't greatly exciting. It was decent enough to read once but I don't have any interest in reading any more in the series as there are better apocalypse series out there.

Read March 2019
3 stars.