Viking Wolf Reads: Robert Boren-Texas Lockdown (Bug Out Texas #1)

It’s a normal day at the Dripping Springs Superstore. Shoppers look at merchandise while keeping their kids under control. Customers wait in the check-out lines, some chatting, others silently bored. Everything is about to change. Terrorists rush in with guns blazing, killing all who try to escape, rounding up the rest to hold hostage. Carrie, pregnant mother with a four-year-old at home, escapes into a stockroom closet. She calls her husband Jason, an Austin PD officer.

Jason and his partner find a raging massacre in the parking lot. They attack, badly outnumbered until Kelly and his rednecks fly onto the parking lot in their pickup trucks, shooting the terrorists where they stand. Inside the store, Carrie’s hiding place is about to be discovered. She pulls the pistol from her purse and waits, firing when her closet is opened, killing the enemy fighters. As her husband frantically searches for her, Carrie slips into the storefront and attacks, foiling the terrorist’s plans. Reunited, Carrie and Jason think the danger is over. They are wrong.

Terrorists attack them at home later that night, forcing them to flee into the darkness. Others join them as they try to find safety, the relentless enemy hounding them wherever they go. Now there is only one thing left to do. Fight back. Hunt the hunters.

A terrorist attack at a shopping mall in Dripping Springs by Islamic extremists starts a war in Texas. Bad guys are flooding across the Texas borders in huge numbers leaving law enforcement and border patrols overwhelmed. The local police and sections of the military realise that they cannot contain the threat without the help of armed civilians across the state. Their efforts are being stopped by the Federal government who are using draconian measures to try and stop citizens joining the fight to save their homes, loved ones and way of life as more terrorists take them on.

This is a spin off from the highly enjoyable Bug Out series (I suggest you read that one first) which had citizens in their 60's to 80's in RV's taking on psycho militia, terrorists and part of their own military. I wasn't sure what to expect from this spin off as it is set in the same timeline as Bug Out, happening at the same time in Texas as events in Bug Out took place in California, Arizona and Utah. I wondered if it would be too similar but it wasn't. Events we heard about in Bug Out are briefly reported using TV news flashes which lets you compare the timeline without being bored by it being repeated.

This book begins with two Austin police officers Jason and Kyle rushing to the shopping mall to save Jason's pregnant wife Carrie, who is hiding in a shop with fellow shopper Kate while terrorists execute innocent people. The incident ends as the police, shoppers and armed rednecks take on the enemy with their legally owned weapons. However things turn bad soon after when the civilian shooters start getting targeted in their homes by revenge attacks, causing them to flee in their RV's. We see much more more of the terrorists in this book rather than the corrupt militia which dominate the early Bug Out books so although the characters flee in their vehicles, the plot still feels different.

We follow Jason, wife Carrie, daughter Chelsea, and his police partner Kyle and new girlfriend Kate as they flee towards Fredricksburg to link up with Jason's parents. Jason's brother Eric, girlfriend Kim and dog Paco are heading to Texas from Florida, hoping to stay out of trouble as they try to get across the locked down Texas border. The rednecks led by Kelly, Brenda and Junior split into groups to evade the terrorists with a specific meeting place in mind. There is the totally mad Curt who reminds me of Burt Gummer from Tremors! We also follow Department of Public Safety Patrol Boaters Juan Carlos and Brendan as they patrol Falcon Reservoir where terrorists try to cross to Texas and local law enforcement led by Chief Ramsay and Officer Sam Reilly, who are trying to fight the bad elements in the military and Federal government to try and save Texas. I really like all these characters and I'm already rooting for them!

We have the less pleasant characters in the form of slippery Simon Orr, trying to recruit rednecks for the militia as he was doing in Bug Out. I hate that guy! There is also the President of the Texas State Senate Kip Hendrix, whose obsession with secretary Maria is downright creepy and a source of worry for his advisor Jerry. They and Police Commissioner Holly have been trying to bring in gun control, unlimited migration, Sharia Courts in Muslim areas, leading them into conflict with local people. Now that Texas is under threat from terrorists, their previous stance makes them deeply unpopular-except in the government.

It was so great to see General Walker back in this book, trying to recruit the DPS guys to be part of his civilian fighter network which we hear so much about in Bug Out. We also hear the work of General Hogan mentioned too, which was great though he has yet to appear. I'm hoping we might get a glimpse of or hear about other Bug Out characters as we go along.

The main element of this book was introducing the characters and getting them all fleeing the situation in their RV's. They are trying to travel while under threat of terrorist attacks on the road and at RV parks like Bug Out but also attacks on the mall, a popular bar and the DPS border patrols so it has the same feel as Bug Out but is also new and different in other ways. I really enjoyed the book and can't wait to read the rest!

Wolf Rating: 🐺🐺🐺🐺🐺

                                                                Robert Boren

Blog Relaunch!

 

I have started to miss blogging & having a regular routine so I'm going to be relaunching this blog in about a week's time. I'm back on Twitter & can be followed under the new title of VikingWolf, instead of Chuckles Book Cave. I'm still @chucklesthescot so if we were following each other, you'll not need to request to follow. I'll be keeping Chuckles Book Cave for the blog title though as books will remain a big focus.😎

Wolf Wanderings: This is to be a regular series showing my photos of places I've visited on day trips & holidays over the years, & perhaps gorgeous scenery from around the world on my favourite photographic subjects.😍

Six Degrees of Separation: I really enjoyed taking part in this & I'm glad to see that it's still running. It was always fun to do. Hopefully I'll start this again.😊

Five Of The Best: As much as I enjoyed Top Ten Tuesday, I feel like I've done the various topics on there so many times. So I'm going to do posts where I pick a top 5 on a subject & share them with you instead.😉

Book Reviews: Yes I'm going to still be doing book reviews! New reviews will be under the title of Viking Wolf Reads, my twitter name. I don't enjoy writing them but I really need to make the effort & write them as soon as I finish reading them.😒

Chuckles Retro Reviews: I'll be posting a few of these older reviews during periods where I have no reviews to share or where I can't be bothered writing one!😄

Chuckles Mini Review Catchup: The odd time where I only have short reviews to share, I'll put a few together in one of these posts. 😁

Tackling The TBR: It's not that I WANT to be reminded of the ton of books I haven't read but I'm going to do regular updates on my progress. I don't buy as many books as I used to so hopefully I can put a real dent in my pile as I'm reading regularly again.😬

Chuckles Weekend Roundup: This is going to be more about what I've been doing during the week, anything I've bought, anything of interest in the world of Chuckles.😝

Chuckles With Chuckles: I'll be trying to put some funny posts in from time to time to have a bit of a laugh.😀

Wolf Watch: This will be about what I'm watching on TV, any films I'm looking at, & a regular update on the fate of my sporting teams.🐺

Other than a weekend roundup post & maybe Six Degrees of Separation, I won't be doing anything on set days so I can be more flexible & get a good balance with my off blog time. That was the issue before, too much bloody pressure & it all became a chore. This time I want it to be fun!

Long overdue update

Has it really been this long since I posted here? When I gave up writing the book blog, due to the time & energy it was taking up, I also stopped reading & reviewing. I've been offline so much that I even forgot my log in details for using Twitter or whatever its called now. I sort of lost myself for a while, lost my love of books, lost motivation for really doing anything much.

In the last few months, I've started reading regularly again, started going back to watching films which I hadn't done in over a year. I'm not sure what sparked the change but I'm enjoying my reading this year. I've read a lot of political books so I can clear a pile to the charity shop & haven't been buying many. I'm rereading Robert Boren's 'Bug Out' series & I'm reading for hours at night again like I used to. Many I'll get tackling those tbrs a bit better from now on!

One thing I can't be bothered with is writing reviews. You know how much I hated that part of having a book blog. I'm not even writing reviews for them on Goodreads but that might change in the future, who knows. I don't think I'll be resuming this blog for that reason. I've tried leaving comments on a few blogs but it's stopping me doing it so far. I'll keep trying. You might see my name pop up at some point!

I'm sorry to have lost touch with so many of you. I might see you around on Twitter & Goodreads as I get back into a routine. Hopefully I'll work out how to comment again on some blogs!

Take care everyone

Chuckles

Chuckles Blog Update

I don't know where this month has gone to be honest as I've been so busy off the computer that it is making my head spin. I'd fully intended to at least be back visiting your blogs and leaving comments by now but things have just got away from me. I'll give you an idea how crazy things have been.

 

Most of you are aware that it has been almost a year since we lost my uncle to Covid and we were struggling to try and deal with all the legal issues last year. My dad gave in and hired a lawyer in April who has taken charge of the 'estate' (basically the house!), is dealing with companies looking for money from us and reducing our stress levels. They hired someone to clear out and clean the house for us and now, this week it is finally going on the market for sale. It is a huge relief to get this dealt with as it has taken up a lot of time, energy and stress to get to this stage. The housing market is good for sellers right now so we hope for a decent price and a quick sale to get it over with.  

 

My dad has been waiting for a knee operation for two years now and was meant to get it done last summer but it was cancelled because of the pandemic. He has been told it is going ahead this summer and he will be on a list for cancellations at short notice. That got us into a real panic because we still have all the good stuff from my uncle's house inside ours, waiting to be sorted into keep or charity shop etc. We have all the stuff from our house ready to go to either the dump or charity shops. The place is in a mess! Lockdown rules keep changing in our area so we don't know from one week to the next whether non essential shops are open or closed, what the charity shop is taking or not, what hours the dump is running and what we can get rid off...it's chaos when these sites aren't giving updates on it all. 

 

My dad is also struggling to drive some days because of the knee which makes things more difficult. This has all been taking up a lot of our time, trying to get ready for this operation and knowing he can't drive for two months after it. He's also had a change of diet on doctors orders which means more frequent supermarket deliveries to get in the fresh fruit. Wiping down every item we get in each delivery each week is also time consuming. He's also having insomnia off new medication which limits how much he feels up to doing so I'm doing it all some days. My dad's room is a disaster zone with boxes/bags full of old cds everywhere but the charity shops aren't taking much of that at the moment so we are struggling to get rid of it. Add in the usual housework and 90 minutes of exercise every day and I'm not getting much time for anything else during the day. 

 

So overall I've been pretty busy each day and at night that is my relax in my room watching stuff time so I'm not on the computer then either. I haven't read anything this month as I'm now trying to get a pile of stuff watched to clear some space on various shelves. I have boxes full of series recorded from tv plus bought dvd box sets breeding everywhere! I intend to have a summer of getting stuff watched so I can catch up on a few series and get rid of stuff I don't like. I'm trying not to think about the book pile right now but that will be my task for winter I think. Things are pretty chaotic right now and I still don't know if I'm going to have a blog running when this busy month ahead is finished. I haven't had time to even think about it to be honest. I am pleased to report that I had my second vaccine dose last week and only had a slightly sore arm in the way of side effects, so that is my dad and I done until we need these booster shots later this year.

 

That's my update for now. I hope you are all staying safe.

Take care

Chuckles

Unexpected Blog Break

 

Hi guys!

Sorry I just seemed to vanish without word earlier in April. To be honest I wasn't planning a blog break of any kind. I just got really annoyed with Blogger messing me about on a few of the posts I was doing. I also happened to be reading a book written by one of the DS from SAS Who Dares Wins (Ollie's newest book, for those who know the show) and the book was about looking at the time consuming things in your life, the things you do out of habit or addiction etc and deciding why you do it and if you should continue with these things if they don't add to your life. It's got me thinking about the blog being so time consuming when Blogger is doing my head in, how I hate writing the book reviews and so on. It sort of got me wondering again about the long term future of my blog which has been a theme for me since last summer.

Can I see myself doing this blog in five years time if Blogger continues to arse me about over simple graphics and text? No, to be honest. Are there other things I could be doing like reading and getting stuff watched? Yes. Am I also tired of the toxic social media environment I'm wading through? Yes. I guess I didn't realise how draining it all was and on the 13th I think it was I told myself I couldn't be bothered blogging that day and went off to do other stuff. I ended up exercising, weight training with my new weights, varnishing the fences, watching reruns of favourite stuff, browsing the internet just for fun. To be honest, the caterpillar cake wars (Colin v Cuthbert), Ed Balls Day and the failed European Super League had me so entertained that I forgot to go back to the blog and I realise I've been away from it for two weeks without thinking about it or realising. The question is, what now?

 

I just wanted to let you know that everything is ok with me despite my vanishing so suddenly. My health is fine, my dad got his second Pfizer dose earlier this week and he's ok, my mood is fine and I'm not depressed or anything. I'm just trying to have a think about things but I'm not reaching any conclusions yet. I'm off the blog and social media until Monday as there is a anti-racism boycott going on in the UK but after that you'll see me active on Twitter. At the moment I'm hoping to start visiting your blogs next week to say hello, and I plan to continue keeping in touch like that for now even if the blog isn't posting anything. So I will see you guys around while I ponder things for a bit longer!

 

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones

Chuckles