Bernard Jan's Blog - Posts Tagged "apocalypse"

Doba čuda by Karen Thompson Walker

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I never thought I would see the beauty in the dying of our planet, a slow extinguishing of life on it. First the birds, then the whole flocks of birds, then the grass, plants, trees, whales, other animals.

As days and nights become longer due to the slower rotation of the earth and 24-hour days are more a habit of living than a natural exchange of day and night, people become divided: the great majority returns to the old measuring of time, others opt to follow the extending course of nature and group themselves into new communities.

Gravity and magnetic fields are affected, solar super storms arise, the radiation showers through the damaged ozone layer. Daylight becomes too dangerous, forcing everyone to seek escape and life at nighttime.

People suffer from symptoms, plants can grow only in protected greenhouses, the polar light is painting the Californian sky followed by the first snow. The Sun brings death instead of life, fires are lightening up the horizon, people are moving from their homes or locking themselves in their houses and underground shelters. And the days are still getting longer and the planet is spinning slower and slower.

As the world as we know it is approaching to its catastrophe, there is an unnatural and quiet beauty in the irrevocable changes that are happening all over the planet, witnessed through the—a little too matured—eyes of an 11-year-old girl. Yet, some things don't change despite the omnipresent devastation—the expectations and pain of first love, losing friends, the test of her parents' marriage, all the little aspects of coming of age—as life is slowly extinguished day by day. People seem to be the only living creatures who adjusted and survived on the scorched earth and in an environment-turning-hostile. No one knows for how long though.

Destruction of our planet has never been so gentle, charming, calming and poetic as in The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com



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Bernard Jan

We are witnessing the death of our planet. Or at least its severe destruction. What’s happening in Australia now is something that may happen anywhere else, on any of other continents. Unless we do something and change our living habits.

This is the ugly face of apocalypse that has buried tens of millions of innocent lives in its wrinkles. And devoured and devastated the area the size of some European countries! And it keeps devouring, destroying and taking lives, and animals’ and people’s homes.

It’s time to act now! Prayers won’t put out the fires, but the inhuman efforts of the firefighters and others who are helping them, maybe will. If we help them too.

Please donate any amount you can. Even the smallest donation helps.

You can help the firefighters, you can help the wildlife, and you can help those affected by the devastating bushfires.

They all need us. Australia needs us.

DONATE HERE

Thank you.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

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Triggered by Michael Evans

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In the third novel in the Control Freakz box set, Michael Evans brings Natalie’s life into somewhat calmer but emotionally still challenging and turbulent waters. Unlike in action-and-killing-packed Control Freakz (book 1) and Delusional (book 2), Natalie in Triggered has even more time to look into herself, deals with her regrets and contemplate about her emotional state. The same broken state in which she made some bad moves and wrong decisions. As she becomes aware of the impact she has left on the world and the lives of her closest and dearest ones, she sinks into lethargy, self-pity, depression, and solitude. Before she sets her mind on becoming a new, yet the same old Natalie, determined to make great things for humanity.

Saving the world comes at too great a price and learning the truth can be too hard to handle. But the young author shows no mercy to his protagonists, and that is what I love about his writing. Not mentioning the continuous elements of surprise and his easy-to-read and rich writing style.

This is the review of an older edition of Triggered and some of my review may or may not pertain to the current edition of the novel. But I wanted my review to reflect an honest experience of the story as it was when I read it.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

My review of Control Freakz and Delusional.

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Bernard Jan



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Lone Wolf by Michael Evans

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Too much is going on in my head now to write a standard, comprehensive review. The flood of thoughts and emotions. Which might be a good thing. Because this book hit me like a sledgehammer, and I couldn’t and didn’t want to put it down once I started reading it.

Is it a fight of a sole young man against the strongest dark forces of the world? A boy who lost everything dear and most precious to him on his quest to save the humanity from the darkness descending like a massive dome over the entire world? Is it a story that in the sixth book in the series already spreads through your systems and sets your adrenaline on fire like a lava melting the steep slopes of an ancient volcano? Or an untamable imagination of the young author that breaks every border and discovers new heroes and villains, new dire and challenging situations and intense states of mind? Or is it the sign of the time from the future which doesn’t look so futuristic and impossible in our world today?

Lone Wolf by Michael Evans resonates with every fiber of my being. Learning from his Acknowledgements that this was the last book he was writing as a non-adult person makes it astonishing. What an achievement!

Welcome to the adulthood, Michael, and may all the forces of the universe be with you and your writing.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

My reviews of Breakdown (ex Deadwave), Blood Brothers, The Last Migration, Renegade, and Aftershock.

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Bernard Jan



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Mad World by Michael Evans

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


From the Control Freakz Series to all his books in the Conspiracy Chronicles, I have never stopped admiring the talent and imagination of a young, teenage author, Michael Evans. That didn’t change after reading the first book, Mad World, in his brand new World Gone Mad Series.

Pumped with adrenaline, action and terrifying scenes of destruction of our world, Mad World grabs the readers and glues them to its last pages. The beginning scenes of the apocalypse are so realistic and gripping that we can experience the fear, panic, and disbelief creeping through our body as we root for the main character(s) we quickly become fond of. As the story develops further toward its darker moments with millions of people dead and their homes, towns and lives perished or robbed, its fatality clenches us even harder thanks to the greatness and ease of Michael Evans’s writing.

And all it took was one man’s addiction that led to the apocalyptic destruction of our future world.

Although Mad World, and the World Gone Mad Series, is a post-apocalyptic survival thriller, it is a dystopian and suspense story fueled by love for the family, people and mankind, but also by deep remorse and repentance. We can feel the author’s personal involvement in love and great care with which he created his characters and wrote probably his best book so far, but also in his goal to ensure that society never ends up there. In a mad world.

Michael Evans is the author with unquestionable talent, potential, vision, and the future. And so are his stories.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

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Bernard Jan



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