Battle Begins

The first volume in the new Jerry Ahern "Defender" series, The Battle Begins is an exciting, flawlessly recorded audiobook thriller about the end of American civilization. An unknown entity dishes out the heaviest possible weaponry to street gangs everywhere, turning all of America into a war zone; one man, an ex-Navy SEAL must struggle against the murderous agenda of legions for revenge. Dramatically narrated by Alan Zimmerman, The Battle Begins is enthusiastically recommended as a grippingly presented action/adventure novel. 4 cassettes, 360 minutes.

It started off boring, but ended good. It took a while for the book to build up to its dramatic end. However, everything in between was fairly interesting. There were some funny parts and there were some sad parts. This is one is a fun book to read. It can't beat Clive Cussler's books however :)

Jerry Ahern is one of the 80s/90s masters of survivalist fiction. His series (Survivalist, Defender, Track, etc.) depict the lone hero take on incredible odds. In this, book 1 of his Defender series, the hero Prof. David Holden, spends most of the battle on the sidelines. During the 1st half of the book, Holden is training his family to defend itself from rampaging gangs of "revolutionaries". In the 2nd half, when the training backfires, Holden goes into mourning and depression while his friends secretly begin to fight back against the terrorists. Holden is picked up by the police, suspected of knowing about his friends and their plans. This is definitely not the usual rampaging avenger fare. The situation is also different from most of the "survivalist" series because, at least in this episode, there is no nuclear holocaust or impending nuclear attack. The takeover of the US is slow and insidious. Interesting twist from a recognized master of the genre.