Yikes. Talk about harsh. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love a good apocalypse, but this one, despite being essentially instantaneous, was remarkably wrenching. 30 pages of buildup, four pages of apocalypse in which (almost) EVERY MAN ON EARTH DIES, then the rest of the book - indeed, the rest of the series - is all aftermath. It's beautifully done, from an impact point of view. A bit of time to get to know the setting and some people, become lulled into a sense of security despite knowing it's false, then WHAM, the world as we know it comes crashing to the ground, and then we have to stumble around trying to collect the bits, with all the king's men among the casualties.
It's hard to make much of a judgment of the thing as a whole from a single volume, but I think it's a post-apocalypse story with potential, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series. I'll try to write something with more substance after reading more of them.
