TL:DR **I enjoyed the series but I cannot separate it from the virtue-signaling inherent in the narrative.**
I have many thoughts about this series, as a whole and individually. First, I read this because two different friends just read it and loved it. While both friends are in the military, once is left leaning and the other leans right. That is an important part of this because I was very turned off by the front over which told me that the introduction was written by New Gingrich, who coincidently was a MAJOR figure in the last book I read, chronologically. I really don’t like Newt so that was a big turn-off but my left-leaning friend swore it was good so I gave it a shot and I really liked it. Then I liked the second book and the third. I really enjoyed the entire series. I don’t read any of the big singular male, protagonist series like the Jack Reachers, as that is not my usual style (though I have heard I should do the Mitch Rapp series). This series definitely seemed inspired by those but each book is not really standalone like I think those are. This is a planned out series.
All of that said, and I’ll come back to it, this series is, primarily, about John Masterson and his small town outside Asheville, NC on the day that an EMP is used over the United States and all electronic devices die and society is plunged into chaos. Masterson is, of course, a retired military officer but also a college professor. I’ve looked him up and the author lives in the same town as Masterson, has the same degree, and teaches at the same college, so it seems at least a little like a wishful autobiography. It also seems somewhat realistic which I think is the point but also makes the books enjoyable.
That said, I could tell that the author was friend with Newt by some of the details of the book. If I were being… peckish, as I am wont to do, I’d call this book a “Prepper’s” Dream come true. Who would do well in this scenario, a prepper. They’d be prepared for the event, at least more than anyone else. The series, especially the third book, waxes poetic about the conservative lifestyle. It extolls the virtues of country folk who are better equipped to survive because they know how to hunt and forage and live off the land. It would also be true in this event but the book does seems to push those ideas a little more than necessary. It was blindingly obvious to me but I enjoyed the story enough that I was not bothered. The second and third books are narrated by Bronson Pinchot who is EXCELLENT.
Kind of a post script here: This is from the Amazon tagline ” this book, set in a typical American town, is a dire warning of what might be our future…and our end.” It’s a science fiction book about the near future. It is not more than that. It does what all science fiction books about the near future do, it takes a feasible idea and extrapolates what would happen. To interpret this series as more than that is pretty out there. I think that all good science fiction should make you stop and think “Whoa, what if that happened?” but that does not mean that I start preparing for it.
All of that said, I can see both the “it’s a dire warning” side and the “it’s fear mongering” side and I am not saying they are wrong, I just think it is an entertaining series. Forced to pick a side, I say fear mongering given what I know about the author, though I think that says more about me than it does about him.
PPS: So I wrote all of that with about 100 pages to go in the final book and I’ve changed my mind a little. There were at least a dozen references in the final book to a government official using a home-based email server and the repeated mentions that military officers must obey their oath to “defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic” got too heavy handed. I get it William, if everyone had your values the world would be a perfect place.