Book Review: Long Doom Calling

Read the ARC for Long Doom Calling. The fourth book of the Higher Ground Series is the best at pulling all the various plots of the epic story together to bring the adventure to Long Doom to a climax for this version of what happens after the great flood many years in the future. Has mankind changed? Stayed the same? Retracted? Grown? Read it and find out. You won't be dissatisfied.

Is this humanities future?

The writing is very clean and tight--to my personal taste, a bit too tightly reined in at times when bridging scenes. The personalities of the large cast are well defined and the action uncluttered, easily followed. There is a bit too much serendipity for me--characters getting what they need, but rest assured, there's usually a price to be paid for the acquisition. Quibbles over the believability of the future of humanity is what makes books about Dystopian and Utopian futures rich fodder for discussion over tea, wine, or hard liquor. Whatever your take on the future, the authors have laid out a vision that is, for the most part, plausible in the literary world. The main plot winds its way with twists and turns worthy of a passing nod to The Bard in the making of kings and queens over the British Isles.

It is nigh impossible to determine where one author leaves off and the other one picks up the story--a significant accomplishment. There are enough strong characters for every reader to identify with one or another, and root for, boo, or hiss their heroes and villains. I'm giving this book the little toe into a "5" rating zone. And oh yes, I get the play on words for the entire series. Well done.