Can't Wait Wednesday #35: Fourth Dimension (The Rule of Three Series) by Eric Walters

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they're books that have yet to be released. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.  This week I've picked a book that I didn't know was coming.  It is in a series I've read and enjoyed, and I'm not sure if this is taking place after the first three, or if it is supposed to happen during the time period that is told about in those three.  You can read my reviews of those three books here:  The Rule of Three, Fight For Power, and Will to Survive.  And here is the blurb from Goodreads for this new one in the series:

In a world with no power, chaos soon descends. A powerful look at the disintegration of society in the wake of a massive and mysterious outage that has knocked out all modern amenities.

Fifteen-year-old Emma has moved house with her ex-Marine mother and younger brother. It's a brand-new condo building, which explains the semi-regular power outages, as workers complete the units around them. So Emma isn't particularly concerned when the latest blackout hits just as they are preparing to leave town on a long weekend camping trip. But then the car won't start, and their cellphones appear dead -- and all the cars outside their building seem to be stalled in a long traffic jam ...

In the midst of what appears to be a massive power outage, with their camping gear packed and ready, Emma and her family canoe over to the islands, just offshore, to wait it out. But while they land on an isolated island, with a relatively hidden site, they are far from safe, as people become increasingly desperate to find food and shelter. And as the days pass, and the power remains out, the threat of violence becomes all too real.

 Have you read this series?  If so, when do you think this will take place in the story?  What book are you eagerly awaiting this week?

Review: Will to Survive (The Rule of Three #3) by Eric Walters

First, thanks to Edelweiss and the Publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers, for allowing me to read an egalley of this final book in this series.  The books have gotten better as they've gone.  And this is a pretty good way to end the series.  Obviously I can't talk about this third book without any spoilers for the first two books, so if you haven't read them, you can go to my reviews here, The Rule of Three, and Fight for Power. 

We start right back into the action with Adam, after Brett has tried to hijack the plane and kill Adam's neighbor Herb.  In order to save himself and the plane, Adam had to make the horrible decision to kill the two men who were trying to make him fly the plane to where Brett told them to.  After he's able to get away, he has to tell everyone what is going on.  And soon they find out that Herb had been sleeping in a safe room in his house, and so when the guys had shot him, they'd only shot a pillow that was in his bed, fluffed up to look like he was there.  Even though Brett is now gone, they know he is probably not gone for good.  And one thing they know they have to do is stop him from getting back to the military group and alerting them.  So they do what they can, they strike out first, and drop a bomb on the military base. 

Within the town they continue to work on trying to keep things going.  Part of the ideas they have include reaching out to other communities nearby and seeing about trading things.  Including a trade with a community at a local power plant that also makes propane or some other kind of gas.  As they are out flying around, Adam's girlfriend wants to fly over the city and see what it looks like.  But on this kind of unauthorized flight, an old war plane shows up and escorts them to a nearby island.  On this island is an old airport with an old airplane museum. That is where they got the old warplane.  It is a museum that Adam had been to with his father when he was younger.  On the island they have a pretty good situation.  At first Adam is unsure if they are going to try to steal the plane from him and Lori, and strand them there.  They are allowed to leave and they go back to talk with Herb about the island people.  They decide it is another community that will be worth joining together with.  Soon they begin getting attacked by Brett and his new group of followers.  They are able to use the fact that he believes Herb to be dead in order to get some things snuck past him. 

In the end it comes down to a final confrontation with Brett and his group, and they must triumph, but now they will have all their different communities to send help and support.  And hope that in the end they can begin to work on keeping their lives going as comfortable as possible and hope that one day maybe all can get back to how it was.

There was lots of action, intrigue, and even emotion in this book.  I really knew the characters by now, and it was good to find out how their lives were going.  I feel like so much that was being done makes sense in what you would do in this type of world.  The characters on The Walking Dead could take some cues from this group.  :-)  Another great post-apocalyptic series that is great to recommend to boys who want a male main character.  But a good story for anyone to read.

Waiting on Wednesday: Will to Survive (The Rule of Three #3) by Eric Walters

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  My choice this week is the 3rd and final book in a very interesting trilogy.  The first book, The Rule of Three, didn't go quite where I thought it would, and so I was interested enough to read on to the 2nd book, Fight for Power.  And now I just have to know how it will all finish.  Here is the blurb for book three from Goodreads:

As this apocalyptic trilogy hurtles to a chilling conclusion, Adam is pushed to the edge of his endurance and sanity.

Adam has killed again. It had to be done, part of him knows that, but murder changes a person. It can certainly change a teenager who's already grown up too quickly, too harshly, in the wake of the catastrophic global blackout five months ago. In the name of safety and survival, Adam and his neighbors have turned their middle American suburban neighborhood into a fortress, defending against countless enemies. But what's lurking in the dark is a greater danger than ever before: somebody who wants to destroy the neighborhood and Adam at any cost. Soon, the hunted will have to become the hunter . . . and Adam hates himself for what he will have to do. Because sometimes even the dark is not cover enough for things that would never happen in the light.

A great post-apocalyptic type story, about what would we do, especially if you were a high school boy, and were able to just fortify your neighborhood and dig in.  Have you read this series yet?  Do you want to?  What book are you eagerly awaiting this week?

Review: Fight for Power (The Rule of Three #2) by Eric Walters (COYER Challenge #6)

First, thanks to Edelweiss and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  I was interested in it because I'd read the first one, and while that one didn't blow me away, I kind of wanted to know where the story was going to go next. And I'm glad I gave the story another chance, because honestly I liked this one better than the first one. 

Where the last one left off, they were going up against a very militarized group that was just going into small settlements like the one that the main character Adam is living in, and killing people and taking what they needed by force.  Adam's group is able to defeat the group that has come to attack their neighborhood by blowing up the bridge while the enemy is on it.  But when they decide to go to the town where the enemy group was from to end it for good, they find it is deserted. Well, other than a bunch of people that they'd locked up to die in one of the warehouses.  Herb and the rest of Adam's neighborhood council cannot take back the people they find, as their own food resources are dwindling.  And while Adam's girlfriend Lori's father is really getting the farming going so that they will have a good harvest, that won't be ready until fall, so they have to have enough food to last till then.  They've put Brett, the creepy guy, in charge of a night patrol that goes out and keeps their area safe.  They also search for whatever types of resources they can find while they're out. And while Adam is dealing okay with Brett, there is still the psychotic tendencies that he shows in how much he enjoys the violence, as well as putting himself into dangerous situations.

The town has a whole system set up, the younger kids are in school during the week, then they go and work on the farms on the weekends.  The older kids, teenagers, are part of the patrols on the walls, as well as work on the farms during the days.  Adam flies the little plane still to help with keeping them informed on what is going on around their neighborhood.  Until they find a Cessna at the enemy camp, and hope to get it working for him to use.  They begin hunting deer, which leads to meeting some of the people living in tents outside their walls, and in the forest.  Herb says the forest is a weak link in their security, and with it the tent city.

I think I'm kind of rambling.  I don't know a lot I can say without giving away too much. Suffice it to say that there will be some major catastrophes, fires, people being attacked, and there will also be betrayal by people working for the neighborhood, as well as reunions with family members who have been missing since it all started.

It's left on a huge kind of cliffhanger, the bad guy gets away, barely. But Adam knows they haven't seen the last of him, there will be trouble in the future.   I was really much more into this one.  Maybe because I knew the characters from the last book.  So we didn't maybe need any of that this time?  I was able to jump right back into the story, didn't really have to try to remember anything as it all picked up at a perfect spot.  I recommend reading on in this series, and starting it if you haven't yet.  It has the male main character which would make it a good one to recommend for the boys, not that I think it is only for boys, I just know it may seem like a lot of dystopian books have female main characters. 

The Rule of Three by Eric Walters

First I will thank Netgalley, FSG, and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  As anyone who follows my blog probably knows, I am a huge fan of dystopian stories.  So this sounded like one of those, although, really more of a post-apocalyptic, but similar.  And it was.  However, it was a bit slow for me.
The main character is Adam Daley, and strangely enough his elderly neighbor Herb.  Things seem to be just a normal day at school.  Adam and his best friend are sitting in computer class, when all the electricity and computers go out.  Now, it's not just those things connected to electricity, even laptops go out.  Something has happened that has caused anything that works with computers to no longer work.  Which means any car without computers in it, older cars, will still work.  And that included Adam's '79 Omega.  Up until this point, his friend Todd had made fun of it.  But now, when it is about the only car in the high school parking lot that will actually start, he's not so amused by it.  Once Adam gets home, after picking up his younger brother and sister from their school, dropping his crush Lori off at her family farm, and also dropping Todd off, he is met by their neighbor Herb.  Herb has a favor to ask.  He wants Adam to drive him to the Pool store.  The drive there is a bit scary as there are people who stare at them as they drive by, some looking as if they'd like to steal the car.  At the pool store Herb has a lot of cash that he give the guy for a ton of chlorine tablets.  It seems Herb may have an inkling about the whole situation not just being a temporary one.  As they're loading the car up with buckets full of the chlorine tablets, they even have a group of men who once again try to take the car.  But Herb moves his jacket to show a gun and the situation is defused.  They get back home and now Herb begins to talk about what may be going on.  He begins planning what they should do, how to be safe, and keep themselves safe.  Many of the plans seem to be quite pessimistic in Adam's point of view.  But as things that Herb has somewhat hinted at begin to occur, it seems maybe he knows what to do.  They must figure out how to secure their neighborhood, as well as what to do in order to keep themselves fed in case things don't get back to normal soon.  This includes talking to Lori's family about farming, and making some improvements in the walls/fences around their neighborhood, as well as planting some fields in yards and school lands.  Also, Adam has a very light plane, called an Ultralight.  And he gets it ready to be flown, and they are able to use it to do scouting to try to help their situation as well.  And while mostly it is just groups of people from neighborhoods that they see walking outside their area, there seems to be a larger group that may not be as innocent, may be out for only themselves.
This is a book that really just goes into the setting up of a community for this type of situation.  Yes there are times when we have conflicts with other people and neighborhoods. But a lot of it is about how they figure out what to do and how to help themselves to survive.  In a way, it feels like what maybe following how the Governor set up his town in The Walking Dead.  Or on the show Revolution, just the beginning of how they got to handling the disaster.  All the stuff that is usually skipped in books or movies or tv shows.  Because it is kind of boring.  Maybe it is important for us to know if such an event does occur.  But honestly, I found it a bit boring.  While it was interesting to hear Herb's strategies, and the reasoning behind what they did, the story did kind of just stall out in my opinion.  And the end was really just kind of a sudden ending, and you're left before probably any of the stuff that would normally be in this type of book starts to occur.  That's just my opinion.  I still gave it a 3, because it may be something that others want to read.  Another issue I had is that I want to know why the things with the computers went out.  And what has happened to Adam's father who is a pilot and would have been in Chicago at the time.  Is the author planning a sequel?  Can't tell.  But I don't know if I'd read on or not.  My need to know those things may not be strong enough to read through another slow story.  400 pages of slowness.  So not one of my top books.  But like I said, on Goodreads I gave it a 3, because it wasn't bad, just wasn't my cup of tea.