The story of what one man goes through long before TSHTF. Learn with him the basics of prepping, societal collapse and what may lie in our future soon. ( )

ABR's full The Preparation (299 Days Book 1) audiobook review can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

I haven’t listened to any straight up survival stories. Maybe I feel that I need that something extra, you know zombies, werewolves, psychopaths, to make it interesting. However, there was something about The Preparation (299 Days Book 1) that kept drawing my attention.

I have been seeing many audiobooks popping up in this new sub-genre in the last few months, so they have to be entertaining right? I am going with my gut and nothing else on this one, my gut is only right about 80% of the time.

Have you seen the television show Doomsday Preppers? Well get ready for that in much much higher detail and explanations than the show has ever provided.

I was entranced by the character development and overall back story of Grant Matson. going from a young poor kid with less than nothing. To a highly successful lawyer, with everything that money could buy. Yet he felt unfulfilled, like there was something missing.

Intertwined with lots, I mean a ton of what could be considered right wing conservative propaganda. If your not open minded to this sort of information, either don’t listen or you might get ticked off. Or you might start singing praises, who knows.

What I know is this was a intricately crafted story of one man realizing there is more to life than money. That being personal security and the safety of his family when the worst happens. With this story that would be the slow collapse of the government, leaving the public to fend for them selves.

I intensely agreed and disagreed with so many different things, I couldn’t stop listening. In fact I have already started stockpiling for my own peace of mind. I am hooked on this story and there are a ton of audiobooks in this series that I only hope there is enough time for.

Kevin Pierce is not the typical type of narrator. Because this was not a big boisterous, polished newscaster type of performance, nor did it call for such. Characterizations were only done just enough to barely differentiate characters in a scene.

Pierce blew me away with his soft-spoken approach. That over time, expertly grew from an scared uncertain boy to a self-reliant and assured man doing what he thinks is best. I hope to be able to get to listen to more from him.

Audiobook provided for review by Audible. ( )

I'm on the fence about this book. At the beginning I was rather concerned that it would be a 300 page pro-gun, pro-religion, anti-government rant of the authors views.

Paragraphs such as, One night he just said, "God, I can't do this on my own. I need You". Right as he said that, he had the overpowering sensation that everything would ultimately be alright, but after lots of misery and sacrifice. It was more than just optimism; it was a certainty that amazing things were ahead of him had me a little worried, but whilst there are some religious undertones it's not to the point it detracts from the story. It's mentioned then the author moves on, although the "outside thoughts" received by the main character are odd in my opinion, I'm unsure if these are meant to be a representation of the guys subconscious or he's hearing the voice of God, which would fit the the above quoted paragraph, and also drive me away as a reader if it were to continue in future books.

There's a few pro-gun notes such as; A half hour ago he was a helpless and frightened sheeple. Now he was a gun owner. Owning an AR-15 was the definition of liberty. He looked at the gun [...] and thought "This is freedom" (I was surprised it was just freedom and not Freedom with a 'F') and there was quite bit of gun terminology in there but I don't think it was over the top, it's just a story that involves firearms.

In terms of writing, it's plain and straightforward; there's a couple of editing issues such as one paragraph begins saying a parking lot was full, then ends saying it wasn't full then later references it stating weren't that many people in the parking lot but asides for that it conveys the story adequately.

Overall though it is a pretty good tale of one man's journey to become more prepared, he's not some movie superhero and he has a regular life with regular restrictions. I'm aware it's part of a series but I have to say I was rather perturbed by the ending, or should I say lack thereof - it simply stopped as opposed to having some temporary resolution or pause. That's how I felt anyway. ( )

I wasn't sure what to think of this book at first. At abount 15% (Kindle version), I was thinking "You're kidding me? A blow by blow of Grant's life? This is going to be boring." It's not. If the reader is ready to just up and quit at the point, I urge them to hold on a bit more. The storytelling speeds up and becomes more interesting as more of Grant's character is revealed.

Please note I said "story-telling" as there truly isn't a plot here. There's no crisis to be resolved, no climax to enthrall the reader. However once the packing speeds up, you find yourself nodding "Yeah, I can understand that." more often than you may care to admit.

One thing I truly enjoyed about this novel was Grant's feelings on developing into a prepper - something I'm sure alot of us have had, even if we've kept quiet about it. Grant admits to feeling like he's buying porn when he goes into a big box store to buy extra food, and wonders what the other customers there must think of him. Do they think he's paranoid? A crazy? It was a refreshing point of view after reading multiple books where the prepper is already done with gathering supplies and has enough food for 200 people, as well as a fortified house and a million guns to arm everyone with.

One minor note for readers: if you tend to froth at the mouth when ill is spoken of Democrats or Liberals, don't read this book. It will just upset up. Dems and libs are the "bad guys" here, if only because the Democratic party's stance on fiscal matters makes them the more plausible bad guy. ( )