I like a good end-of-the-world tale from time to time, and The Apocalypse Seven satisfied my craving for the most part. I liked learning all the individual personalities and watching this disparate group of characters come together. The compelling problem of survival in a world with no electricity where wolves actively hunt humans was dealt with realistically, too.

The biggest question in the book is what in the world happened, and even while I was enjoying the characters and watching their fight for survival, my mind was clicking away, trying to figure out what caused it all. And... therein lies a problem. I didn't buy the author's explanation for the cause of the whateverpocalypse; however, it wasn't enough to ruin the book for me. Gene Doucette's mind works in interesting ways, and I think I'll take a look to see what else he's written. ( )

This is one of those books that is good, but with a bit more... it could have been great. Too much of the book was about surviving, which is good, but the ending felt rather rushed.

As for the characters, Robbie, Carol, Toure, Bethany, and Kit made sense. But for Paul and Ananda seemed a bit too resourceful, able to rig up ways to make buildings have power and engines to work.

I also don't think a generator could be powered or that a buildings electrical will work, or any number of things that are dependent on technology.

I did like the wolves, however I'm disappointed about their part in this story. The added affect of global warming was handled well, and I liked that their was diversity, but the story was about surviving, and the only that mattered was the skills that a person brought along.

I think I'm mostly disappointed because this is a great story, combining elements of global warming, ethics, and common sense, and with a bit more editing, this would have been excellent read. ( )

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The Apocalypse Seven by Gene Doucette tells of seven people who woke up one day, with the rest of humanity vanished. Mr. Doucette is a published science-fiction and fantasy author.

Touré woke up in his Cambridge dorm, in his own bed, not to mention all this stuff is gone and seems like someone else’s clothes are in his drawers. Touré finds Carol and Robbie, Harvard freshmen and slowly realize the rest of humanity has simply vanished.

The threesome finds four more people who surprisingly have survived… not knowing why or how. Together the seven try to piece together what has happened, in addition to with dealing with the strange climate they’re encountering.

The interesting aspects of The Apocalypse Seven by Gene Doucette are the overall survival aspects of a world gone empty. The protagonists of the story each attempts to figure out how to get food, shelter, as well as deal with climate change. For them, we must remember, the weather changed in a day, not over a long period of time.

The narrative switches points-of-view from each one of the seven protagonists. Each person has their own experience trying to survive the day, as well as, a theory of what has happened to the world. The ending has a twist which I saw coming, but another twist which I did not see coming at all.

I felt some of the parts were cheesy, but fun nonetheless. Telling the story from the point of view of seven people, consequently none of them seem to resonate with me. I was certainly following their stories; however, I had no personal stake in any of them.

The philosophical questions which usually accompany these books (religion, ethics, sanctify of life, etc.) were only glossed on in the novel. Personally, I didn’t mind it, frankly those discussions wouldn’t fit the narrative, but I thought I should mention it.

This was a fun book, well written and a quick read. I haven’t read much apocalypse fiction, a few months ago I read The Origin Mystery series, in which I discovered how close the human race was to extinction several times. For a book about the possible end of humanity, this one was filled with humor and lightheartedness. ( )

Most of the book is a good read, has decently developed characters. Slowly developing, adding perspectives with characters. Each character though seems a bit stereotypical - no real quirks, not real persons.

The story itself is interesting until the end - and the last few short chapters, and the 'solution' to the situation it plays in is flimsy, convoluted, unconvincing. All wraps up really quickly - like pulling something out of a hat that was barely there before, meaning it seems to have little relation to what was described before.

Majority an ok read with a fairly disappointing end. ( )

The Apocalypse Seven by Gene Doucette

Seven survivors have somehow made it through the great Apocalypse. They are confused, not understanding what has gone on and where everyone else is.

The seven survivors each take a turn in the book, with a narration segment, but the book starts counting out chapters for each person, which is a little different.

Meet the survivors:
Toure (I call Trey, he is a scavenger)
Robbie (college student, is the leader of their small band)
Carol (college student, blind woman, whose seeing-eye dog Burton is missing)
Bethany (13 years old, with locksmith skills)
Win (has hunting skills and has a wild horse named Elton)
Ananda (an MIT student with a PhD with a very analytical mind)
Paul (a preacher, with hunting skills, he's the eldest of the survivors)

They band together and try to find out what, why, when everything happened and how to survive in the aftermath.

I liked it, it makes you think of what skills you would have to offer if you ended up in this situation. Would you be a thinker or a hunter?

I received a complimentary copy from John Joseph Adams/Houghton #Mifflin Harcourt and #NetGalley and was under no obligation to post a review. #ApocalypseSeven ( )