Matt J Pike

The Parade is my first Matt J Pike novel. I was looking for some apocalyptic/dystopian books and came across it, so I clicked. Even though it is the fifth book in the Apocalyptic Survivor series, it is the first book in the Apocalypse Survivors Subseries, I never felt lost. And it is a great cover, that Matt designed himself.

My name is Zoe Carter, this is my story, and the story of all the members of the Norwood Hub during and after the impact of Comet 2014DM3 in April 2014.

How would you spend your time if you knew a comet would hit the Earth? Would you give up and part like it’s 1999? Would you be a prepper and gather resources, hunkering down to see who is left standing? Would you gather arms and weapons to protect yourself?

I love apocalyptic books, because I wonder what I would do. I think in desperate times, the best and the worst of humanity comes to light…and The Parade has a lot of the worst. Sometimes there is no choice, it’s a me or them situation.

Violence, vendettas, selfishness and greed – that’s what came out in us the most.

Of course, you have those who step up to lead, often through fear, and making sure they get what’s theirs first. When food runs out, they have a big target on their back. People have to have someone to blame. The simplest injury could mean death, as medical supplies run out or are non existent, not enough, or no doctors to help.

The ‘grenade’ event was quite clever.

An unlikely group of characters were drawn together for protection and survival. No one can predict who will survive and not all of them do. We have some sad moments, but that was to be expected. We have plenty of violence and death, and that was to be expected too. Your friend can quickly become your enemy. There are no winners in an apocalypse, just survivors. Would you be one of them?

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of The Parade by Matt J Pike.

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My original Kings of the World audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Kings of the World is an interesting teen-focused book, purely of the sci-fi genre. It is a satire in which teenagers are resolving their own issues with each other, playing games, talking about music and other teenager like activities. Saving a planet is not number one on their list of to do’s.

The story starts out with four teenagers on Earth living their usual life, leading to an incident where they are offered to join the galactic council to represent Earth. Accepting their new role on the galactic council, they are living a rich life, in space where they can have whatever they ask for absolutely free, they tend to get greedy and are more into playing games rather than representing planet Earth. Of the four of them, Cooper realizes their importance when he learns more about the inter-galactic politics. The fate of the world is left in the hands of four teenagers!

The author’s writing is clear considering he had to introduce so many aliens plus it isn’t easy to paint a picture of the galaxy, tele-porter or the translator who fulfills your every request. Matt Pike, the author used vivid details to make the descriptions clear.

Although it is interesting typical teenage stuff, great references to music and sarcastic comments, the narration by Justin Braine is not as great. His narration becomes irritating, the voice gets steep. This was the case with all his voices as well so that by the end you tend to lose focus. Also all the action of the story lies within the very end of the book. The production had some issues as well as the narrator’s voice became muffled in some places.

Audiobook provided for review by the author.… (mehr)