STUD FINDER

HIGH FUNCTIONING MORONS
Six very entertaining hours. Bourne does have a slightly different take on the post apocalyptic movement. In most books the government tries to help, but usually ends up being part of the problem. In this book our government is purposely the bad guy. Our KANGAROO GOVERNMENT brought civilization down on purpose, but I guess we have to find out in a future book why? Now our government with help of the ONE PERCENTERS is jailing everyone and oppressing us.

Oops!
I said six very entertaining hours, but the book is eight hours long. For six hours I was giving this five stars, but the last two hours were kind of boring. My mind starting wondering and I could not concentrate. Bourne needs to be more creative and give us food for thought, not just shoot-em up chase scenes. I also thought he could have explained why the US government did this. I guess he is holding that for a sequel. I also am not a fan of things being too easy. One or two days before the apocalypse, he gets his shelter built. He empties his bank account to get this done, because a co-worker prepper, warns him that the apocalypse is going to happen any day. He orders a small shelter and they just happen to install a big shelter. They just happen to set everything up for him. As another reviewer mentions, there are some abrupt transitions in the story. One minute he is in his shelter, the next he is flying to his brother's house, who is under attack. It seems like some stuff was edited out.

The narrator is excellent

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33 people found this helpful

Ready for Book 2! Excellent story as always!

Any additional comments?

Great story, really gets you thinking about whats going on now. Couldnt put it down. If you like JL's other books, Day by Day Armageddon then you will love this one as well. Great technical detail, great story and character development. Ready for the next book in either of his series!

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18 people found this helpful

An apocalyptic tale with an agenda

Tomorrow War is another short book from J. L. Bourne, a military veteran with 22 years of service, but unlike Day by Day Armageddon there are no zombies this time around. In this story the zombies are replaced with something far scarier - other humans and a dysfunctional government. Keeping a similar journal format to the Day by Day series, the main character, Max [Redacted], writes down his experiences as a form of self therapy to help him cope with the things he decides that he must do to survive. Being a trained killer working for the US government before society goes to hell, Max conducts a covert mission that becomes the root cause of the financial collapse that ruins society. This guilt weighs heavily upon him after the fall as he struggles with both the threats of the new world and his own mental health.

I like apocalyptic stories that attempt to keep it real and there is a hefty dose of harsh reality situations in this book. From the first few frantic days after electronic payments are no longer a thing, to the moral dilemma of self preservation becoming priority number one, this book starts off pretty strong. Max had some warning that this was coming and manages to do some quick prepping before society falls so he starts off better than most. His initial encounters with those struggling to survive feel real and intense, but eventually the story seems to lose its way. Things go from bad to worse much too quickly as the US Constitution is tossed aside in mere days anf this transforms Max into the conduit for the author's personal agendas to be expressed over and over. I certainly don't mind some of that commentary being included along the way, but in this book it becomes a major distraction that is used to justify actions from Max that just go too far. I tried to push it aside and concentrate on the story, but it ultimately ruined the book for me so I can safely say that I prefer the Day by Day Armageddon series to this one. Of course YMMV, so if you are looking for a near future apocalyptic tale and you don't want more zombies then pick this up and form your own opinion.

Jay Snyder does the majority of the narration and his style is a good fit for this tale.

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16 people found this helpful

Not what I was hoping for

Having just listened to William Forstchen’s excellent “One Second After”, a book with a nearly identical premise, Tomorrow War just seemed a little flat and shallow by comparison. The reading was somewhat stilted and robotic. The story was dispassionate, more like reading a news story rather than immersing yourself in an auditory experience and feeling as if you were part of the action. I wanted to feel shock and horror and disbelief as Max calmly slaughters both criminals and law enforcement officers in horrible ways, but it just fell flat for me. I found myself rolling my eyes and shaking my head more often than not as the story unfolded, and the ending left me similarly apathetic. The ending of this book reminded me of the one in “the handmaid’s tale“, where the characters all just disappear into history and you never find out what happened to anyone. Sorry, but I just did not enjoy this journey

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15 people found this helpful

A fantastic story told from a unique point of view

Tomorrow War (The Chronicles of Max Redacted) is a story written in a time passed. There were some situations that were put into action that drove the world into a new and dark time. People didn’t know what to do, how to get their next meal, or how to protect themselves and their family. They turned others for help and were denied or asked to do terrible things. Tomorrow War tells of Max, the “hero” of the story, a trained military man who takes a vacation and prepares for a small glitch in some of the world’s computers. Little does he know it’s about to turn in to so much worse.

Narration for Tomorrow War was done by Kevin T Collins and Jay Snyder. I am familiar with Collins work and he does another superb job in this. The narration was crisp and concise. Told like a military man would. The voice is harsh and to the point, exactly as the character Max was written to be. I can’t find a single flaw in this audiobook.

The way this story was told was through journal entries, but only when a “computerized” voice cuts off some of the recordings or the words “redacted” are said out loud (used in classified documents to black out text) you couldn’t really tell that was the way it was written. But feeling like it was literally taken from a classified document made this have a totally unique and new feel to it.

I have not read the Day by Day Armageddon series by J.L. Bourne, and now I’m rethinking it. I really enjoyed Bourne’s matter of fact characters. I liked that the main character was trained to survive but not for the reason it was originally meant. I think that the character development in this book was awesome. Seriously, I wasn’t sure what was going on in the beginning, then everything starts to fall apart, and Max really comes into his own after that.

The story starts off slow, reminded me a bit of The Bourne Identity if Jason Bourne was thrown into a violent society. The book gets off to a slow start, but that doesn’t last long. Fast-paced and full of incredibly life-altering moments throughout. This book really had it all, it was action-packed with great characters. It was developed without feeling bogged down. I also love the society that Bourne creates. I mean, I don’t like what it became, but I liked how it felt real and gritty. It was exactly what would happen in that situation.

I also like that it was a standalone. I mean Bourne could easily write more in the series, from Max’s point of view or not. It is a fascinating world. But I’m glad that there is one book too. That doesn’t happen too often.

A fantastic story told from a unique point of view. I’m really glad I listened to this book.

Audiobook provided for review by the publisher.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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15 people found this helpful

Ultimate NeoCon conspiracy theorist offering.

What did you like best about Tomorrow War? What did you like least?

Best...it is a professionally produced, fast paced and well researched dystopian tale.

Least...the author's political ( constitutional absolutist and government conspiracy theory promoter ) position is the sole, and exclusive reason for writing this. He explicitly takes a taking a highly right wing, libertarian position which is grating and , frankly, annoying.

What could J. L. Bourne have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Stop with the neocon government versus the people psychobabble.

What three words best describe Kevin T. Collins and Jay Snyder ’s performance?

The performers are very good, especially given the material they have to work with. Both performers are authentic, consistent and creative.

It is a shame they are being used as mouthpieces for this politicized presentation.

Did Tomorrow War inspire you to do anything?

Regret the political schisms in the US.

Any additional comments?

Don't get me wrong here. This offering would get higher marks if it didn't descend into a radicalized version of the authors anti government paranoia. OK I admit that I stuck with it to the end, if nothing else to ensure the accuracy of my review.

It is not a bad audiobook,but be aware of the POV the author is very explicitly attempting to communicate. If you can get past that, it isn't too bad.

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15 people found this helpful

Could have been truly great.

Any additional comments?

This is in fact a very good book. But as some of the other reviewers also note, the author does seem to go a bit overboard with his anti-government sentiments.

The author is a somewhat heavy-handed and frequently invokes the various amendments of the Bill of Rights to justify the actions of the main person.

Even the total collapse of worldwide civilisation is caused by the US Government : "evil or incompetence? Does it matter?"

The examples for showing how evil the government really is aren't really subtle such quoting Mao and making the case for gun rights by denying food to a young woman with a young child, going for the sympathy vote.

Yet not to offend the good men and women serving the US government the author elects the plot device in which the US government is so evil that they use a gang of biker criminals as the law enforcement. Again, the author goes a bit overboard in the evilness, by describing how these people drive around with the head of a decapitated woman for their sexual (oral) pleasures.

As said, it is a very good book, and I enjoyed listening to it. But it is unnecessary marred.

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14 people found this helpful

Societal collapse followed by lots of shooting

JL Bourne's Tomorrow War chronicles societal collapse as a result of an uber-Stuxnet virus intended to implode Syria, but subsequently modified for global impact. The main character Max, is former military special ops who actually delivered the original payload and was given advance warning of potential consequences. As a result, Max is ready when the collapse occurs. Naturally, the general lawlessness and overbearing government attempts to maintain order eventually force Max to band with like-minded individuals to restore their constitutional rights. What transpires is basically a preper's and survivalist's playground of guns and frontier Rube Goldberg.

Sci-fi elements are minimal with mostly post-apocalyptic roughing it. There is a half-hearted attempt to provide some far future perspective on the whole affair which leads to the [Redacted] aspect of the title, but that insight is not essential for plot advancement. The suggestion of a larger story arc raises the potential for a wider insurgency and eventually arrive at these top secret reports.

The narration is well done with good pacing, even flow,and a well done range of voices.

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13 people found this helpful

Fantastic!

The "Day By Day Armageddon " series introduced me to the zombie genre, and J.L. Bourne as an author. This book is a departure from zombies but not from the author 's prowess for telling a compelling story. I feel this is a must-read

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13 people found this helpful

Pro-Gun Survivalist Paranoia

I like a good dystopian novel, but this one doesn't even qualify as a novel. More like a manifesto on why we need to arm ourselves to the hilt and never trust the government than a novel.

Sure D.C. Is a dysfunctional mess, but embracement or level of paranoia expressed in this book by a segment of the population that willfully chooses to ignore global economic and natural resource realities is one of the reasons that a psychotic is the Presidential nominee of the republican party.

Oh wait, I forgot ... those sticky global economy and natural resource concerns are nothing more than fabrications forced on us by that corrupt government .... how convenient paranoia truly is.

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12 people found this helpful