This is the third of three books (so far) that follows Luke and Amy as they travel to Texas to hopefully join Luke's family. An earlier EMP event (or something to that effect, they are not sure) has happened, and society is a mess. People are starving and beginning to flood out of the cities and into the suburbs and rural areas. Travel is dangerous and Luke and Amy encounter and kill many individuals.

I have to say that I am writing this after reading all three of the books, so I can't remember the details of what occurred in what book at this point.

While the first book was about Luke and Amy's travel and a few groups they met up with and helped, the subsequent books connect more to what the military is or is not doing. There are National Guard factions, other military, and in general no direction coming from the top. Luke manages to get taken in by some of these, together with Amy and some girls they had rescued, and they are accepted as a sort of civilian advisor/guard support. As in the first book, I thought Luke's extreme valor and clear-mindedness was a bit far fetched, but he is likeable and treats Amy well as their relationship grows.

While I kept reading the series, I felt that the focus of the last two books was much more about attack strategies and descriptions of weapons. I realize that plenty of readers of this genre are probably into that aspect of a post-apocalyptic world, but I am about the relationships. There was much less of that in the last two books, and I found myself skimming some of the endless attacks and weapon details.

This book concludes when they have finally made it to Luke's parents' house. I'm sure a sequel will follow . . . ( )