Collision Course

I've seen the other reviews where the book is compared very unfavorably against "Lights Out" and I understand completely where people are coming from. This isn't the epic tome with layer upon layer of development that the previous book was. But that one, while I loved it and have read it many times over the years, is often too deep and too intimidating a read. "Collision Course" isn't "Lights Out" light, it's something entirely different. Comparing them isn't where I'm coming from at all.In Collision Course we're faced with the destabilization of our economy and the rapid disintegration of society and social services that comes with that. It is, unfortunately, a situation that is becoming more possible in our country at this time. Not likely, but less impossible. Our two main characters are coming from entirely different points in life.DJ Frost, a prepper extraordinaire, who has all the bells and whistles including a modified quiet ATV and a trailer for it. He also has a full range of every survival toy one might imagine to stick in it. He seems almost obsessively prepared. When things finally get too bad in the city, he executes his plan to escape to his rural "bug out" location where he can live and thrive.Gabe, on the other hand, is a falling down drunk who has never gotten over a tragic loss in his life. He lives in a trashy little trailer on a remote bit of land and gardens when he is sober, making a living from his produce. Not only is he not prepared for "the balloon to go up" he isn't even aware of it at first.What follows is the story of the journeys both men take, both figuratively and literally. They each become what they really are during the course of the story and the ending was a total surprise! No spoilers from me.This book isn't huge but it also isn't small. It's 350 pages and not a word of it is wasted. It's all story and no fluff. I really enjoyed the pacing and how the relative length of the chapters began to shift in focus from one to the other as they changed. I really like how David wrote about the dark side of some preppers/survivalists, something many feel uncomfortable with. But the truth is that some of those mall ninjas and some of those more vociferous forum writers ARE a little unbalanced. It was a reminder, wrapped in a great story, that not everyone who seems fine is one to be trusted.I think this is a good book for those interested in a story about the sort of things that can happen in a destabilization of our economy or devaluation of our currency by other countries and how people react under stress. It would specifically appeal to many preppers but those who might be too sensitive to seeing a prepper cast in a bad light might want to steer clear.And no, no one asked me to write the review and I'm not a specific friend of the author. Same forum at one time is all.

I will start by saying I am in the minority apparently in that I did not think Lights Out was the best book ever, so I was not judging this book by a previous book. I thought the story was just okay. The story is about two guys, Gabe and DJ, but they never meet as there are two separate story lines. I found the story of Gabe by far the least entertaining and was more drawn the story of DJ and his trek on the four wheeler. That being said, both guys are less than likeable, but I thought it was a change of pace not to have a guy in a white hat for once. The book is well written, meaning sentences made sense and it had a flow to it, background and details are almost non existent, but it was a very quick read. But I would not be willing to read it again as it just didn't grab me. I think it would have been better had the author focused on the one story line with the four wheeler and made it a more compelling tale rather than wasting the effort on the Gabe story. I saw a lot of criticism of the character of DJ and his ogling and lecherous approach to woman, plus his other nefarious deeds that just made him unlikeable. I cannot disagree with that, the story line from the beginning showed he was predisposed to violence and he just became more violent as the story progressed. But clearly that was the intention of the author, he was not a nice guy and there are people out in the world just like him, and the story was written from his point of view. Whatever the characters, they just were not that interesting, the story just did not engage me to the point where I cared one way or the other what happened next. If you really love the genre it's worth a quick glance, but at a far lower price than it is now. After reading it I though I should have paid two or three dollars at the most, if you can get it for that okay, if not, you might want to hold off.

David Crawford's COLLISION COURSE is without a doubt the finest of all the post apocalyptic novels I've read to date (and I've read a couple dozen, at least). I say this mostly because it was the most well-thought-out, professionally edited of all of them. And the characters, scenario, character interaction and storyline were nothing less than superb. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't rise to the level of a David Baldacci or Brad Thor - but then, it wasn't meant to. I have a feeling Mr. Crawford knows his limitations, and he met them (and in some cases exceeded them) here. After an event referred to as "the smash", wherein much of the electricity goes out, gas is in short supply, and the cities turn into jungles our protagonist, a Security Specialist named DJ heads out on his own to reach a cache of supplies at a predetermined bug out location. Seems he and a group of like-minded individuals had a piece of land a few days drive from his current location. But since seeing them last DJ had some sort of issue with his brothers in arms, and asn't sure if they still had the property. But, having no other other option, he sets out for it anyway. Meanwhile, in a sleepy town a good man has gone bad after the tragic loss of his wife & son - though "bad" doesn't quite describe it. He's become the town drunk, and a mean one at that - but more importantly he's become an embarrassment to himself and to the memory of his family, who he still grieves for. And drinking is the only thing that soothes his pain. This sets the stage for a detailed, hectic, and often confusing saga - mostly as we deal with the competing emotions raging inside DJ and the town drunk. Decisions are made, hard decisions, stupid decisions, desperate decisions along DJ's path - and the town drunk faces similar challenges. Author David Crawford has crafted a near-masterpiece here - and I must admit, I didn't see it coming until it was all over. Bravo, Mr. Crawford! You've managed to take a storyline set against a pot apocalyptic backdrop, and turn it into a further rate novel. On second thought, maybe it is on the par of a Baldacci or Thor. The writing is crisp, the action tense, and the story flows like a river. And the ever-present editing errors that plague this genre are, thankfully, nowhere to be seen. Nicely done indeed!

Average

Lights Out was better.