Review of IT BEGAN (Zero Power Book One; A Post Apocalyptic EMP Survival) by Max Lockwood.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars by Iris Chacon.

The author kindly provided me a copy of the ebook upon my promise of an honest review.

High school teachers, Clara and Cooper, are both colleagues and carpool buddies. One day as they are driving to work, a traffic jam becomes a nightmare. Every vehicle goes dead at the same time. Moments later, a large airplane crashes into the crowded street and nearby buildings, causing unimaginable carnage and death. Clara and Cooper narrowly escape the crash and spend the next hours attempting to help the injured and dying. No phones work, no vehicles run, and they realize no emergency assistance will reach them for hours, if it comes at all.

Author Max Lockwood immerses us in the maelstrom that is urban “civilization” when the worst has happened, bringing out the best and the worst in humankind. Clara and Cooper must learn to survive and to help others survive. To do that, they’ll have to work out their own relationship and their relationships with flawed or disabled friends and family. They will face violence and horror and their own weaknesses as they struggle to establish a new kind of “normal” life.

The novel is imaginative in its details and situations, and evokes contemplation of whether we ourselves would fare better or worse than the people in the story, people who are not survivalists or doomsday preppers or former Navy SEALs. People who are as ordinary as we.

It Began is hard to put down; you’ll want to finish it in one sitting. Be warned, however, that it is the first book in a trilogy and, as the title implies, the first book encompasses only the beginning of a larger story. Good thing for us, readers, that book two is already available, and book three is in the works.

The author cautions readers from the front of the book: “Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18 and all characters represented as 18 or over.” It Began contains no explicit sex, but alludes to extramarital sex. The novel contains mild, infrequent cursing and instances of bloody, graphic death.

This is a secular work of fiction with neither positive nor negative references to religious faith.

Click HERE to buy IT BEGAN or to download a free sample from the novel.

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