The Rule of Three Eric Walters

In a world rife with Young Adult dystopic novels (The Hunger Games, Divergent etc.) this one easily sets itself apart.

Eric Walters is a former school teacher from Canada. Unlike so many teachers turned authors who turn out more of the same barf they taught in schools. I was NOT a fan of the required reading most schools use to promote literature but that's another blog post. After I finished this I read multiple other books by Walters and enjoyed every single one.

Adam Daley is an excellent example of a teenage boy thrust into a world where everything he thought was important is suddenly gone. When all computers and electricity fail his classic beater car is one of only a few that still run. His father, a pilot, was scheduled to return home the same night the power failed. With no phones and no news his family has no way of knowing if he's even still alive, but he has the ultralight they were building, and the help of Herb the neighbor of questionable morals but incredibly knowledgeable about how to handle an apocalypse.

As they turn their little area of town into a self-sustaining community in the heart of a world where the civilized veneer has been removed from everyone revealing the true animal nature of many, Adam somehow manages to stay true to the decent person he is.

Unlike so many dystopic novels that end up with people sharing memes about the rest of the world continuing as if nothing is wrong and ignoring the problems centered in the North American continent this book deals with that with one statement from Herb. If our allies knew and they were able they'd be helping. If our enemies knew and they could they'd destroy us. They aren't here. It's everywhere.

I can usually tell when I'm not the only one who will like a book if Mom, who's fairly picky about what Young Adult stuff she likes raves about something. She raved about this series. So far Books one and two are out. The Rule of Three is the first and it's followed by The Fight for Power. Both follow the same little community through the unspeakable danger of a post-apocalyptic world.

The Rule of Three: Will to Survive comes out on January 19, 2016, I'm looking forward to it.