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‘The Valley of Shadows’: An Unconventional End-of-Days Novel
John Ringo wrote “Under a Graveyard Sky,” the first book in the Black Tide Rising Series in 2014, which is a novel about a zombie apocalypse; since then he added three more. Then he invited his author friends to play in his world.
“The Valley of Shadows,” by John Ringo and Mike Massa is the first collaborative novel added to the series.
It takes readers back to the series’ origin. Steve Smith, the father of the family central to “Under a Graveyard Sky” had a brother, Tom. Tom Smith worked as managing director of Security and Emergency Response at Bank of the Americas, a major international bank. He provided back story and part of the action in the first book. “The Valley of Shadows” puts Tom Smith center stage, following his experiences during the opening of the crisis.
Except for the zombie apocalypse background, this isn’t really a science fiction novel. Rather it’s a novel about a business in crisis, in some ways reminiscent of Arthur Hailey’s “Hotel” or “Strong Medicine.” Tom Smith’s job is to keep the bank functioning when the four horsemen take a ride. War and famine affect a bank’s bottom line.
So can pestilence. The book opens with Tom attempting to manage the effect of a potentially disruptive influenza epidemic. These not only affect a bank’s trading; it can disrupt a bank’s ability to trade if employees get sick or quarantined. Except, this turns out not to be a routinely bad influenza epidemic — it’s soon apparent that this is a bio-engineered act of terrorism, and with potential for end-of-the-world devastation.
So Smith reacts. As the crisis jumps worst-case expectations, Smith exercises increasingly unconventional options. He goes beyond securing evacuation sites outside major cities so the bank can continue trading. He hires medical experts to develop vaccines. He enters into increasingly dodgy alliances to keep the bank open: criminal organizations and even municipal governments.
“The Valley of Shadows” is a fast-paced book, building to an exciting climax that is both predictable and unpredictable. Ringo and Massa have written an end-of-the-world novel that is unconventional and entertaining.
“The Valley of Shadows,” by John Ringo and Mike Massa, Baen, 2018, 304 pages, $25
I write a weekly book review for the Daily News of Galveston County. (It is not the biggest daily newspaper in Texas, but it is the oldest.) My review normally appears Wednesdays. When it appears, I post the review here on the following Sunday.
Published in Literature
Thanks, Seawriter. I’m in. I’ve read the other books and hold them in high regard. Plus, every time I look over the top of the kindle at my youngest daughter (call sign: DEMONSEED, who is home from college for the holidays), I think, “that’s Faith, right there.”
Let me ask you this, Seawriter. Some authors will write books in a series in such a way that you can figure out what’s going on even if you didn’t read any of the preceding books. But sometimes you pick up a book other than the first one in the series and the author just assumes you are already up to speed and you can’t figure out what the heck is going on. What’s your verdict on this one for those who just want to start here and not read the other books first?
It’s stand alone. Really. I meant what I said about it being an Arthur Hailey novel, in the sense that the business is what the book is about. The other Smith family appears, but are not essential to the story.
Yeah, I’ve read and enjoyed the others in the series too.
…Good luck with your youngest, man. Get her a halligan for Christmas?
She knows she can use the one in the Contico box whenever she wants.
I was thinking one of those Glocks that come in pink.
Lets face it. There is nothing more dodgy than a municipal government.
Uh, except right now maybe the Federal government?
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Various quotes of the day I have used about government.