Thoughtfully Executed

Erika Stevens (with Claire Bloom) does a marvellous job imagining how survivors might react to a civilization-ending event: struggling with the shift to a "just survive" mentality, searching for loved ones, and coping with existential questions. Her glimpse into the minds of four very different personalities is undeniably insightful. On top of that, Stevens's vocabulary/prose is creditable, her description skills are reasonable, and her dialogue is largely realistic (recognizing that some of the banter among characters is pretty groanworthy).
Unfortunately, lava erupting onto the earth while the sky turns black - without any explanation (even a paranormal one) is hard to swallow. In addition, Stevens/Bloom's post-apocalyptic world is populated with so many awful people (like, 80%), that it feels unreasonable not to include a sociopath or two among the central characters and their friends (statistically speaking, I mean). The sympathetic, morally impeccable, self-sacrificing people the authors concentrate on are annoyingly unrealistic for the world they imagine.

Stefan Rudnicki turns in a typically professional performance (and I genuinely love the man's baritone/basso reading timbre) - but reads too slowly, and with frequent noticeable deep breaths that sound engineers struggle to soften. Skyboat Media cast the book nicely, but another reader could have been equally effective. The presentation is "passable".

Altogether, 'The Upheaval' (Book One of 'The Survivor Chronicles') is an interesting character-development-in-the-face-of-unimaginable-trauma exercise. If that's what you're looking for, this 6.5/10-star offering should meet your expectations. As someone more interested in at least plausible (and more action-driven) entries within this genre, I am satisfied with my time investment for this 'Plus' option.. but wouldn't spend a Credit on it.

[NOTE: Birds falling out of the sky like feathered lawn darts is a mental image that I won't soon forget]

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So so

No real character development, I constantly found myself trying to figure out who is who because the story never really held my interest. It felt like the entire book should have been condensed into a single opening chapter.

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A series, which Audible doesn't carry the rest of

Ok, so it's free. And my genre.
A good writer isn't like the slap dash shoot 'em up, no characters type that most of this genre is annoyingly insistent on writing.
A good End of the World book makes you feel the terror, the anger and all the feelings in between.
This book doesn't.
It drones. That's fine if you are going to explain what the heck happened, but we don't know. Was it a Super Volcano? Was it aliens? (I honestly don't know, we're never told what's happened)
Apparently zombies happen in the next book and Audible doesn't carry the other 2, but I'm happily done here. No one does anything, they just drive, walk, and talk. Huge chasms open up and there's magma boiling up as lava in the streets. Our people escape by the skin of their teeth the rending of EARTH and magma (not lava) which suspends my disbelief even more than zombies do. We'd be extremely F 'ed on Earth and certainly North America if this actually happened and driving cars wouldn't likely be possible. Plus this is on the East coast where we have no volcanic activity (I'm in NS, at least we and our neighbouring provinces/states don't.) If this happened, no one would be discussing sleeping at an iffy hotel, they'd be fleeing and dying. Chasms the size of the Grand Canyon open up- yet they drive places?

I'm happy there was no annoying relationships popping up but it was a close thing, because if someone calls you Dumbo during an apocalypse you know there will be relationship happening next book. I just don't care, none of these people have actual character development so I don't care who falls into lava or some other stupid plot.
If this is a free book, be aware you won't get the other 2 of the 4 book series, only the first 2 on Audible. That is a death knell IMO for any series.
If you want a series written by a woman that has actual plot, though sometimes it's poorly done, read the Until the End of the World series by Sara Lyons Fleming, it's better by far, though I can tell you there is more to Canada than rocks and trees, sometimes we also have...water! :) .

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Enjoyable story, well read

The story was refreshing to not have zombies, even though we all live zombies in the apocalypse. The story was a basic survival story with family friendly content. The characters were enjoyable. Looking forward to the next instalment. What will we learn about the events and results to the earth and its creatures.

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