Jake Wharton

Starting with the review of the first one

The premise of the trilogy is fun, and the contrast of choices by all of the different authors is interesting. For me, the book became more depressing as it went on simply because you're exposed so rapidly to all these downfall scenarios. I also worry that it's too many stories such that when I get to their associated second and third parts in the next two books, I won't have a strong recollection of the characters or plot.

The first sentence remains true. Unlike the first book, this one is actually weirdly more hopeful and enjoyable. Despite being in the apocalyptic events, you get a lot of humans actually doing things. The last sentence remains true, it was very hard to remember the first part of most of the stories, especially when the characters and settings change but the only the world is shared. I expect the third book to continue this trend.

A very slow burn that escalates and escalates. Definitely has some writing that is of its time, but otherwise it's a timeless story of a snowball's descent into an avalanche. I'm not sure what edition I was reading, but the 100 page epilogue very felt out of place. You can skip it, and read it later as a short story.

The entire book save for the first and last chapters is a flashback which caught me by surprise. It feels a bit forced since there's only a loose tie-in with the plot of the main storyline. Aside from that fact, the backstory itself is an entertaining and illuminating look into young Roland. Upon completing this entry in the series I actually found the parts of the main storyline which bookend the flashback to stand out as feeling forced and almost wish they concluded the previous book.