You know, the only way this world will ever be without war is when the last human has died.

Conflict, confrontation, aggression, it’s built right into our genes. We fight to survive, we fight over food, shelter, and mating privileges… to be human is to be a fighter. Some of us excel at it, others are far more pacifistic.

The worst thing is when the government decides for what ever reason we have to fight one another. Men and boys are sent off, often to lands far from home, to fight for a cause that some don’t understand, others just don’t believe in, so on and so forth.

Sure, there are many who do believe in the cause, and that they’re fighting to protect lives of innocent people, to throw off the yoke of oppression that is laid upon the people by dictators or worse.

How do the enemy soldiers feel though? Do they fight because they believe what they’re doing is right? Do they fight because they’re forced to by their own government? Put yourself in the shoes of a soldier who’s about to kill another man… does that soldier stop to think that the man in his sights might not have a family? A wife and children who love him and need him, but he’s been thrown into a bloody conflict because of the views of his government?

What makes a soldier human is compassion, the realization that hey, the other guy I’m about to kill is probably just like me… but because of our government, it’s either him or myself.

If soldiers ever lose their humanity, they become monsters, murderers of the first degree.

Survivalist: The Doomsayer, really touches upon these points.

Yeah, yeah, it also deals with subjects I’ve discussed in my previous reviews, such as family, friendship, love and honour, and that’s the reason I keep going back to the series as each book is produced in audio format.

I’ve even said before that the Soviets aren’t portrayed as inhuman monsters. Yes, they started the war, and yes, they invaded the States in the series, but those soldiers are as human as the heroes are.

In this novel, Rourke is still hunting for his family, and of course he’s still dealing with the scum of the earth, and evading the Soviet forces that have occupied the States.

By pure happenstance, he rescues a young geologist who has dire news… it seems that the nukes have ended up creating an artificial fault-line that in only a matter of days will cause the Florida State to separate from the continental United States and it’ll sink into the sea.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse…

Upon hearing this dire news, Rourke is forced to set aside his hunt for his family and he contacts President Chambers of US2 in order to see what can be done to save as many lives as possible from this man made catastrophe.

Of course, deep down, he does have another personal reason to do this. His close friend Paul Rubenstein is currently in Florida, looking for his parents who may or may not have survived the Night of the War.

Because of this impending disaster, the Soviet and US2 forces call a temporary truce in order to do what they can to get as many people out of Florida to safety.

There you go. The two sides are at war, but even during this horrific time, both parties are able to put aside their hostility long enough to provide humanitarian aide to the survivors of Florida, to evacuate as many as they could.

Also, the overall plotline is moved forward in regards to Rourke finding his own family, Paul discovering the fate of his parents, the situation between Rourke and Natalia, and the foreboding harbinger of things to come.

Hmm… I have said this numerous times before, but let me say it once again. The production of the book was top notch, and the crew at Graphic Audio really shone with the combination of music, sound effects and tension near the end. Almost as good as a movie, I’d say.

Especially to a man with as vivid an imagination as my own.

5 out of 5