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From: Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: "Holding Their Own IV: The Ascent" by Joe Nobody
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2025 15:18:11 -0600
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"Holding Their Own IV: The Ascent" by Joe Nobody
    https://www.amazon.com/Holding-Their-Own-IV-Ascent/dp/B08T8HCKTS/

The fourth book in a series of eighteen alternate history books about 
the economic collapse of the USA in 2015.  I reread the well printed and 
well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback self published by the 
author in 2013 that I bought new on Amazon in 2014.  I own the first 
eleven books in the series and am rereading the first ten before my 
first read of the eleventh book.

Um, this series was published in 2011 just as the shale oil and gas boom 
was really getting cranked up.  The book has crude oil at $350/barrel 
and gasoline at $6/gallon in 2015.  Not gonna happen due to oil well 
fracking in the USA so the major driver of economic collapse in the USA 
is invalid for the book.  That said, the book is a good story about the 
collapse and failure of the federal government in the USA.  The book is 
centered in Texas which makes it very interesting to me since I am a 
Texas resident.

The $6 gasoline was just the start.  The unemployment rises to 40% over 
a couple of years and then there is a terrorist chemical attack in 
Chicago that kills 50,000 people.  The current President of the USA 
nukes Iran with EMP airbursts as the sponsor of the terrorist attack. 
And the President of the USA also declares martial law and shuts down 
the interstates to stop the terrorists from moving about.  That shuts 
down food and fuel movement causing starvation and lack of energy across 
the nation.

The accumulations of these serious problems cause widespread panics and 
shutdowns of basic services like electricity and water for large cities. 
  The electricity grids fail due to employees not showing up to work at 
the plants.  Then the refineries shutdown due to the lack of electricity.

After the fall of the USA government in the financial disaster of 2015, 
Bishop and Terri try to restart their lives in the zero electricity and 
almost zero energy world of 2016.  The civil war has started and is 
temporarily under a cease fire since nothing says "I love my neighbor" 
like two Abrams tanks firing at each other.

In book number three, Bishop got involved with the almost powerless 
president of the USA during an assassination attempt at Fort Bliss and 
managed to get him killed while freeing the town of Alpha from the 
criminals who took it over.  Now, the repercussions of those actions 
must be paid for.

The author has a website at:
    https://www.joenobodybooks.com/

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (426 reviews)

Lynn