I expected book 2 of this series to pick up where things left off at the end of book 1, Breakers, but to my surprise that is not the case. Instead, Edward W. Robertson decides to start this book in the exact same place that he started the last one - prior to the pending double apocalypse. He also once again chooses to focus on two different sets of characters as they navigate the treacherous waters ahead of them when disaster strikes. This time around both sets of characters are siblings but they start from different socio-economic classes and thus very different circumstances. Ness and Sean are brothers that live with their mother in a trailer in Idaho, which is one of the many ground zero locations for the upcoming outbreak, while Tristan and Alden live with their wealthy parents in Redding, California. Their worlds may start out quite different but the end of civilization as we know it will cause them all to wind up in a very similar place.
At first I was put off by the fact that this book started telling the tale over once again from prior to the viral outbreak, but in the end it was indeed interesting to experience this re-telling from the perspectives of these new characters. Robertson also weaved the first two books of the series together by having a nameless character from the first book turn out to be Tristan from this book. When this one is all said and done the overall story arc is only slightly advanced, but Roberson has now established a number of characters with really detailed background stories that he can move forward with.
The overall story arc is solid and the character building that Robertson is doing makes it all work. His characters all start out flawed and unprepared for what is about to happen to them but they manage to adapt to their changing world, for better or worse. By the end, all of the characters that survive are different people, usually with even more flaws than they started with, but playing a key role in the struggle for humanity to avoid extinction.
Ray Chase is his usual excellent self as narrator for the audiobook and you can't go wrong if you choose to listen instead of read.