I've felt for a while now that this series has gone on for too long, but after the shocking events of the last book I must admit that I have been eagerly waiting for this one. Fallout is also an excellent title because fans of the series know that Rolo's shocking betrayal is going to result in King Xavier becoming an unstoppable force bent of revenge. X is old, and he is losing the support of many of those around him, but he is called The Immortal for a reason. Rolo thinks X is dead so he has no clue what his actions have initiated. Of course Rolo's betrayal was the most devastating event of the last book but it wasn't the only thing that went sideways. Michael has also been deposed as leader of the Vanguard Islands by Charmer and Roger is MIA after the fall of Outpost Gateway. It all adds up to humanity being on the brink of extinction but I don't really care about any of that, Rolo needs to die.
There are three main story threads to follow in this one and for most of the book I only cared about two of them: King Xavier's long journey to return from Australia to the Vanguard Islands in order to exact revenge against Rolo and Michael Everhart's imprisonment at the Vanguard Islands where he is likely to be executed at his pending trial. Every time the book switched over to the third thread, Kade being held prisoner back in Australia, I found myself just wishing it would be over so I could get back to the good stuff. However, by the end of the book it is Kade's thread that is actually the most ominous for future books. I'm not sure that the next book will live up to this one, and I feel that this series will inevitably end only after it becomes uninteresting, but I'm ready to give the next book a chance because this is one of my favorite series.
It takes exactly 2 seconds of hearing R. C. Bray's voice for me to be pulled back into this series. He is King Xavier and if they ever change narrators I will walk away in an instant. I'd be more likely to read a book in this series written by someone other than Nicholas Sansbury Smith but I would never bother to listen to one not narrated by R. C. Bray. Nuff said.