A SMALLER COUNTRY by Phillip Tennison

3.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
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How I discovered this book: Amazon browse.  I downloaded it on Kindle Unlimited.

Genre: Post apocalyptic, Australia.

I fancied a nice end-of-world survival scenario to read, and this was the third I tried of those I've downloaded recently.   The others had the super-duper professional, currently apt covers for the genre, but what was inside didn't live up to them.  This one, with the quieter, more simple cover, kept me reading.

At first I thought it was a novel by someone who just wanted to write all he knows about guns.  There are a LOT of guns in this, and to be frank I skimmed much of the weapons detail because it doesn't interest me and wasn't always needed for the story.  The book starts when John Timms, ex-cop survivalist and hero of the story is some way into life post-virus.  I was disappointed that the whole build-up to the virus and what happened during was dealt with in a matter of two pages, and in the briefest newspaper-style reporting; I nearly abandoned at that point.  But I didn't, and started to realise that the matter-of-fact, spare style of writing suited the mood of the book.  People have lost everything, and are just trying to survive.  Sometimes terrible things happen, and they're numb to them.  

As is usual in 'road trip' stories of this genre, John is trying to get to a place of perceived safety, and meets up with others; in this case, his early companions happen to be two very fit female soldiers; well, the author is male!  But, generally, it's not over-dramatised or Hollywoodised.  A lot of their troubles come from Indonesians, who have paid their life savings to sharks for a passage to Aus, having been told that it's safe there.  The factual detail about survival techniques is clearly well researched and was of interest to me, though I was a bit 'hmm' about where all the fuel came from.  The characters work; the author clearly has that thing-you-can't-learn, ie, being able to write three dimensional characters with very little description.  The one that kept me reading was Rosie, a big, tattooed, hooch-distilling farm guy who feels suited to the new world; he said he wasn't a very good farmer but made a great caveman, or words to that effect. 

The other downside to the book was the punctuation; whoever proofread it needs to learn about vocative commas, as they're aren't any ("What are you doing Abi?" "John can you chuck me a towel?" "I know what you mean Sam").  But it's pretty good.  If you like books of this genre in which the factual stuff seems real, and the characters don't act like King Ezekiel, pre-Saviours slaughter, you'll probably like it.