Review: Fight For Power

Info: 
Title: Fight For Power
Author: Eric Walters
Series: The Rule of 3 #2
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Publication Date: January 20, 2015
Source: I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis:
The world keeps getting darker in this second reality-based survival adventure in the Rule of Three trilogy 

After sixty-six days of a catastrophic global blackout, life in the suburbs is not what it used to be for Adam and his fortified neighborhood of Eden Mills. Although an explosive clash has minimized one threat from outside the walls, Adam’s battle-hardened mentor, Herb, continues to make decisions in the name of security that are increasingly wrenching and questionable. Like his police chief mom and others, Adam will follow Herb’s lead. But when the next threat comes from an unexpected direction, nobody is ready for it. And someone is going to pay the price—because of Adam’s mistakes and mistaken trust.

Review:
I just finished this one and I am seriously stressed out. That last chapter! Yikes!

Fight for Power continued on where The Rule of 3 ended: with Adam and his friends and neighbours battling against the group of men who were threatening their neighbourhood. Much like The Rule of 3, Fight For Power focused on the struggle to survive. However, as more and more time passes with no hope of rescue, the group begins to focus more and more on the long term, specifically surviving the winter.

Adam is kind, thoughtful and extremely moral, which makes him a direct contrast to characters like Brett and even Herb. He constantly acts as the voice of morality for the governing committee. While I think it's a bit unrealistic that the committee would put so much stock in the opinion of a 16 year old, it does help the reading to connect with Adam and his struggle to do the right thing in such crazy times.

One thing that bothered me a little bit was that occasionally the writing and Adam's voice felt a little awkward. Like there was a bit too much explaining for a first person story.

But overall I did enjoy the survival aspect of the story and I thought the suspense at the end was very well down. I did guess what was going on before it was revealed, but not too early and I enjoy being able to pick up on author's hints and create my own theories.

Find the Book:
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I'm excited to be featuring a guest post by author Eric Walters. As I write this, I'm in the middle of his latest book The Rule of 3: Fight for Power. I love reading about the struggle for survival. Today Eric is going to share a post about travel and it's influence on his writing.

Traveling and influences on your writing

I travel to write and write to travel.  The two go hand in hand.  To write Between Heaven and Earth I travelled to Tanzania to actually climb Mount Kilimanjaro.  My experience travelling to that country and climbing the mountain became not only the basis of my research but the things that my character experienced.  For Just Deserts my character is forced to walk hundreds of miles across the Sahara Desert so I walked 120 miles across the Sahara Desert.  The scene on the cover where the character is lost in the desert was written when I was lost in the desert.  For Walking Home my character and his young sister are forced to walk across Kenya to find his extended family after the death of their parents.  I took four young Canadians and four of the residents of my orphanage (www.creationofhope.com) and walked across Kenya, following the exact route taken by my characters.  All along I took pictures, videos, interviewed people and made notes.  This journey was 8 days and 200 kilometers, on foot, walking across the Mara, up to the top of the Rift Valley, through Nairobi, through Kibera (the largest urban slums in Africa) and then up into the mountains of Kikima.  The journey became not only the basis of the characters experience walking across the country but also formed the basis of the companion website www.ericwalterswalkinghome.com   The book has symbols that connect through a website where the reader can see pictures, view videos, hear interviews, read related non-fiction articles about the journey and read a full writer’s commentary.  None of that would have been possible without the journey.

My wife and I, along with a family in Kenya, created a program to provide services for orphans in the Mbooni District. I travel there each summer and these experiences have formed the basis of many of the books I have written.  My Name is Blessing, Hope Springs and Today is The Day are all picture books that have been inspired by real children and experiences that have occurred when I’m there.

Travel doesn’t just give you experience and inspiration but it gives perspective and opportunity.  I am placed in a position where I can use my abilities as a writer to help my readers become aware of situations in the world – important situations removed from their normal lives.  This allows perspective, not only for them but also for me.  The person that I am has been greatly influenced, changed and shaped by travel.

I love this post. I have definitely been bitten by the travel bug and, while I haven't been abroad in over a year, I have the planning for 3 future trips in-progress (1 to Montana with my mom, one to England and Scotland with my mom and aunt and one to Eastern Europe with my boyfriend). Stay tuned for my review of Fight for Power tomorrow.