Through Many Fires (Strengthen What Remains Book 1)

CUSTOMER REVIEW



Through Many Fires is a solid adventure read. The decapitation of American leadership by an attack at the State of the Union address has been used before (Tom Clancy), but the description was plausible (a nuke in the general vicinity would suffice) and was an effective way of jump-starting the narrative. And I liked how the focus was less on the precipitating acts and more on the aftermath. Personally, I'm hoping the book doesn't carry a veneer of foreshadowing. Since our society is so specialized and interconnected, it wouldn't take much to cause things to unravel. I recall reading somewhere that, thanks to just-in-time delivery schedules, there's a 3 day supply of food in the grocery pipeline. It wouldn't take much disruption to have a lot of hungry people in a very short period of time. And when that happens, Katy bar the door. I don't think it would necessarily take a series of small nukes in metropolitan areas. Heck, the collapse of our economic system (which increasingly seems held together with duct tape and collective wishful thinking) would more than suffice. The use of a major national trauma to throttle liberties and expand surveillance is something that has regrettable historical precedent. And would regions of the country start to schism from the Union after such stresses? That's a scenario straight out of the James Howard Kunstler playbook.

Pratt wisely realizes that you don't have a story if you don't have characters you can get invested in. There is a certain randomness to the assemblage of his characters, but I say that as a compliment. Life will throw people together in unforseen combinations and there is a logical consistency to everything that happens. Pratt's characters are likable and have virtues and faults that we can all relate to. The protagonist being a Senatorial military aide (and ex-Special forces) is probably a necessary conceit in this genre. Had Pratt chosen his hero to be a pot-bellied mortgage refinance salesman, there probably would have been a pretty short story arc (with slim to no chances of a sequel).

A minor quibble with the geopolitics - if Caden Westbrook can puzzle together the responsible alliance on the fly from newspaper clippings and some official papers, surely others know as well. Some of the nuclear attack cells were thwarted before detonation, so you have to assume they are being 'vigorously' interrogated as well. Is this being suppressed by the Durant administration? They would certainly seem to have a vested interest in doing so, but given the sieve-like nature of the intelligence community lately, leaks of information that explosive are inevitable. I'm hoping to learn more in the sequel (which hopefully Pratt will commence working on after taking a well deserved rest).