Flashpoint: The Complete Series

By: Tara Ellis, Mike Kraus

Narrated by: Tom Taylorson

Length: 29 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

If your life dissolved in a flash, would you be strong enough to survive?

Half of the earth's population has been wiped out. Impossible to predict or stop, the Gamma Ray Burst tore through the Earth like a bullet, its radiation wave killing hundreds of millions, and the after effects ensuring the deaths of billions more.

Now, as the world crumbles around them, a ragtag group of survivors make for the only home they know: the small town of Mercy. Spared the worst of the GRB's effects, the town is isolated, safe, and self-sufficient, for now.

The flash hasn't just decimated the Earth's population though. It's brought out the worst in many of those who are still alive. Survival in this new world doesn't just depend on preparedness-it depends on strength.

*****

It's the one disaster no one can plan for. A rogue cosmic event called a Gamma Ray Burst, sending a spike of radiation through the earth like a .50 caliber bullet through a ripe watermelon. It's speculated that such an event hit the Earth at some point in the past, causing a mass extinction event. With two potential sources for a GRB pointed directly at our heads, the chances of another one happening in our lifetime is remote...but still possible.

In Flashpoint, we explore such an event and the havoc it would wreak across the entire planet. From destroying our atmosphere to millions dying from incredibly painful radiation exposure, a GRB would be unpredictable and unavoidable for everyone, rich and poor, prepared and unprepared alike.

Flashpoint is a six-book miniseries-like event, written by Tara Ellis and best-selling post-apocalyptic author Mike Kraus. This thrilling post-apocalyptic survival series will have you second-guessing the very nature of post-apocalyptic disaster scenarios and leave you breathless. This complete edition of this series consists of all six books in the Flashpoint series.

©2021 Muonic Press Inc (P)2021 Muonic Press Inc

Perfectly fine series that should have been one book

This story was fine. Perfectly decent way to spend a token.

I wish the author(s) would do a touch more research . Marines are marines, army is soldier, navy is sailor, Air Force is airman. There are literal style guides on this stuff. While a regular civilian could call everyone soldiers, a marine would not refer to him self as a soldier, particularly an enlisted marine.

Enlisted people are not addressed as SIR. Ever. It is actually considered an insult to refer to an enlisted person (who works for a living) as a sir the title for a commissioned officer who don’t do manual labor.

If you’re going to write a story that include military and which they are also the antagonist that is literally gunning down civilians, maybe actually know something about the culture.

I wish it would have leaned more into the survivalist nature.

I audibly groaned when I realized the hidden family connection. Not to mention the pure ex machia nature of the control of the mcguffin.

The vignettes of the people facing their doom were probably the best part of the book. I wish there was a little longer dead end threads.

Characters skills continued to just be whatever the story needed to advance the plot. One character just seem to be getting very complex skill added as footnotes as the story evolved.

Horse stuff is always great.

Description of Montana were great

Unique

Good story line. Excellent narration
Keeps your attention- good detailed explanation but not “wordy”
Hope we are never faced with these events

The characters

The characters stood out and I could easily picture them in my head. The narrator was excellent

This was a wonderful series. Loved it!

I liked the adventures and friendships which developed from the disasters. Sorry it had to come to an end.

Excellent

Excellent. Well written, good engaging story. Highly recommend. 15 word minimum so blah blah blah blah blah

I truly enjoyed this book

An intriguing listen, solid character development and storyline. Displays the best and worst of humanity

Entertaining story but average world building and characters

Pros:
- diverse characters
- great imagery/descriptions
- entertaining story

Cons:
- not well written diverse characters
- could be condensed into one book
- focuses more on the humanity, not on survival (maybe not a con for some but not quite what I wanted).

Overall I liked the story and the first few books of this series really got me engaged. It kind of fell off towards the end though. Though there are diverse characters (race, sex/gender), they aren’t written very well and the main white male protagonist is the hero in the end and has the best character development. Oftentimes the POC are described as having “exotic” features or just having dark skin (from their POV!). As someone who is biracial, I’d never describe my features as being exotic. Spoiler warning, but I didn’t understand why Tom became mayor (why was he qualified?). The author completely threw out Patty’s character development and just stopped showing her POV despite her having insecurities being mayor.

Please don’t expect this to be an amazing story with an amazing cast of characters. It’s entertaining and you come to came for all the characters, but there’s nothing beyond that. Just another white male protagonist saving the day and being the most consistent character throughout the series.

World Ender!

Not what I expected. The concept of an exploding star and the gamma radiation it releases scared the crap out of me. No where to hide nor anytime either. The survivors were just lucky. Well written and narrated. I would think and hope that our military would have more than just a few outdated EMP hardened vehicles and equipment. God forbid we were attacked with an EMP weapon, we would be up sh@ts creek without a paddle.

Thrilling story

I am a big fan of Tara’s various works and loved this post apoc series. I never tried an audiobook before, so for my first one I gave this version try. And found it overall to be interesting and entertaining.

Just Amazing

Loved it. From beginning to end stayed interested in the story. The different characters perspectives really helped keep the listener interested. The narrator was great and the scientific background placed in the series, gives it some realism. The fact that this could actually happen is terrifying and seeing a possible scenario of how a situation like that could play out makes it even more terrifying; but seeing the main characters overcome all those obstacles and come together to build a future was amazing.