i am so conflicted on rating this book. On one hand, i’m sad the next one isn’t out yet, i do want to know what happens when a certain person comes to visit the Max Mags Guns Emporium. … i mean the Max & Mags Safe Zone. On the other hand.. this is just an “Okay” Series. a solid 3. Honestly, i added an entire star because someone finally FINALLY realized that libraries exist and hold useful knowledge! Lets do a Pro/Con List

Pros:

* The premise is really great, with a somewhat unique take on how/why the Mana/System is introduced to Earth

* a somewhat unique Slow Roll out of the system – will it stop growing? or will it take over the world?

* a intriguing Evil Mad Scientist AI … that no one seems to realize is an Evil Mad Scientist.

* Libraries are really useful in a potentially post-internet world!

* Most of the Military Dudes are just regular Dudes, not evil storm troopers

* Max is NOT a complete Sociopath, he is, in fact, a generally Good Guy

* Most of the people in Max’s safe zone, and that he meets in general – are mostly Good Guys

* Bunnies with Big Sharp Pointy Teeth – Rawr!

* Hermit-Crab-Super-Spider <3

* William is the best character, prove me wrong.

Cons (most of these spoilers are from book one):

* The Government / Military Response is extremely passive. Sure, they’re half-heartedly covering this up, and there are apparently scientists – somewhere – studying this. But there’s no way they sent ONE DUDE in to infiltrate the Mad AI Super Secret Base, and then just “oh well, guess we can’t get in. we’ll try a mini nuke. that didn’t work? guess we’ll just watch from afar and hope it goes away.” If they truly couldn’t get to Prometheus they would be grabbing people off the street, cutting them open, interrogating, running experiments. Max and Ron would be in a secret underground lab somewhere. Ditto with the old folks. the entire first town would be a military plaza. we’re supposed to believe they didn’t because…. the Mana might be bad for the their soliders? even though they have proof that its at least short term survivable? right.

* Prometheus is obviously insane and our “good guy” protagonists are helping it? because… people are getting younger and Max got a hot kitsune girlfriend? they have no idea what the long term plan is, or the long term side effects. they just “trust” that Prometheus wants whats good for everyone. O.M.G.

* Everyone is a nymphomaniac alcoholic. Seriously the only thing anyone thinks about is Sex and Beer. I mean, i think the beer thing was supposed to be a joke and it just… got out of hand? also the number of times someone justifies having “just one or two beers” and then proclaiming they’re fine – just reeks of self delusion. (Listen, i dont like beer, its gross. but i dont care about people drinking. this just seems to be the only thing anyone in this world thinks about 24/7)

* We get it, everyone is young again, and all they want to do is each other.

* Seriously we GET IT, everyone is just nailing everyone else all the time.

* Also, yeah, LOL nobody looks like their drivers license anymore cause everyone is super young. WHY are we still having this conversation weeks/months into this thing?

* Puns are never funny.

* 16 yr old kid is most famous youtuber on the planet, documenting all the Containment Zone news. I understand that lots of people wont *believe* what they hear/see; but why does everyone act like they have no idea whats going on when faced with the reality of the situation?

* Book One – Amy Dude freaks out when forced into an insane world – so we lock him up and pawn him off the first the people who will take him. Book Two – Pretty Bitchy Lady forces herself into the insanity then can’t handle it – lets spend several weeks diagnosing how bad her parents were which led to her being a terrible human being. Right. there are no double-standards.

* Teenager gets depressed when she falls out of the Top 10 youtubers spot. Dad’s Response “this is totally rational, lets take you to some dangerous situations and film it to get you right back on top! Your fragile Ego is the most important thing after all! … and its not like we started this as a way to show the world what was actually happening here, its all about your popularity, honey.”

* Dad is separated from daughter for months, has no idea whats going on in her life, but is so excited when she kidnaps herself so she can come live with him. Now that she’s suddenly back, tho, he can’t be bothered to litterally MOVE A DESK out of the spare room so she can live with him. He just sets her up at the old lady’s house next door, so that he can play house with his hot fox girl friend.

** Finally. CELL PHONES EXIST. Max spends lots of time fixing cell phones, talking about fixing cell phones, explaining in detail how he fixed the cell phone… NOBODY USES THEM. Man, i wish we had a way to talk between trucks in our convoy. i know! lets get some walkie talkies. I wish i could talk to someone outside the zone, i know! Lets get an illegal HAM radio setup… I wish we talked to the other (unnamed) town more and told them more about how all this works… i guess we’ll just drive there once a month. We’re a day away from home and have important life-saving information to share! i know! lets drive back as fast as possible and hope nothing gets in our way. FFS!! … i’m not even going to rant about the internet and the ability to chat with ANYONE ANYWHERE about ANYTHING…. lets just keep pretending that we’re cutoff from the rest of the world in all ways including the physical.