Either I’m getting used to the things that annoyed me about the earlier books in the series or the author has improved with each subsequent book, but this is one of my favorites so far. The action was nearly non stop and the situations fairly unique. You have not one, not two, but three (well, three-and-a-half) separate life-threatening crises (criseses?) that Ben and his family must fight their way through in order to survive. Raging infernos, murderous snipers, churning rapids, and one seriously messed up cult all threaten to defeat them in their attempts to get home to Colorado, and it takes experience, intelligence, skill, and even kindness – on the part of others as well as of themselves – to get them through it all. It’s also cool to see how far Joel has come from the fairly inexperienced marksman he was in the first book to the increasingly skilled fighter that he is now. Plus, the love and devotion Ben has not only for his own children but for Allie and Sandy as well is incredibly heartwarming. If there were more fathers like that in the world, it would be a MUCH better place.