Turning Point tells the story of the Ryman family after an EMP (or multiple EMPs) have taking out the power grid in the US. The first two books tell of their realization and then preparation. Book three tells of their decision to leave the safety (or not?) of their home to try and make it to a friends ranch hundreds of miles away. A trip that would normally take a couple hours, but the world is far from normal anymore.
I wanted to point out that the artwork really matches the book. It’s basically the imagery of the Ryman’s leaving the city (and the chaos) for the gravel roads of the country. Sure, when you’re away from the city you are leaving the sheer number of people, but when you enter the country you are finding a whole different kind of person.
The Ryman’s are back again for the third book in this series. I love the callbacks to the different items that the wife grabbed when she was freaking out and learning a little about prepping from the other books. I also like that the daughter had some interaction with different people (both good and bad) allowing her character to grow quite a bit in this book.
I’m a fan of the length of this book too. Sometimes authors can get bogged down in details and making sure that they have a 300+ page novel. Akart realizes that telling a good story is more important than a page count or the number of ways you can describe what’s going on.
As with the other two books in this series — it ended with a cliffhanger, and one of the biggest in the series yet. I know that the story is continued in Shiloh Ranch (which thankfully releases in audiobook soon-ish). Like Akart’s other series (The Boston Brahmin) as soon as I finish one book I just want to continue with the other.
Turning Point was narrated by Kevin Pierce who, as always, does a great job. He voices the characters really well and as I’ve pointed out more than a dozen times, has one of the best suited voices for post-apocalyptic fiction.
Bobby Akart is a master of intertwining fact in with fiction. Sure, all of his books are fiction novels, but he puts as much research and information as he can so that people who aren’t preppers (or prepared) can take notes and learn from the characters experiences. Sure, the stories are fiction, but what happens might not be if the US was thrown into an apocalyptic situation.