At first, I was reluctant to read Breakers because I got the first book free as a promotional copy. And my experience has generally been that 99% of self-published authors are not very good, for a variety of bad writing reasons including unbelievable ideas, wooden characters, bad dialogue and most usually unprofessional products with typos and poor formatting.
Edward W. Robertson is the other 1%.
Is his writing flawless? No, but it's so much damn fun that I am willing to forgive any minor flaws for the pleasure of the story.
Because, story is what writing is really about. Tell a good story is rule #1. This core value often gets lost in creative writing MFA programs, paralyzed fan groups, and Hollywood producer's offices. The core value of "tell a good story" is strong in the Breakers series. Robertson invents a rip-snorting no-holds-barred full-apocalyptic virus-alien-invasion mash-up with intensity, creativity, and boldness. A lot of writers would say this is cliché material, been done a hundred times, impossible to work with in a good way. Robertson proves there is still life in this material and I have to believe he had fun writing it, with the intent readers would have fun reading it.
Post-apocalyptic fiction is a popular genre right now, with works like The Hunger Games, World War Z, The Road, Left Behind, and One Second After selling well. I feel like Robertson's work is both refreshing and in some ways a little old-fashioned, enjoying its ties to bug-eyed-monsters from outer space wielding ray-guns.
Breakers has in it's DNA elements of The Stand, The War Of The Worlds, Independence Day, and forty other books dealing with survival, viral plague, post apocalypse - with aliens thrown in. I won't say Breakers attains the classic gravitas of War Of The Worlds (which is still a terrific read) but Robertson is very effective at inserting modern believable characters (students, realtors, slackers, etc.) into his apocalypse.
Is Ed Robertson's book packed with the dense literary tropes of James Joyce? No. You want Joyce -- go read Ulysses. I'd prefer Robertson any day. He's an eminently capable storyteller and very effective at structuring his stories to consist of endless cliffhangers. The result is a real page-turner in the best sense of the word. In some way, Robertson's pacing reminds me of Edgar Rice Burroughs, a comment that may be lost on anybody but a die-hard Burroughs fan. Burroughs was a huge success building narrative this way, and Robertson uses the tactic well.
Some might say this book is derivative of Stephen King's The Stand, probably the most influential post-apocalyptic novel of the last 30 years. I read a bit of The Stand to see how it holds up. King is a very talented writer, but The Stand is feeling it's age. It's a dated novel of the 70's and by comparison, Robertson's Breakers feels like a 21st century product, as it should.
I am also struck, occasionally by Robertson's smart peripheral commentary on consumer culture and how fast it would evaporate post-apocalypse. There's a lot of smart stuff about how people live today, attitudes, prejudices on the periphery, and while I don't love it when Robertson does a direct pop-culture reference to contemporary media (i.e. the game DOOM) I cannot deny the ease and effectiveness of that pop-culture shout-out.
If I did not usually like this genre, I'd give the book 2 stars.
If I were a grammar maniac obsessing on various little typos and little speed bumps in reading, I would give it 3 stars.
If I enjoy the genre of alien invasion / apocalyptic I'd give this book 4 stars as a solid entry in the field, easily as good as John Ringo's Posleen books or Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle's Footfall.
Given the amount of fun, storytelling bravado, and Robertson's energy in pulling it off, I say - 5 stars.
(Full disclosure: I bought the rest of the series.)
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Top reviews from other countries
raymond warr firstly i love a good story that has more than one direction v
well written but prefer my scifi in space
Reviewed in Spain on July 15, 2015
