Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Ruins: A Dystopian Society in a Post-Apocalyptic World (The Ruins Series Book 1)

Top positive review

The Ruins: A Living World, with Real Life Characters.

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2017

Well written dystopian tales. The world Piperbook has created is very real, his characters are fully comprehensive people. The disaster that ended the world as we know it, while apparently atomic, is so far back in their history that it is mythic. Set in a dark age, life is short and hard, and the only monsters are human mutants eventually explained as a scientific discovery gone wrong. So what's new there? A follow up to the Survivor series, it continues Walter's quest, with his companions from the ancient city, through the ruins of their world, taking you along as a willing participant. This series lives.

13 people found this helpful

Top critical review

All critical reviews›

L. Pajot

Decent premise, cliffhanger ending makes it a 2 star. I won't pay over $1 for a serial.

Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2018

Title says it all. I hate hate hate cliffhanger blackmail. Make a book complete in and of it's self, and I will pay for the next books in a series, IF each is complete. Future books can flesh out the world, the complete overarching world view, but NO cliffhangers!

14 people found this helpful

Sort by

Filter by

Filtered by

CriticalClear filter

49 global ratings | 26 global reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

L. Pajot

Decent premise, cliffhanger ending makes it a 2 star. I won't pay over $1 for a serial.

Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2018

Verified Purchase

14 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kindle Customer

Is this a YA book? Simple to the point ...

Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2018

Verified Purchase

Is this a YA book? Simple to the point of being plain, thin storyline and thin characters. Condense this to two chapters and be done with it.

16 people found this helpful

Helpful

Frank Seelye

I didn't realize it was the start to a series.

Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2020

Verified Purchase

I thought it was a stand alone book. It turned out to be the start of a series which ended with a cliffhanger. Not a lot of meat to this one. it just got you interested in where the story was heading to next. I'm not sure I wish to continue the journey though.

Helpful

Jed K

Good, but not as good as the Last Survivors series.

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2017

Verified Purchase

Why only three stars? (No spoilers here... I think)
The book by itself was pretty good, but it follows the The Last Survivors series which was just amazing. I really liked that series. People are writing that you have to read that series first to understand this series, but I don't think that is totally true. It doesn't take long to understand what is going on. One thing that was great about the first series was the multiple threads all running at the same time. This book has just one thread, which is the travels of our main three characters. Nothing else is going on along side of that story until near the end.

About the characters:
There isn't much of a relationship between the two adults. They care for each other but they don't even trust each other; there is not sexual tension between them. It's hard to root for them as a team trying to survive. You do care about young William but he's not used much in this story. (His time seems like it will come in later books).

About the town:
There is no question things are not as nice as they seem. T.W. Piperbrook makes the people of the town so amazingly nice, that you just know it's not possible. (Otherwise the story would be over) Something is going to happen. Towards the end of the book, you start to see some of those cracks in that perfect town.

About the ending (no spoilers)..
It's not that much of a cliff hanger like it's trying to be. It seems more like a break in the multi-book story.

About the guns:
This is a complaint that goes back to even the original series.
300 years after the fall of the most of mankind and the country with 350 million guns, now calls guns tech magic. The one person who is a gun expert comes from England where they have no guns. That doesn't seem likely. It's more likely every remaining American would be carrying at least one gun. This is not really explained well.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kindle Customer

No ending

Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2017

Verified Purchase

What a letdown. The story seemed to have ended in the middle of a paragraph. I was hoping for at least a conclusion to their situation.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

cajunladym

Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2018

Verified Purchase

Ok story but quit abruptly requiring the sequel. Not enough action to keep me reading the series. I was just becoming vested in the characters.

Helpful

WaltG

More like half a book

Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2017

Verified Purchase

I enjoyed the series that leaf to this book and looked forward to reading this. The story itself is entertaining, but I felt a bit let down by the length of the book and how the plot was never really advanced beyond the one storyline.

One person found this helpful

Helpful