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Scott Nicholson

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After: The Shock (AFTER post-apocalyptic series, Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Scott Nicholson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

3.9 4,260 ratings

Book 1 of 6: AFTER post-apocalyptic

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"One of the most thrilling writers working today. Miss him at your peril." - Blake Crouch, Wayward Pines

"Nobody thrills like Nicholson does. Nobody." - J.A. Konrath, Origin

The first book in the AFTER post-apocalyptic thriller series from an international bestselling author.

AFTER: THE SHOCK

A massive solar storm erases the world's technological infrastructure and kills billions. While the remaining humans are struggling to adapt and survive, they notice that some among them have...changed.

Rachel Wheeler finds herself alone in the city, where violent survivors known as "Zapheads" roam the streets, killing and destroying. Her only hope is to reach the mountains, where her grandfather, a legendary survivalist, established a compound in preparation for Doomsday.

Other survivors are fleeing the city, but Zapheads aren't the only danger. Rogue bands of military soldiers want to impose their own order in the crumbling ruins of civilization. When Rachel discovers a 10-year-old boy, she vows to care for him even at the risk of her own life.

And the Zapheads are evolving, developing communal skills even as they lay waste to the society they will eventually replace.

---

Look for the sequel, THE ECHO, as well as the ZAPHEADS spinoff series. The NEXT series is coming in late 2015. Scott Nicholson is author of more than 30 books, including The Home, Liquid Fear, Creative Spirit, The Red Church, and Mystery Dance. His website is www.AuthorScottNicholson.com.

"Scott Nicholson knows the territory. Follow him at your own risk." - Stewart O'Nan, A Face In The Crowd

"Like Stephen King, he knows how to summon serious scares. My advice? Buy everything he writes." - Bentley Little, The Haunted

Book 1 of 6

AFTER post-apocalyptic
Print length

296 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publication date

August 1, 2014
File size

3832 KB
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00AP6YRFS
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Haunted Computer Books (August 1, 2014)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 1, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3832 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 296 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #9,838 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #27 in Technothrillers (Kindle Store)
- #128 in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #141 in Dystopian Science Fiction (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
3.9 4,260 ratings

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Scott Nicholson

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Sign up for my Tao of Boo newsletter for giveaways, free books, and announcements of new releases: http://www.authorscottnicholson.com/sign-up-for-my-newsletter/

I believe the writer only creates half the story, and that you complete it by bringing your imagination, experience, and heart to the tale. I am happy to share the journey with you and I'm grateful for your reviews and support because that lets me keep living this crazy dream.

I've written more than 30 novels, about 80 short stories, four children's books, some comic books, screenplays, and a couple of non-fiction books, as well as five collaborations with J.R. Rain. Many of my tales are based on supernatural legends from the Southern Appalachian Mountains, and I also write mystery and suspense thrillers that are most often compared to the work of Stephen King and Dean Koontz. I've branched into dark science fiction with my After, Next, and MIM*X series.

I've also published Liquid Fear and Chronic Fear with Amazon's Thomas & Mercer imprint and McFall with 47North, as well as a number of audiobooks and foreign translations. I love hearing from you, because you're the reason I do this, so let's connect! Learn more about my work at www.AuthorScottNicholson.com

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Frank Pero

The "After" series continues!

Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2014

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"After: The Shock" is the first book of Scott Nicholson's "After" series. Actually, if you include the prequel, "After: First Light", it's the second book. It's not absolutely necessary to read the prequel...but I recommend that you do so you can get some great background information on the main characters of the series as well as to what led up to the world being as they now know it.

"After: The Shock" is a post-apocalyptic story about a group of people who struggle to survive a massive solar disruption and a large part of the population who are zombie-like (known as Zapheads in Scott's "After" world). Can you survive a world without electricity, communications, and technology? The "After" world is not like the world as we know it today. This is what the characters in "After: The Shock" have to face. (Better them than me!! :-)

I truly enjoy reading Scott Nicholson's work. He has a style that truly grabs ahold of you and draw you right into the story. Once you start reading, you won't want to put it down! He has a style that brings his characters and settings to life.

If you want to experience a post-apocalyptic world and truly care for the characters/people in it, I highly recommend the "After" series by Scott Nicholson!

One person found this helpful

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Joe

All the Fun of Zombies Without the Zombies

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2013

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Post apocalyptic survival horror is the only kind of horror I enjoy and Nicholson's "After: The Shock" manages to take the now completely wrung-out genre of a zombie end-times and give it a solid revival. Set in my old stomping grounds of western North Carolina, "After: The Shock" tells the stories of several small factions of survivors after a solar storm fries all of the world's electronics and many of the world's brains! Those that didn't die from the solar storm either escape unchanged or are morphed into "Zapheads", a zombie-esque form of brainless killing machine that are less gross than their undead predecessors but much more intriguing and no less frightening.

Being a "zombie but not really" story, "After: The Shock" is given a lot of room to play with new ideas for how the mindless masses behave and (in this very interesting twist) adapt. I know Nicholson intends this to be a trilogy, but a little more delving into the "zaphead's" evolution in this story would not have gone unappreciated. I feel like I was given hints but no push, though those hints were very powerful and well crafted. Additionally, I liked the additional struggle the characters faced with all of their precious technology suddenly taken away from them, but I found some inconsistency in what electronics were and were not affected by the zap.

Nicholson's story moves from one group of survivors to another with each chapter which gives you quite a bit of story to enjoy. The pacing is phenomenal and Scott's vocabulary is better than anyone I've ever read. The built-in dictionary in my Kindle certainly got a workout with this book and I think I would have been left wanting for that if I'd read it in paperback. The descriptions of this world of After are hauntingly detailed and at times the best kind of sickening. At no point are you not reminded that the characters are completely surrounded by death, rot, destruction, fear, and doubt. Nicholson really gets down to the nitty-gritty in each chapter, letting you know just what it takes to earn your next breath in After. I will say though that, with so many different stories going on at once, I found myself caring about certain ones over others and being slightly annoyed when I had to pause one to continue another.

Each faction has its own designated main character and the story is told in a limited third person to get inside their heads. While I enjoy this style of storytelling, I find it limiting when dealing with so many stories at once. Also, when the factions meet up, one "main character" ends up winning out over the other and suddenly I feel like I'm missing something. I think a third person omniscient style would have better suited this story, but that is definitely more of a suggestion than a criticism. In fact, all of my criticism for this book is nit-picky and in no way intended to convey that this book isn't solid. The characters are all well flushed out and beautifully diverse, evolving as the story progresses into what kind of survivor they intend to be. The rich details, heart-pounding action scenes, and no-holds approach to the emotions completely engross you in this end of the world setting and make you feel as though you're struggling for survival right along with them.

5 people found this helpful

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Kelli

EMP Zapped Rage-filled People - I think I have seen this before

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2012

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While a reviewer has already stated this, it is worth repeating. Each book in a trilogy can stand alone. This has every appearance of a serial novel, not a trilogy. Because if this is a stand alone, I was left unsatisfied by the ending.

Solar flares have disrupted electricity and anything that functions using electrical current. Many people have died from the flares due to electrical disruption? Many people have turned into Zapheads. These are humans who lived, but are angry, violent, and who appear to have lost their intelligience. They don't appear to need food, and they attack the living. They also appear to be changing and working in cooperation with each other. There are survivors. One is a professor who estimates that only one in a million survived. Okay, let's talk plausibility. That is only 315 (total U.S. population is 315,000,000) people in the United States; yet, in our story, we have already met a group of military personnel (5 at least), the prepper and the 4 additional people with him, the religious nut plus 2 more with her, the Professor plus his additional 3 people, and our 2 buds. 315 is an average of 6 people per state, so I am totally amazed that 18 people have found each other already. Next, the professor estimates that there is a 10 to 1 ratio between survivors and zapheads. I am amazed we are actually seeing so many zapheads, because this would mean there are only 3150 in the United States, which averages 60 per State.

The next problem I had was the excess of storylines. There were too many storylines going on with nothing occurring in them besides escaping from zapheads and crazed military personnel. It reads like all the zombie books out there. It rapidly became boring. It falls under the category of been there and done that. Also, the excessive storylines prevented us from really getting to know our characters. So, I really don't feel the need to carry on to book two.

Next, this book is oddly similar to Cell by Stephen King. A pulse over the cellphone initially turns people into angry, violent animals, but they ban together and become smart with a hive mind. Or the Ash trilogy by Ilsa Bick, where an EMP kills electrical devices and turn many into angry, violent animals. Bick's also become smart and scary.

So, while this wasn't badly written. I am not going to continue with this trilogy for all the above reasons.

25 people found this helpful

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Rick Cleveland

As the Sun awakens, this becomes more plausible!

Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2023

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Loved the book!
I really want to read the rest but the way kindle is set up now, it's not in the cards for me. I tried seven ways from Sunday to get to the next one but... Sorry Scott. I'm off to easier access books. I don't know why I can get some way easier than others, but 'The Echo' fell in to the others category. Good luck dude! I hope they made it to grandpa's place!

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Chris Wills

Exciting read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 12, 2023

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If you like zombies this is a very good read. I have read 4 books in the series, the first two free with Prime and 77p each for the next two. Gripping tales told well.

Angeline Merrick

Frighteningly realistic!

Reviewed in Australia on December 16, 2023

Verified Purchase

This is not a book for the faint hearted! With all the talk of climate control and climate change, this was almost too realistic. However, once I got into it, I couldn't stop reading it. There is a second book which I will order-I need a happy ending.. Great reading but gory.

Billy Belly

A very good read - real page turner

Reviewed in Canada on October 27, 2016

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I like the book as it provides a somewhat new twist on the EMP induced shattering of society. It is well written. The Characters have depth and dimension, the evolving story lines of each group of characters suggests that at some point all these separate groups, having experienced similar challenges. But while their common goal is survival when the various characters do meet up we went quite sure what will happen. The individuals from each group may clash and cause dissension or some groups may repel or go to war against other groups of survivors. Who knows at this point ?

Carlos

pedido

Reviewed in Spain on January 25, 2016

Verified Purchase

justo lo que necesitaba, llego bien y no tardo mucho.
Todo estaba bien detallado y explicado...................
barato y genial todo

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Amazon Customer

Quite interesting

Reviewed in Canada on March 17, 2021

Verified Purchase

The prequel introduced the crusty old survivalist, Franklin, and his granddaughter, Rachel.

In this book, Franklin rescues a Hispano farm family. The father, Jorge, has a lot to learn about a ZA. Rachel teams up with another survivor., and rescues a child. A considerable distance separates Franklin from Rachel. Many adventures in the next book.

The characters are fairly well fleshed out. Not 2D as is typical in this genre. No super zombies so far. Focus is on the survivors and the choices they face.

Look forward to the nest installment.