I bought this book because of its apocalyptic scenario, and especially because I thought it would be as much about how the characters respond to a sweeping virus problem as 
to the crumbling of society around them.
That’s my favorite type of book: Shock, medical or scientific mystery, confusion, and the interplay between people. So although I had not read anything by this author before, I figured it would be a low-risk purchase.
The official blurb is:
“What lengths will a man go to ensure his survival?
A sudden, mysterious disease has swept across the country and the few survivors have turned violent, killing for food and water. Knowing the insanity will soon spread from the city, Mark Warren begins stock piling items of need by raiding his neighbor’s homes. His basement becomes his fortress and he is ready to fight to defend it.
When he discovers the organized horde is killing other survivors, Mark steps in to rescue a woman and her children. His actions make him a target and he becomes hunted.
Trapped and outnumbered and the killers closing in, Mark must make a stand and find a way to survive.“
It turns out that I must have been so distracted by the pandemic premise that I didn’t notice how much emphasis there was on violence – which ordinarily does not appeal to me. In any case, I commented about this book at Amazon on 30 October 2013:
What I liked most about this book were the characters – in that I found the ‘good guys’ likeable, and it wasn’t difficult to accept the assumption that all the ‘bad guys’ were in fact bad guys. My favorite was Jarrod. I got lost in descriptions of streets a lot, but other than that it was an enjoyable way to spend a rainy weekend.
At that time, I gave it 4 / 5 stars because it did keep me entertained. This is the same as the average rating given by all reviewers at Amazon. However, a quick scan of other reviews suggests that I appear to have enjoyed this book more than those who take a serious interest in, and are more knowledgeable about, firearms and survivalism.
So be it. I don’t read these books for education or enlightenment, so it doesn’t matter at all to me whether an author refers to a gun magazine or clip. Even though the majority of books I read are written by Americans, I don’t live in America, so I neither know nor care about how to load a semi-automatic weapon. And even if I knew, I wouldn’t rate an author’s work down because of that type of technical error, because it doesn’t impact the plot or action from my reader perspective. For context, I don’t rate authors down because of scientific errors either, unless it’s something so ridiculous that it fundamentally undermines the entire plot – which I only recall happening maybe once ever.
So, anyway, I found it an enjoyable way to spend a lazy weekend.
This book is the first in a series of four books:
So far, I have not read any of the others in the series, but that’s not to say I won’t. Right now, there are many other options available to me which do not include quite so much violence – but someday I will probably re-read Random Survival and take it from there.
If you have read any of this series, please leave me a comment to let me know whether you agree or disagree.
Happy reading 😀
Kerri O'Donnell 