Wednesday, April 8, 2020

SIMPOC--Human Remnants, by Ray Jay Perreault (author), Zachary Johnson (narrator)

Ray Jay Perreault, November 2015

Earth has been hit by a sudden, fast-moving, extremely lethal virus, of unknown origin. Most of the human race has been killed, without even the time to identify the origins of the virus.

Now most of the human race is dead, and the survivors are working to pull their remnants together and save the species and hopefully civilization.

We follow Joan Herl, commander of the Oasis space station, which supported the research colonies on the Moon and Mars, and her husband, Colonel Tom Herl; the US President, and other political and military leaders representing what's left of the US government; the intelligent computers, SIMPOC, Alpha 1, and others, whose programming leads them to choose to support the humans; and Dr. Julius Howard, who sees an opportunity, using his intelligent computer, to become ruler of the world.

They all have serious challenges ahead of them, and more mysteries and challenges to discover. The death toll has been so high--it's possible that fewer than 100,000 humans are left alive--that they've all lost most of the people they knew and cared about, and they need to build a new society in the wake of that. The characters are likable (except, of course, Julius and his intelligent computer), and interesting. The pace moves, the choices make sense, and despite being set in the aftermath of a pandemic that has nearly wiped out the human race (no, I can't explain why I decided to listen to it just now), it's got a surprisingly upbeat tone.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the author, and am reviewing it voluntarily.

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