Winter World

Winter World (The Long Winter Trilogy Book 1) Kindle Edition by A.G. Riddle (Author) No one does TEOTWAWKI better than AG Riddle. And this is particularly true with the first book of the Long Winter trilogy. As with his other apocalyptic series, Winter World starts with the microcosm. In this case, the stories of James, a scientist who has been wrongly convicted and sent to prison, and Emma, an American astronaut on the ISS when the worst happens. The story builds out from there, and hitting with THE BIG IDEA that isn't explained until the very last 15% of the book. It reminds me of the best Dean Koontz! The story is told in rotating third party points of view, between Emma and James. There are plenty of other characters, from Russian cosmonauts, to sisters of our narrators. The only issue I have is, that despite how well Riddle writes female characters, he fails the Bechdel test. Even when women are the talking to each other on a spaceship, they only talk about James for any length of time. I hope this changes in the next two books! Riddle does an excellent job with the science, giving the feel of a Michael Crichton science thriller. He also manages to explain it on a level for an English/History major like myself to understand. Emma and James are very well-written and their relationship evolves organically. Riddle does a great job ratcheting up the tension between them while keeping them apart, not by environmental factors, but because they are humans who can't see what's right before them. This is also seen in the way they handle the Big Idea. Aliens exist in this series, in fact they are the driving source of how the Long Winter begins. They are stealing our solar energy. And they are truly alien. There is nothing human about them. Well done, sir well done. I've read and watched too many sci-fi stories where the aliens are just humans in lizard skin or some such. This is a totally different alien species with completely un-human drives and reasoning. This is a great TEOTAWKI (The End of the World as We Know it) story that works on all levels – microcosm and macrocosm, on the earth and in space. The characters are well done. The writing and story flow. The secrets of the characters play out at just the right speed. The aliens are delightfully alien. All in all, a fun, tense, exciting read. 5 out of 5 – recommend highly https://www.amazon.com/Winter-World-Long-Book-ebook/dp/B07N32K12H/

I heavily enjoyed the premise and storyline of this book and series. The main protagonist is fun to follow. Events move quickly, allowing a lot of events and changes to occur in the trilogy. There are a few plot holes or implausibilities (which I'll not spoiler here), but I'm willing to gloss over those in my escapism. With moving quickly, however, there is not much time spent investigating the impacts and outcomes of massive, historically-significant changes to humanity. There is also, (IMHO) very little character development. With three books cranked out in a year time frame, it feels like the writing was considered something that got in the way of telling the story. It feels like the author developed out a very delightful skeleton for the plot, but then did not care to add meat and polish beyond what was needed. There are, for me, too many asides where "science" details are spelled out clumsily—e.g. when one scientist says to another scientist, "Let me see if I've got this straight…" and then dumbs down and explains the implications so the poor uneducated reader can keep up—and too many cases of the same information and attitudes being re-expressed even within the same book (though this happens more in the later two books). All those complaints, and yet I still give it four stars, and recommend it to my friends. I would say it's not stellar writing—though I certainly cannot do better, I've read better—and it does not perform sci-fi's important role of walking through the full implications of each deviation from today's world…but it does tell a heck of a story and raise some very excellent topics for consideration.

The story held my attention and I appreciated the family dynamics on full display. I am looking forward to the next book.

The Long Winter trilogy is my first foray into A. G. Riddle's books. I began with no expectations & finished highly impressed. The story is tightly constructed, intelligent & thoughtful, with enough original speculation to keep me engaged. The pacing is excellent. The characters are in turns interesting, endearing, frustrating & amusing. The writing is fluid & sophisticated. As each book ended, I didn't hesitate to buy the next & keep right on reading. By the time the big denouement began in the middle of the third volume, it was midnight & I was dead tired & could barely keep my eyes open, but I found myself still reading feverishly at 1:30 in the morning, disturbing my sleeping husband with my muttered exclamations of "No...!" & "What?!" as I slowly began to suspect what was going on. I haven't been that blindsided by a reveal in a loooong time! The only thing glaring in its absence was the mention of any kind of religious faith or God. This was striking due to the cataclysmic/apocalyptic circumstances of the story, & the size & diversity of the cast of characters; religious faith is the guiding principle in the lives of an overwhelming majority of the world's population – including many in the scientific & technical professions. Most Russian cosmonauts, for example, are devout Orthodox Christians; they even keep an icon corner set up on the ISS for their daily prayers. I don't know if the omission of any mention of religion or God from the books was a conscious choice or simply a blind spot for the author, but it did strike me as a conspicuous hole in the fabric of a story that otherwise did an excellent job of suspending my disbelief. :)

Winter World by AG Riddle is a tough-to-put-down work of literature. This was my first AG Riddle book, and it won’t be my last. Thank you.

This story is told by two narrators with the chapters alternating between the two. I enjoyed getting the story from two different perspectives, it was entertaining. I really like A.G. Russia's writing style and how his characters act and speak. I also enjoy the way he paces the story, builds plot lines and suspense. I am looking forward to reading the rest of this apocalyptic sci-fi trilogy!

OK story so far but I get disappointed in bad science details. Glaciers move.,,, well, glacially. On level ground it takes millenia to build up enough snow and ice to move. Covering the sun wouldn't make it snow faster. 5 months? give me a break. And just how does the alien probe out near Venus destroy the ISS only seconds after probe 127 sends data to ISS?? Venus is about 6 light minutes away. And how do you send small probes out with a rail gun that drains the ships power and then have them return?? At a fraction of light speed the energy in the probe to stop would be enormous...and the energy to then accelerate back would be equally enormous, and laws of physics (acton=reaction) would require a large mass to be accelerated in the opposite direction, mass that a tiny probe does not have. And how does the derelict Ship out near Venus turn up at the asteroid belt...they would also have to have enormous mass of rocket propellsion and of course, fly right past earth on the way. Yeah, yeah, I can set aside disbelief in SCIFI to imagine wormholes and faster than light travel if science fiction requires it, but claim it and own it...don't start violating normal laws of physics and the speed of light. Run it past someone who has high school physics class to edit.

One of the most imaginative books I have read in a long time. I literally couldn’t put it down. I loved James Sinclair and Emma as characters, definitely looking forward to seeing them again. I would recommend this series to anyone who loves science fiction that may not be far from future truth. I was thoroughly entertained.