The Unit, by Terry DeHart
Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2010 10:30 pm
Terry DeHart's 2010 novel The Unit is a post-apocalyptic family drama that is full of polemic, and woe. Over the last several years there has been a cornucopia of disaster and post-apocalyptic novels. This one rides the bridge between SF fabulation and survivalist manifesto, failing to accomplish the goal of either genre sub-category. Crafty and ingenious survivalism? Fail! Cautionary tale where the world dies as a result of the opening of Pandora's Box? Nope, not really. The Unit is a watery stew of cliché about survivalism, neo-Christianity, and right wing wish fulfillment that examines its topic by putting a hard-edged family of four through the wringer by marching them through one travesty after another in a post nuclear Northern California landscape. I probably could have done without reading this, and I’m even more disappointed to find out that Orbit has advanced money for two more entries in a trilogy...Please click here, or on the book cover above, to be taken to the complete review..I know he can't be trusted. In this new reality, there are only two groups of people: good people who can't be trusted, and bad ones who need to be avoided or shot.