To the North

"...A solitary, existential journey, reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy...evocative...masterful..." Self Publishing Review, 2018 Brad Garner thought he had lost everything, after the Yellowstone calderas exploded and the awful volcanic aftermath. After fleeing south and wallowing in self-pity, by random chance, he hears of a faint signal over a functioning network. It comes from far north, somewhere in Idaho on the Montana border, near the eruption's epicenter. Soul sick, and with little remaining purpose to his life, Garner decides to follow the signal, an unmistakable if faint cry for help. He gears up and heads with an abandoned dog named Tanya into the ash-strewn wasteland that the U.S. West has become. Alone. "I liked the mood of this book. Unlike most prepper/end of the world books, the author takes his time to establish a distinct mood and atmosphere, as well as give his main character some depth. There's a dream-like quality to his drive towards the north through devastated desert country that is highly memorable. I like that the main character is just a normal person caught up in this tragedy and he makes completely relatable decisions... "The way the author fits background details in, by having the main character talk to the dog to keep from going crazy from loneliness is particularly well done. And the scene at the Very Large Array will stick in my mind for a long time." Amazon Reviewer from 2018 Zeke Sanchez, a part Ute, Hispanic Indian who distinguished himself in Iraq and tends toward peyote inspired spiritual journeys, plays a big role in To The North, especially in regard to his desert-survival skills. Garner also encounters Sam, orphaned by the eruption, Giovanna, a Red Cross nurse who lost her husband Marcel in a terrorist attack in Egypt, and two federal agency officials who are close-mouthed about their actual mission to the epicenter. They might be intimately involved in an artificial intelligence experiment to study the deadly super volcano.