Abandon Us by E.T. Gunnarsson

A post-apocalyptic adventure from a masterful storyteller, Abandon Us by E.T. Gunnarsson is a thrilling first glimpse at the author’s darkly prophetic Odemark series.

Fifty years from now, with a new pandemic raging and America on the brink of civil war, unlikely heroes are formed in a brutal crucible of human suffering. The air itself is poison, faceless police patrol the streets with merciless drones, the elite are escaping the chaos in star-bound Arks, and those left behind are struggling to find purpose and peace. Even in this grim vision of the future, there are recognizable elements of society today – worship of conspicuous consumption, rampant greed, authoritarian violence, robots displacing humans, uprising militias, and increasingly shackled freedoms.

A novel with a premise this wild could easily skate by on world-building and action sequences, particularly with mutants and monstrous men around every corner – however, Gunnarsson meticulously builds his character relationships, which propel the novel along just as easily. Reunited after nearly a decade with an imprisoned friend-turned-smuggler, Robert is the protagonist and resilient survivor at the center of this chilling tale, and the relationship between Robert, William, and Zilv makes for an engrossing storyline on its own.

There are some awkward slips in narration, and the dialogue can be stilted or inconsistent in its formality, but overall, this is a strong foundational novel for a new series, with plot threads running from the stinking sewers of a broken home world to epic starships on millennia-long journeys. A stark piece of social commentary in the well-penned guise of post-apocalyptic fiction, the novel is a dire warning, but a wholly addictive read.