I stumbled upon the Duck and Cover book series (author: Benjamin Wallace) entirely by accident. In this instance I was sucked in by the marketing blurbs comparing the series to something by Douglas Adams with dark comedy and characterization. The books are definitely good: not Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett good, but worthy of a read.
The premise and books
There are six books currently in the series plus a book of short stories. The main series focuses on Jerry aka The Librarian aka a post-apocalyptic nomadic warrior. Jerry is heroic sometimes in spite of himself, with a code of honour and justice adapted to the world in which he finds himself.
The world itself is roughly present-day Earth shortly after an all-out world ending apocalypse. 90% of the population has died from nuclear, biological, or chemical attacks: the source of these attacks is never revealed. Some of the survivors, both human and animal, have been warped or twisted physically. Threats, most especially other survivors, are everywhere.
The books should be read in order:
- Post-Apocalyptic Nomadic Warriors: Introduction of Jerry and his dog, Chewy
- Knights of the Apocalypse: The Librarian encounters one of the weirder post-apocalyptic societies- a renaissance fair kingdom
- Pursuit of the Apocalypse: Jerry and his love interest are pursued across the wastelands
- Revenge of the Apocalypse: The Librarian seeks to put an end to an evil empire
- Crossroads of the Apocalypse: Jerry attempts to enter semi-retirement in a role as as a riverboat captain on the Mississippi
- Champion of the Apocalypse: The Librarian comes out of semi-retirement aiming to earn a spot on a TV broadcast to warn the Wasteland of a new threat
The seventh book is a collection of short stories: Tales of the Apocalypse. I would suggest reading it after the other books noted as it provides some background on a few of the characters from the main series.
My observations
The characters of the Librarian, his dog Chewie, and the other personalities in the book like Coy and Willie are fun to see develop. They change over time from book to book with more depth than I would have expected for a ‘light’ read like this.
The writing itself is a bit of a mixed bag. Some editing seems to have been missed with a few doubled words, incorrect character names in unexpected spots, and spelling errors. But for the most part the books are more than serviceable vehicles for the story: I was regularly finding myself in the “zone” while reading, that state where the fact that I’m reading disappears and I just progress through the tale being told.
The humour is also a bit mixed. There are a few bits that land rather flat, mostly when trying to tell a joke comes into conflict with the tragedy of the setting and circumstances. The humour works well when it is referring to the general post-apocalyptic conditions, but sometimes becomes strained when the events surrounding a specific individual are made light of. Coy is a good example of this: his loss sometimes seem too great to laugh about, despite the fact that he is mostly portrayed as an antagonist.
Conclusion
The Duck and Cover series was a fun read for me, and it got me back into reading “light” stories. I consumed the six books voraciously over two or three weeks, and kept wanting to come back to read the next chapter. The story of Jerry and Chewie is not deep story telling, the humour is fairly simple, but the plot is engaging enough to keep me coming back.
I’d definitely recommend picking up the first book in the series to anyone who has an interest in fictional tales like Mad Max but with humour mixed in with the grim dark. There is also a bundle of the first four books called the Boom Box available. I bought and read this book series via Amazon Kindle.
