North by Frank Owen

          3.5 Stars

There is a strong attempt to make this book accessible to those who have not read the first in the saga, South, but I feel that without having read that one much of this book will make little to no sense (fortunately I have read the first one).  Throughout you need knowledge of the backstory of the main protagonists - Vida, Dyce and Felix - without it I suspect they would seem rather odd people on the page.  It is also hard to get a sense of the privations in the South from this book and how the people were living so their actions in the North make little sense.  In short read these books in order people.

The progression of the story takes up exactly where we left them, this little pocket of survivors, washed up on the banks of the North Platte and trying to get through the wall.  Some make it, some don't but of those that do they all seem inexplicably drawn to Des Moines and the headquarters of the Northern Resistance.  Much of the book is set in the Capitol building and around the rather unsettling Adams, leader of the resistance and quasi-preacher who is very, very good at stirring the populace to his bidding.

There are reveals within the book that are pretty obvious by the time they are spelled out to the reader so there is little in the way of suspense from a plot point of view.  What there is, is tension in abundance and a terrifying sense of claustrophobia within the Capitol Building.  The building of a society within a society is well explored and the final denouement is quite shocking in it's intensity.

I found this to be a good, tense read but not quite up to the standard set by the first in the series.

I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM READERS FIRST IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.