Book Review: The Old Man and the Wasteland

Let's be honest with each other for a second.. The selection of amateur novelists on Amazon goes kinda like this; Horrible, Smut, Meh, and Shockingly Good. To be blunt, when you pick up a cheap ebook for the kindle you're rolling dice that are loaded for snake eyes.

That's why I was surprised that I liked The Old Man and the Wasteland, by Nick Cole as much as I did. I didn't have high hopes; I let that particular title season on my kindle for about a year before I decided to risk a  couple hours of reading on it. I'm actually pretty glad that I did, and it's helped to give me some clarity about how to cherry pick good books on Amazon without touching the dice. (Pro tip: If it's got less than 10 reviews, let it season. If it's got more than that but only two stars, let it go. If it's got three stars or better, give the sample a shake. If you like the sample, spring for the cheap book.)

I'm pretty well versed in survival fiction, and I've read enough to know that the destruction of society can come on in Baskin Robbins style, with 31 flavors guaranteed! Fire, Ice, Meteors, Nukes, Floods, Pandemics, Loss of Technology, Invasion, Aliens, Economic Collapse, Active Rebellion.. I could go on for days. Cole decided to throw it down old school with ending the world with Nukes, which is a nice throwback to my earlier days of reading books that were written mostly in the seventies, during the height of the cold war, when kids were taught that desks could protect them from the A-Bomb.

I digress.

The Old Man and the Wasteland is written in the style of the Old Man and the Sea, which is fine in and of itself but I do wish that the title wasn't so on the nose. I like to be a little surprised by books, not bludgeoned with the obvious.

The book is basically about an old man going out for salvage after a long dry spell of coming back with nothing. He talks to himself, which is not a big deal for me since I do that too. He encounters environmental hardships and faces foes, and during all of this he displays some goddamn adaptability, survival knowledge, tactical thinking, and uses his head. All good traits for a heroic character. Damned good.

The writing was technically good, and the plot moved along with good action from multiple perspectives. I was actually quite pleased with the plot in and of itself, since it didn't take the course I quite expected it to (bonus points!). Okay, so some of the plot points were utter nonsense, but it was good fun anyway so I let it slide. Mostly because I was in an apocalyptic sort of mood. I thought the ending was a little.. much. Not horrible, but he was trying to make a point out of a five foot diameter oak tree, when a limb would have sufficed.

Given all of that, I've give The Old Man and the Wasteland perhaps a 76 out of 100, which is really good on my scale (if 50 is neutral, 1 is horrible, and 100 is astoundingly good). I do recommend this book.. if you're in a mood for