Review: The Breaking by Daniel Greene

Author: Daniel Green
Publisher: Rune Publishing, LLC
Date of publication: May 2017

The dead have been ravaging the planet for months. Both the East and the West coasts of the United States have collapsed and the U.S. military is in full retreat. All their attempts to stem the tide of the dead have failed.

Former Counterterrorism Agent Mark Steele and his fellow survivors have been bushwhacked in the West Virginia hills. The fringe West Virginians are teaching him a valuable lesson in the new rules of the apocalypse. The mountain folk are as resilient as they are ruthless and Steele must find a way out to save his people.

In a desperate gamble to stop the virus, retired Air Force Colonel Michael Kinnick has been entrusted with finding Dr. Joseph Jackowski who’s gone missing in West Virginia. Kinnick’s depleted unit of Special Forces soldiers are to the breaking point as the dead assault them at every step.

Outside of Pittsburgh, Dr. Joseph Jackowski’s quest to find Patient Zero has stalled. Unwillingly conscripted into the National Guard, he has been enlisted into Colonel Jackson’s rapidly depleting force. As the military quarantine disintegrates around Pittsburgh, death marches closer, and time is running out.

Steele is forced to go further than he ever imagined in order to save his loved ones, but when he is done, will anyone still recognize him? Will he recognize them? And will he recognize himself?

In this thrilling sequel to End Time, Daniel Greene continues his fast paced and gripping apocalyptic saga. The Breaking, transports us to a near future composed of death, honor, destruction and hope as the United States falls and lives crumble before a devastating zombie virus. 

The Breaking is the second book in the End Time Saga series.  As I said in my review of the first book, End Time, I'm not usually into zombie books.  However, I liked the first book enough to keep going with the series.  This book definitely assumes you read the first one.  So it doesn't hold up as a stand alone.  This one picks up right after the cliffhanger from the first book and finds the virus spreading, the hunt for patient zero on going and the heroes  finding out that there are worse enemies than the undead.

This book is long, but it is very fast paced and the time I spent listening to the audiobook flew by. It's full of action, danger and suspense.  Once again, we follow several perspectives.  Steele is, by far, my favorite character out of all of the main ones.  That guy has more lives than a cat.  I don't want to get into spoilers, but there were some tense moments that had me holding my breathe more than once.  Some loyalties changed, which was surprising.  Also, new allies join the crew.  

This is a series I will be recommending to anyone who likes The Walking Dead or stories like that one.  I will definitely be continuing with the series.  The next book is The Rising, so stay tuned.