I haven't read South and suspect this might have helped in the enjoyment of North. Ultimately though, as a stand alone book, this didn't really work for me.
I found it impossible to connect with any of the characters and when you're reading a novel about the apocalyptic end of the world it would be helpful to have some empathy/feeling for the people involved.
The trouble was that it just felt really disjointed with characters dropping in from all directions kind of converging towards Des Moines and a resistance "hideout" in the Capitol building. There was a lot of gratuitous violence (particularly from Kurt) which felt a bit unnecessary. I also found it quite difficult to keep up with who was who and how characters were related (though again reading "South" would probably have helped with this).
In truth I struggled to finish this and almost gave up several times. Ultimately it wasn't for me but that's not to say that it's not an interesting concept but the books definitely need to be read in order!
I found it impossible to connect with any of the characters and when you're reading a novel about the apocalyptic end of the world it would be helpful to have some empathy/feeling for the people involved.
The trouble was that it just felt really disjointed with characters dropping in from all directions kind of converging towards Des Moines and a resistance "hideout" in the Capitol building. There was a lot of gratuitous violence (particularly from Kurt) which felt a bit unnecessary. I also found it quite difficult to keep up with who was who and how characters were related (though again reading "South" would probably have helped with this).
In truth I struggled to finish this and almost gave up several times. Ultimately it wasn't for me but that's not to say that it's not an interesting concept but the books definitely need to be read in order!