The Day After Never – Blood Honor, is live!

April 18th, 2016, a day that shall live in infamy. Or perhaps not. But it’s still a special one considering my first novel in the post-apocalyptic epic trilogy The Day After Never goes live on Amazon today! Titled Blood Honor, it’s very different than any of my prior books, in a good way. My hunch is my loyal readers will love it, and it should convince a whole mess of those who’ve never heard of me to give it a shot. All I can say to describe the style is take the good bits of JET and the Assassin novels, and mix them with a dystopian western feel (imagine Clint Eastwood circa The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly and you’re not far off) for an interesting approach to the post-apocalyptic world.

The product description is simple, at its core: one man in a post-collapse wasteland gets reluctantly dragged into a fight he doesn’t want, and winds up paying a horrific price. With humanity’s future in the balance and the life of a child in his hands, he must take on impossible odds and battle an evil now manifest on the earth.

Other authors who know a thing or two about the genre have chimed in, and the early reviews are the stuff dreams are made of:

“Best post-apocalyptic book I’ve read in ages. When the world ends, I hope this book survives. Can’t wait for the sequel.”

–  Hugh Howey, bestselling author of Wool, Sand, Dust, and Beacon 23

“In Russell Blake’s The Day After Never, the world has ended but the adventure has just begun. It’s part survivalist fiction, part techno-thriller, part western – and much more. You won’t be able to stop turning the pages…even if the world collapses around you. A must read for any fan of post-apocalyptic fiction.”

– Tom Abrahams, bestselling author of HOME: A Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian Adventure

“Russell Blake takes the post-apocalyptic genre by storm with The Day After Never – Blood Honor, a relentlessly paced, exquisitely crafted story of survival and redemption in a hellacious landscape forged after the fall of mankind. Blake hits the right dystopian notes from the very start, catapulting the reader into an unforgiving world: part Mad Max, part Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and part Magnificent Seven.”

– Steven Konkoly, bestselling author of The Perseid Collapse and The Jakarta Pandemic

“Highly enjoyable dystopian thriller with a Western twist set in the feral badlands of a post-apocalyptic Texas. Russell Blake’s Lucas is a hard bitten hero I enjoyed rooting for as he reluctantly rescues a woman and child mysteriously important enough to kill whole villages over. Great beginning to a series that looks to be a first-rate gallop into a dark sunset.”

– Toby Neal, author of the bestselling Lei Crime Series

“The Day After Never is the new standard for post-apocalyptic fiction. Easily my favorite of 2016. No one writes this stuff better than Russell Blake.”

– Nicholas Sansbury Smith, author of The Extinction Cycle, Orbs, and Hell Divers

So what are you waiting for? I have the first book specially priced at $2.99, so there’s virtually no barrier to trying it. Go ahead, and if you like it, tell a friend or six. I believe this is going to be the series that puts things over the top – I’m that excited. Last time I felt that way was with JET, and that didn’t go too badly, so I have very high hopes for it, and can’t wait to see what readers think. The sequel, The Day After Never – Purgatory Road, will release end of May, so you won’t have long to wait to pick up the story, which will likely go three to four installments.

But for now, give Blood Honor a read – satisfaction guaranteed, or your money, er, invested in my bar tab to soften the blow to my ego.

Don’t judge.