Does the series keep the quality of pacing, info, characters, and such through all 12 books, or does it start to fall off a cliff at some point in the series?

I have 1 and 2, and am hesitant to splurge for the entire series if it ends up stupid.

EDIT: I found a good price on some used ones and ended up with a mish mash of used and new for all current 12 books, and have finished them.

I will agree with some of the feedback that around book 4-5 the series slowed a bit, though I felt like it picked back up. A lot of the techniques and ideas seem viable enough. Like any work of fiction there are some instances where it seems a little convenient, but that's kinda necessary to move the story forward without a bunch of character die off and serious plot changes.

Not particularly into the sections focused more on the minutiae of home life, and started to skip those sections.

There are also some plot holes and some definite factual flubs in a few of the books (SOCOM standing for Southern Command? lol), as well as some continuity issues. I lay this on the editor, personally. For example, how many times can a crew go through houses in a neighborhood for spices/salt/pepper when they allegedly got everything a few books back? Can we please stick to a spelling for Dylan/Dillon/Dillion from book to book? Etc.

Little things, but a little annoying cus they threw me off of a good "run" while reading. Perhaps I'm autistic. Who knows.

Overall though, I think this series is actually better in the meat of its content than the various Patriot/Rawles books, and a little less heady than some of the One Second After content (which is to be expected given the academic nature of that protagonist). I see Rawles occupying a space that is very focused and devoted to one thing, even if it takes a little to get there: a redoubt/compound style of survivalism - something frankly hard to do and kinda dangerous if you aren't going into it with solid parties. I see Fortschen's series as an exercise in theory with some philosophizing mixed in. But A. American's series is right up my alley as at least more plausible. On that note, the population of Florida was about 18 million when he started the series. It's now about 22 million. That ~4 million difference is equivalent to importing the entire population of Oklahoma or Arkansas into Florida. I wonder how, if at all, this would impact any of the series' scenarios or plot movement points.

In total, aside from some of the eye rollers and unlikely-to-happen (such as hooking up with some 101st vet w/ Rangers and SF dudes who all seem to have or get access to high level kit), the MEAT of the series is actually really good and even those characters (Sarge, Doc, Mike, Ted, etc.) move the story forward with great examples and advice - especially the hard reality of a SHTF scenario and the moral/ethical realities of it. It probably helps I grew up in the area depicted and can see every town and many of the highways and even smaller roads he uses in the book. The techniques are generally solid based on my own knowledge of the area and its flora/fauna (a poor metric, I know). If anyone is in the Southeast, especially Florida, this series would be a great way to have some fun while treating it as a sand table exercise for your own preps.

But let's face it. These types of series cannot be totally realistic and get anything accomplished for the reader. As fiction, they are highly enjoyable. As instruction, covert as it is, they're good for getting the reader to jot down ideas and make their own preps. For example, between this series and some personal recent experiences, I ended up investing in some solar products I had been neglecting and some other purchases I'd put off.

I appreciated the lack of religion, despite being religious. Rawles' insistence on pushing Calvinism is absolutely annoying. So thanks, Angery American, for keeping the plot and not getting preachy like Rawles does.

If you want a truly realistic series, it would be about 5 pages long and end w/ the main character getting an infection, starving, or just dying on the side of the road because he tried to help someone within days of the EMP and caught a bullet to the face for it. Without *someone* surviving and thriving, such a series would just be nothing more than a Cormac McCarthy exercise in exploring how many ways a man can suffer before falling over dead. I hope there's a future Morgan Carter out there somewhere, keeping people alive without becoming an animal himself.

I have enjoyed it all the through book 12.

I thought it was kind of "meh".  Only read the first 2 and quit

I binge read them all a few years back.  I found the first few better than the rest, but didn't have trouble finishing the series.

Thanks for the replies so far. I went ahead and grabbed the rest of the books since the local library doesn’t have them.

I enjoyed it. Like any book in the genre they definitely have some eye rolling all the way to the downright cringey moments but overall are pretty good. The cliffhanger that the most  recent one ends on pissed me off because it is such a blatant attempt to make you read the next one

As far as falling off a cliff, I wouldn’t say it does that, however, there are 2 of the books, I don’t remember which ones, where not much happens and are kind of place fillers. They still weren’t bad but not at the same pace as the first few. This is coming from someone that his pretty critical on series. I’m of the opinion that every single tv series falls off a cliff after season 3, sons of anarchy, breaking bad, Vikings, etc, all of them

I liked the earlier books more, say 1-4 or so.  I've only read through book 10 "homecoming", 11-12 have just not been on my radar as of yet.

Hking

Got all current 12 books and finished them. Edit/review in the OP.