In some ways, a short story is harder to write than a novel - especially for a story like this one that is fantasy/science fiction. I thought the author did a good job of introducing her world - there wasn't an explanation of why civilization collapsed, was the problem confined to the U.S. and other questions, but there didn't really need to be (at least for the story's purposes. I would like to see more explanation in the trilogy). The 2 main characters were interesting enough that I cared what happened to them. The writing style was easy to follow If a bit simplistic. It definitely interested me enough to purchase the first book of the series.