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I love writing survival-type stories, and I've always been fascinated with stories set on deserted isands, like Lord of the Flies. I wanted to create a new, different deserted island story. The idea was that instead of being shipwrecked on a deserted island, the characters would deliberately sail to one. But why?
Then, COVID happened, and I decided to set my story in a relatively near future where several deadly pandemics had ravaged the world, and one family decided to way to escape the latest one was to sail to an island with provisions and wait it out. So that's how this story came into being. It's a totally different take on both the dystopian genre and the stranded-on-a-deserted-island trope.
Reviewed by Alma Boucher for Readers' Favorite
The Quest for Avalon by Nikki Bennett tells the story of Miriam, who was released from prison when the Pan4 virus hit and killed half of the inmates. Miriam stole a truck and trailer, drove through The Rockies, and ended up at the Cascades campsite. After a storm hit the camp and destroyed Miriam’s trailer, she was on her way again. She met Steven Rogers and his family, who planned to escape in a small boat to Avalon, a private island. The family was not safe from the threat of the Pan4 and they wanted to wait on the island until the pandemic was over. Grant was the son of an entrepreneur whose low-maintenance solar devices enabled technology to work despite the loss of infrastructure, and Grant was sure that Avalon would provide shelter for the family so that they could survive the pandemic.
The Quest for Avalon is complex and exciting. On this journey, Nikki Bennett took me through a wildfire, rising sea levels, superstorms, and earthquakes. The descriptions are vivid, and it was easy to visualize the events. It was a page-turner that kept me on the edge of my seat. With all the twists and turns, I never knew what would happen next. The chapters flowed into each other and were easy to read. The characters were brilliantly developed and authentic. My favorite was Miriam. She ended up in prison and was only freed because of the pandemic. She was always fighting for survival and never gave up. The story was excellently written and held my attention from the beginning. The ending was fitting after all the drama everyone endured.
