The experience of reading Sleeping Through the Nightmare - The Gibbons Series: Book One by Robert Woodard made my day. It started with an intriguing concept: what if you were the last living human on Earth? How could that happen? The answer is to imagine a pandemic that wiped out the entire human race, except for one man in a cryogenic suspension chamber. A chamber that kept him alive until the solar-powered batteries ran down, over a hundred years later, triggering the automatic process to wake him up. He walks around a deserted building, disoriented, until he finds a letter addressed to him, explaining what happened. Determined to survive, he wanders through the empty and decayed streets of a ruined town, restoring a pickup truck that he loads with supplies from abandoned stores. He drives across the US, ending up on the Pacific shore, and eventually meets two other humans – a man and his daughter. They are the only survivors of a sea-faring group of escapees after their boat finally sank. Will they be able to survive alone in a dead world?

What made this gripping end-of-the-world story so special for me was the total absence of human evil. The trio had plenty of fights on their hands against nature and wildlife, but no human evil stuck up its ugly head, to my great relief. Sleeping Through the Nightmare was a what-if style book that kept my mind active throughout as I watched the characters' intelligent reactions to unexpected setbacks and wondered how I would solve the problems they encountered. The three characters were very clearly described, their motivations and reactions completely believable. The evolving dynamics of the trio’s relationship are wonderful to watch. Robert Woodard has incredible attention to detail about the exact way they solved their problems, and it kept my interest high, following every move they made. Sleeping Through the Nightmare and the subsequent series will appeal to anyone who has ever thought about living on their own, away from the safety and comfort of the civilization that we take for granted.

Sleeping Through the Nightmare is the first book in The Gibbons Series by Robert Woodard. This moving tale is awash with pathos, exploring the solitude of two elaborately crafted characters as they navigate a desolate world. When Pete agrees to be used as a test in a scientific project, run in a cryogenic suspension chamber, he believes he will be in there for only ninety days. Little does he know that it will be more than a hundred years before he gets out of there, emerging into a world that looks barren, with the human population completely annihilated by an uncontrollable virus. He is alone in the world, or so he thinks. April has lived aboard a sailboat at sea for twenty-two years where she, like her parents, was born and raised, afraid to set foot where the deadly virus ravaged humanity on land. With her parents dead and her sailboard giving way, she finds herself alone, the last survivor. The meeting between Pete and April sets off an adventure that discusses resilience, humanity, survival, creativity, and hope.

Sleeping Through the Nightmare is a gripping story that should be made into a movie. The writing is cinematic, plus author Robert Woodard's eye for detail and his ability to write raw emotions into the characters are just fascinating. The story reads like the intercourse of land and sea, taking readers back to the beginning of human civilization, to the time when life had just begun. The two protagonists are written with rich backgrounds and the themes of survival and nature are very relevant to contemporary readers, paired with strong hints of the painful sense of loss and the fear of becoming a victim to a mysterious virus. The prose is beautiful and the terrific descriptions add a deeper layer of beauty to the narrative. Sleeping Through the Nightmare is a realistic rendition of what can happen when care is not given to the environment. An expertly written story with the potential to hold readers spellbound whilst also inspiring serious reflection on issues like climate change and pandemics that threaten the human race. It is well-plotted, fast-paced, and emotionally engaging.