The End Times is an interesting publication. It’s not a book per se. It’s more… or rather, it is a newspaper. It’s published once a month by a woman named Mary Poole, who feels this is a good way to keep people informed about what’s going on in the community of North End (population 419, with the birth of Shawn Ryan Jacobs). Not everyone agrees, but I get the feeling that most do.

The newspaper has stuff that you can see in today’s newspapers, so it’s the same, but also it’s not. There is no politics (thank God for that), and in the wanted ads there’s no talk about money. We are back to trading stuff with each other. Food is a good currency. Why, you might ask? Well, this does not take place today. This takes place in a world that has survived the Reds. So far, we don’t know exactly what the Reds are or how it happened other than that a lot of people died from it, but I suspect we will know more as we get more issues and backstory.

I have read the first two issues, and the first one is mostly setting everything up, and you get to know some of the players. But already in the second issue, you realize that you are getting some clues that some of the things mentioned in the paper aren’t just a brief mention, some of it will develop into something else. There are clues that some of the things happening will be interesting to follow and that you need to keep a close eye on how it develops between one issue and the next. I’m really eager to see where all this goes and how it will develop.

The newspaper is written by Benjamin Percy and Stephen King, and as you know by now, King will be writing as Claudia Bachman. So far, she hasn’t made her debut yet, but I bet that will be waiting for us in issue #3, and I can’t wait to see what it will be.

The End Times is a very interesting thing. Not your normal book or short story and I really like it. You can decide for yourself if you want to read one issue a month digitally or buy the entire thing as a physical copy once all issues are out. The paper will run for one year, and what happens after that we don’t know. Maybe the world is no more by then, or, if we are lucky, it’ll be a continuing thing. Either way, make sure you get this. You do NOT want to be left out!

My suggestion is that you get each issue every month digitally and then get the entire thing to place in your bookcase at the end of the year. That is what I’m doing.