Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
130 of 146 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Couldn't Put it Down!, March 27, 2000
By A Customer
Excellent work by Mr. Rawles. In it he explores the possibilities and what ifs of a total collapse of the civilized world that we have come to know and upon which we depend. Imagine, if you will, that the economy spins out of control and takes civilized society with it. Imagine this event making the Great Depression look like a walk in the park. How would one survive or thrive during such a chaotic experience? Can it be done alone? What are the real problems and issues that might need to be overcome? Mr. Rawles novel explores those possibilites. His information is well presented. Obviously a lot of thought and research went into this novel. It reads more like a contingency plan and less like some escapist fantasy. It beats any sci-fi novel hands down. I strongly recommend "Patriots" to anyone who's ever wondered what would happen should the day come when they dialed 911 and nobody answered.(Remember Hurricane Andrew and the LA Riots?) Read "Patriots" and find out. It is definitely time well spent. However, let me offer a word of warning. Pick up "Patriots" and you won't want to put it down until its finished!
|
|
|
110 of 126 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Militia-Style Survivalist Manual in a Fiction Format, June 7, 2007
Patriots is a TEOWAWKI , militia-style survivalist novel packed with information. While Patriots does mention stockpiling food and the use of non-hybrid seeds this is not a book about self-sufficiency. The premise of the novel is that an economic depression spirals out of control. The economy completely collapses, money becomes worthless, the mail stops, the power grid and phone system shuts down and the government at all levels disappears. In the story this period is understatedly call the Crunch, but no depression in the history of the United States has been nearly so severe. Even church services appear to stop for several years.
With the United States in turmoil and collapse, the United Nations and at least some international banks have survived. Together they become the catalyst behind a provisional federal government that seeks to exert near dictatorial control over America. Frankly, I believe there is much more strength in the institutions of the United States than there ever was in the United Nations and so this plot scenario strained believability for me. However, when asked, James Rawles stated, "I made the scenario in the novel a near `worst case' in order to make it more interesting reading, and as an opportunity to show the need for planning and preparedness in a variety of areas..."
Using the Crunch as a literary device Rawles packs the novel with data about guns, medicine, fuels, equipment and tactics. The book has been described in several online reviews as a "survival manual fairly neatly dressed as fiction." Indeed it is much more entertaining than reading the facts in a reference book or manual. But this is also the greatest weakness. It is hard to pack facts into a novel without the author intruding into the story. Much of this story is told in the form of narration, as opposed to showing within the flow of the events. Characterization is weak. Both author intrusion and narration weaken the literary quality of the story but add to the amount of information Rawles packs into the book
Recommendation: The information is five-star, the literary quality is two star. Buy Patriots for the "survival manual," not the fiction story.
|
|
|
146 of 172 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best researched books ever, June 1, 2004
This book is a real gem. It is both a gripping piece of fiction, as well as a useful resource on survivalism. I would not have thought it possible for a survival book to be so interesting, but this one really is. The storyline itself is very interesting and holds your attention, but in addition to that the book is full of little pearls of wisdom about how and where to acquire things that make one better prepared. When I was in the early stages of the book I was impressed by all of the references. Later when I was most of the way through the book and still kept finding more and more nuggets of wisdom I was truly amazed. The breadth of knowledge displayed by the author on a wide variety of subjects is truly amazing. This book is very well researched, and best of all, it is also very interesting to read. Several years ago this book might have been simply an interesting work of fiction, but now in the post-9/11 world it is something to think seriously about. Also, the opening chapter which focused on the start of the economic crunch reminded me of the summer of 1997 when Asia and Russia's economic crises coupled with the near bankruptcy of a large US firm called Long Term Capital Management and almost sent the world into economic collapse. Add to that some other recent events such as the bursting of the dot com bubble in 2000, the stagnation of the economy shortly after 9/11, and the high gas prices of 2004. It just goes to show, the circumstances in this book are quite possible, more so than any of us would like to admit.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by James Wesley Rawles
by William R. Forstchen
by Peggy Dianne Layton
by Boston T. Party
