As a regular reader of James Wesley Rawles's Survival Blog, I was interested to hear what a novel written by him would sound like. Knowing he's a conservative Christian libertarian, I expected a big dose of hatin' on Obama and probably a bunch of atheist liberals getting what's coming to them, but in fairness, the author mostly keeps the right wing vitriol in check until the latter part of the book. But when it does emerge, boy does it ever.The first thing to know is that Rawles clearly hopes this book will "wake up" some of his readers, both to the threat he believes is facing the country and to the need to prepare for the coming collapse. Whether or not you believe that hyperinflation will cause a a total collapse of the U.S. government, I have always felt that there is some wisdom in preparing for worst case scenarios, for some value of "worst case." In other words, the preppers are not completely wrong. We can't all move to an armed compound in Idaho, as the characters in this book do, or even build bunkers in our back yards, but we can keep a month or two supply of dried rations, water, toilet paper, and first aid kits in storage. People with pets and kids and medications to juggle have to think more seriously about what they'd do if the power goes down for more than a day or two. And some of us might even include things that go bang in our preps...So, when you read this book, be prepared for lots and lots of lists, of firearms, ammunition, accessories, vehicles, survival gear, rations, batteries, fuel types, backpacks, you name it. There are chapters stuffed with "how tos" on everything from blood transfusion to farming. You couldn't actually use this novel as a guide in a real-life grid down situation, but reading it will make you think a lot about what sorts of things you'd need to know. A lot of reviews complain about the listology and the didacticism of the book, and that's a fair complaint - if you just want a good old fashioned post-apocalypse novel, Patriots is awfully dry at times. But since I do actually have an interest in the subject, I didn't get too bogged down with the "stuff you oughta know" parts.That said, Rawles is certainly not going to dazzle you with his prose or his characterization either. There are over twenty characters in this book, all of them friends who have supposedly been saving and stocking up for the apocalypse since their college days, and so we get chapters about each of them at one point or another. None of them are really distinguishable from one another beyond a few simply-described traits: there's the chubby Asian gun nut, the ex-Army Officer alpha male, the motherly nurse, the ROTC cadet prepper, the biker machinist (an awful lot of highly skilled individuals with all the right political and religious views just happen to wander down the road to the characters' compound), the token Jew and the token agnostic about whom I can literally remember nothing else, etc.The "plot" of the first part of the book is basically everyone getting together on their compound and weathering it out for a few years, as America goes to hell and they have to deal with looters (who are Marxists and cannibals and implied to be gay) and other prepper militias.Then comes the second part of the book. This is when the United Nations installs a provisional relief government, and the book shoots straight into gibbering right-wing lunacy. The UN troops are all mustache-twirling war criminals who think nothing of rape and torture, the American quislings promptly agree to suspending every single American civil right (literally the first thing a newly-arrived UN-backed American official does is give a speech to a skeptical community of survivalists that carrying a gun will henceforth be a capital crime), and soon we are seeing, I kid you not, FEMA concentration camps.The militia organized by the main characters joins up with a resistance movement, and in a few months they are able to kick heavily-armed UN troops with tank divisions out of the country because Americans are just that awesome. Then they rewrite the Constitution and institute a new U.S. government that would make the Tea Party collectively die of spontaneous orgasmic expulsion of their precious bodily fluids.I still give this book 3 stars because it was, after a fashion, both entertaining and informative, but it was like the author was trying to keep his rabid Euro-phobia and Red-baiting impulses in check for the first few hundred pages and then he couldn't hold it in anymore.If you have a serious interest in prepping combined with a love of post-apocalyptic novels, this book is worth reading, but if your interest is only in fiction, there are much, much better books, and if you're mainly interested in the survivalist aspects, try Rawles's non-fiction or his blog instead.
Contrary to the assertions of many reviews, Patriots did have an editor. I have acquired a draft of actual proofreading notes from the editor of Patriots. I am not at liberty to say how I acquired these notes, or who delivered them to me, so don’t ask. Here are some representative quotes from those notes:“I’m not seeing enough lists here. These lists are a literary goldmine. The reader will eat those up like Halloween candy. More lists!”“The reader needs to know more about the character’s firearms and ammunition. It is not possible to go into too much detail on this matter. Cut out character development if necessary. The reader will get to know the character by his firearm.”“Germans are ‘been there, done that’ villains. If you want real villainy, I have one word for you: Belgians. I choked on a waffle once. It was terrifying.”“This character is not high enough on the Asperger’s spectrum. Fix that.”“It is a good start presenting these two looters as Communists, but less savvy readers might not know who Chairman Mao is. Perhaps the looters could be seen punching a baby. Or eating a baby? Your call.”“In order to prevent the reader from mistaking the women for man-bashing lesbian feminists, make a point of demonstrating them being enthusiastically obedient to their husbands.”“What religion are the heroes, again? I can’t remember. It has been over five pages since you referenced that the protagonists as Christian. Unacceptable! We don’t want them to be mistaken, even for a second, for atheists.”“Get rid of all of the sex scenes between the male protagonists. Instead, have the men sublimate their man-love for each other with long descriptions of them admiring each other’s ‘weapons’ as well as the size of the ‘loads’ of their ammunition. The reader will be able to crack that code.”“Your dialog is too short. Don’t say your dialog out loud to see if it sounds like how people actually talk. Instead, imagine that your characters are delivering seminars, or speaking to others as if they were toddlers.”“Not enough exposition on the door of the Group’s retreat. This door is the breakout star of the story and the reader is going to want you to spare no detail on how this door was made. I want an entire chapter devoted to the door. This inanimate slab of wood and metal should be the most well developed character in the entire story. There is interest in optioning a spin-off novel, and perhaps a movie deal, just for the door itself. I’ve been told that Kirk Cameron has expressed interest in a movie, provided he gets cast as the door.”“I realize that there is some logic to a State Trooper using pepper spray on Matt Keane during this traffic stop, but that is just not dramatic enough. Just forget pepper spray exists and is issued to every uniformed law enforcement officer in the country. Just have him go for his gun. Instant drama.”“There needs to be a black guy in the story so that the Reader will know that none of the heroes are racist. I recommend that the black guy be married, so that he will not appear to be a threat to the men in the Group. And try not to make him too uppity. In fact, don’t waste a lot of time developing a character at all. Just name him Jefferson or Jackson or Washington or something.”“The Hispanic woman doesn’t come across as Hispanic enough. Emphasize phonetically her heavy accent so that the reader will know how exotic she is, while also making her off-putting enough so that she doesn’t pose a threat to the other women in the Group. Make her sound as much like Charo as you can.”
What do You think about Patriots (2009)?
This book is one of my favorite Scary future books because I don't really see us that far off. The dollar is obviously inflating. Our structure and "Just in time" delivery of food and materials means hospitals do not have a deep reserve of supplies necessary to treat a large number of victims in an emergency. This book also really highlights the big part of what is needed to seriously prepare for a major emergency of any sorts. Now, I have 1 issue with the book (beside the fact that it's more action than true "what would happen" because we all know, if it were written as a day to day log of living at the retreat during a national or global emergency, it would look like:"day 42, pa shot a squirrel, mostly out of boredom.""day 179, we finally saw our first person... ah... no... wait, it was a deer.""day 286, I stubbed my toe. Nothing more."It would be incredibly boring if it were written this way, so instead the action is sped up a bit, just to keep the reader paying attention to the story. Religion. I'm not a very religious person. Well. Correction. I am, a little. I respect a lot of different religions for what they preach. Christianity really enforces the whole point of charity and loving they neighbor. The LDS church tells it's members to hang on to some extra food, water, and tools, just in case. The Jewish community really strives on a solid economic foundation and are very cautious investors.Well, at times, the book does get a little too preachy. It doesn't bother me to the point where I wouldn't recommend the book, but it is religion heavy at time. Perhaps if I sat and seriously reflected on my beliefs, I would find a religion that suits me, but until then, I respect the fact that the author included an atheist in the story, and didn't bash on him all too bad for not believing in god.Beyond that, I really enjoyed the story, and find myself constantly picking up and re-reading a chapter or two, to catch something I didn't get the first time. I also really enjoy the author's blog: http://www.survivalblog.com which is updated daily with practical information for those concerned with preparing for the coming collapse.
—Cooperglocker
In a way I'd like to do 2 things here. First I'd like to be able to rate this higher. I believe that the idea of a possible collapse of some kind isn't all that far fetched. I'd seen the power go down in areas of Nashville for as much as 2 weeks and it got bad. Any kind of complete collapse would lead to massive death and even horror. This could have been and should have been an interesting book. TOO MANY BOOKS ON THIS TOPIC CROSS OVER INTO FRINGE BELIEFS. This one doesn't do that. It's just not very interesting.The second thing I'd like to do (sort-of) is start a shelf titled "action ?".I read (tried to read) a nonfiction book by this author on preparedness. The problem was that first he pushes his own programs and second his survival strategies are geared to people who have a virtually unlimited budget for survival equipment and some kind of bolthole/fortified farm. This book purported to be a novel is about a group of people who've prepared using hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their bolt hole ready...I know because the writer goes into GREAT detail about how, when and why they bought everything (including paying cash for the farm). It's a fantasy about his own plan (which you can get details of for a small fee) and feeds right back into the nonfiction book which pushes his own programs etc.I'd really like to find some good books about this scenario about actual people learning how to survive without becoming part of the "mob" of killer refugees this writer pictures pouring out of the cities to endanger all the "smart prepared people"...so far the only good ones have been about zombies.I'm not ruling it out but I'm not really putting zombies among my top 5 reasons for collapse...not my top 3 anyway.I wish I could rate this higher, I wish I could like it more, I wish I could recommend it....I wish I hadn't used an Audible credit on it.
—Mike (the Paladin)
(Writing this review as I read)If this is "prepper porn", it's not very titillating. Waaay too much militant behavior! I'm all for protecting yourself and bearing arms and refusing the governments illegal overreach, but the cocky macho weapons attitude of these characters is not one I subscribe to. Chapter 6-7 totally lost any small shred of credibility the book may have had. Hey fellas, I don't care if the government is wrong, out of bounds, and overstepping its authority and jurisdiction (and I agree that it IS)...YOU are STILL breaking the law!! No way in heck am I going to read that and think it is a good plan of action!!! And assuming accuracy, you have just instructed new criminals and illegals how to steal illegal identities. Shame on you.Ch. 8 - Unacceptable. I'm done. I wanted to finish it but I can't. now I'll never know what informational things that would have been handy. But I cannot. handle. that.And this opinion from a Conservative Constitutional Libertarian? Apparently I'm a patsy, because THESE guys are extreme.
—Mary
