Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse

Rating:
Summary: Good story, plenty of good information
Review: Enjoyed the book a great deal. Only complaint is that there is just too much christianity in it (IMHO anyways :) and I just can't see how the graphic descriptions of so many killings can get along with christianity the way it does in the book. I'd have to say the story is pretty realistic and generally good tho'. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: An entirely plausible (and likely) sequence of events.
Review: Finally, since "Lucifer's Hammer", we have a plausible and entirely likely sequence of events that will shake mankind to his roots. The DOW dropping 7,550 points in 19 days would be only less than 400 points dropped per day. We've just had 2 days in a row where it dropped an average of 200 points. Get the wagons in a circle, boys and girls! The CRUNCH age cometh.

Rating:
Summary: Chillingly possible thriller of national breakdown
Review: In PATRIOTS: Surviving the Coming Collapse, James Wesley, Rawles (with a comma) has penned the scary novel of a very possible forseeable future where a united group of free citizens battles the savage chaos and fierce tyranny resulting from national economic breakdown. More than a novel, it is a gritty primer for personal disaster preparedness. Rawles, a former US Army military intelligence officer, writes with precision, skill, and passion, weaving a tale of cataclysm met with courage, faith, and witty endurance. Rawles' attention to detail is superb, and the artful development of characters is exquisite. His military perspective coupled with high caliber writing lends a unique air of reality to this harrowing adventure with humor, empathy, and zeal. PATRIOTS is the novel version of Rawles' screenplay THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT.

In summary, PATRIOTS is a compelling survival thinkpiece with raw action and stirring emotions. More than a piece of fiction, it is also a shrewd how-to book for civil defense preparation at the individual and community level. Once opened, this book will not easily be put down.

Rating:
Summary: For ANYONE who is serious about freedom and responsibility.
Review: This is the most engaging, enveloping novel I have read in the last 2 years. If you are interested in the future of our country, society and our longevity as a species then you'll do no better than this book. I've read many tomes that were aimed at my interests but Patriots is the one that I'll not soon forget!

Rating:
Summary: Despite Warts, A Very Good Book
Review: Some random comments: 1) Writing lacks professional polish in some areas, but it more than makes up for it in sheer interesting content. 2) I prefer this book to Niven & Pournelle's "Lucifer's Hammer," and also to "Unintended Consequences," both of which I also recommend for adult readers. (This book is the only one of the three that I would recommend for juvenile readers. The other two contain sections which are not only unsuitable for minors, they don't really add anything to those books.) 3) I found the house-to-house combat scene a little hard to believe -- without flash-bang grenades and larger (4-man) teams, I can't imagine being able to clear an entire neighborhood without some loss of friendly life. Little things like this here and there are quibbles, and we can grant the author a little license. After all, it's fiction. 4) One of the things which I like best about this book is its positive presentation of the Christian faith; I only wish there was an even more serious theological thread clearly running through the book. God, not guns and gold, determine the course of history.

Rating:
Summary: Excellant Book about a possible Y2K scenario
Review: I live in Idaho and am familiar with the area that the book covers. The research and thought that went into the book is very realistic and a possible outcome of the Y2K effect. A must to read for gun owners as well as survivalists. Great book!!!

Rating:
Summary: Not bad.
Review: Fans of this genre are much better served by "Transfer-the end of the beginning" by author Jerry Furland. Technologically, culturally and politically accurate, terrifyingly credible, and ultimately prophetic. "Transfer" will deliver what Patriots attempts.

Rating:
Summary: A partial cure for "Head in the Sand" syndrome.
Review: I heard the author some months ago promoting this book. As I understood him, he had compiled the practical survival info some time ago as a "how to" book for surviving a possible societal collapse in the near future. The feedback was so great that he made the info into a novel. The majority of the main characters are christian but not all of them. Given the locale of the story, I find this fact to be no more distracting than if the book had been written by a chinese author, having characters who were practicing buddhists. To focus on such matters is to miss the valid lessons in the text. If you are concerned about current events, you might want to buy this book for your personal library. If you believe that man is infallible, that there is no god, that you are a genius, that human technology will overcome nature, that the leaders of the world today really do care what happens to you, that there will always be food when you are hungry, etc. then read the book for a good chuckle. As for myself, I will study the ant.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent primmer on fundamental self-sufficiency
Review: Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse".

Rawles has crafted a thriller around the idea of a collapsed American civilization.

"Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse" serves as both a wake up call and a field guide to the issues and dangers of life without our technetronic infrastructure to support ourselves. He discusses basic survival, teamwork, leadership, and the role of ethics and morality in physical isolation.

Is he preaching "Doom and Gloom"? Hardly. Not long ago, everyone knew how to survive out of necessity. Well, the necessity is no lesser today than it was. unless you are either supremely self-confident or already a skilled outdoorsman, you would do well to obtain your own copy of "Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse".

Rating:
Summary: Starts with a bang, ends with a whimper.
Review: Rawles starts us out on an interesting, if somewhat unrealistic, end of the world survivalist concept, and this provides the real strength of the book. If one can put aside the fact that to prepare for the end of the world like Rawles "Group" is far beyond the financial means of most folks, the preparation material is quite good, providing fairly detailed information in an entertaining manner. For this reason alone I recommend the text. It is later in the book, when Rawles begins pandering to every known New World Order/anti-government conspiracy theory that the book begins to lose its appeal, along with a somewhat over-moralistic tone that is grating at times. For example, the author continually talks about individual freedom, but seems to think it OK for his "Group" members to stop and search anybody that passes along the roadway close to their retreat, engaging in summary executions of other survivors without trials, and so on. And one must question the true survivalist mindset in many of the scenarios, where ammunition is wasted to no gain, shooting dozens of rounds into one person, for example. Patriots is worth a reading, but take it with a rather large grain of salt.