Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Reading! I Couldn't Put it Down!
Review: This is far and away the best book that I've ever read of the survival genre. Rawles knows his stuff! The characters are believable, the action intense, and the detail on HOW TO prepare is fantastic! Packed between the covers --interwoven into the story, you see--is info that I had to go back and jot down. This book inspired me to re-think my overall preparedness. I THOUGHT that I was well-prepared, but after reading it, I could see that I really wasn't. There were so many things that I had overlooked! This book woke me up about them. I've been busy making "TO DO" lists and lists of purchases I need to flesh out my logistical hoard. The barter chapter in particular was worth its weight in gold. (Ooops! A pun!) If you want to survive the next big (fill in the blank) then you absolutely MUST read Patriots: The Coming Collapse. - Adam Selene
Rating:
Summary: GREAT STORY and FULL of INFO!!
Review: This is a book everyone should read. Realistic Story line that will not let you put it down. It is also full of survival information and supply items you should think about. The story line is used in this book to: 1. show what is best to use, 2. How to use your info or supplies 3. When to use them. What a story and what a book!
Rating: 
Summary: It's an El Camino kind of book.
Review: Remember the El Camino? It tried to be a little bit of a car a and a little bit of a pickup and never really succeeded at either. This book is the same. It tries to be a little bit of a novel and it tries to be a little bit of a survival guide. Unfortunately it doesn't fulfill either role satisfactorily. As far as the literary merits, the characters and storyline just didn't grip the reader. We hear only the slightest details of why the survivalist group got together, the mechanism by which civilization collapses is not well explained, and the rationale for an invasion by UN forces is not well developed- we're supposed to jump on the black helicopter bandwagon and just accept that it a given. The author is asking us to closely examine a path that may lie in our future without ever giving us reason believe it is credible. The book attempts to prompt the reader into preparing for a fight against the "New World Order" but neglects to persuade us that his version of events is any more likely, and thus worthy of more preparation, than the every other possible scenario. As a survivalist book it is too heavily diluted with the story he's trying to tell. If you need to be told the entire story of the tortoise and the hare to understand the concept that slow and steady can sometimes win a race, then this book is for you. If, on the other hand, you can digest information and concepts without having a plot cobbled together around it then you could do better elsewhere. He detracts from the credibility of his survivla message by it within a novel. Failure to buy into the fictional "what if" portion of this book leads to a general disregard for potentially valuable information as well. Hearing unfulfilled warnings that the sky is falling leads us to discount the other words of the messenger, however valid and well meaning they may be. As a survival manual it would be much more effective to remove the novella chaff and focus on a basic set of tools that can be used to prepare for ANY upcoming threat.
Rating: 
Summary: Patriots- worth reading for more than one reason
Review: Although I am not a survivalist, and were I motivated to I could criticize this work on a few points, I read it in a day and find myself thinking about it in idle moments. Rather than describing it as a survival manual dressed as fiction, I would rather call it fiction dressed as a survival manual. I say this because although the specific tips and tecniques described are of interest, they are not what comes to my mind as I continue to digest the book. Yes, some of the characters could be better drawn, and yes from time to time the word "formulaic" comes to mind while reading it. Forty eight hours after finishing it, however, the expression "thought provoking" comes to mind more than any other. For those of us that distrust media/government spin, this one gives a lot of food for thought.
Rating:
Summary: Fiction, but with real life facts.
Review: I thought that Mr. Rawles has compiled an excellent novel. While the story line is fictional, the fiction is a background for presenting helpful, detailed information on preparing for various social/economic problems that could occur at anytime. The characters are not isolationist whackos, they are people who work in various middle/upper income occupations. Everyone from mechanics, traders, and network specialists. The topics covered are communications, tactical training, retreat preperation, medical, firearms, etc. Also covered are sources of specialty products, religion,(my favorite)bartering. The one area that really needed improvement and needs a improvement in every book of this type is what to do after stored foods run out. All books lack what I consider to be reasonable information about what tools to gather, livestock, , crop production, and gardening. Overall, it was an enjoybale, easily paced books. Read it several times. The first time to enjoy it, thereafter to take notes and underline extensively.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT READING!!!
Review: Very well written. Detailed, but not boring. This book provides a wealth of ideas and information, and an eye-opening examination of what the future might bring. Great information for survivalists, but also exciting and entertaining reading for those not interested in survivalist topics. I look forward to Mr. Rawles next book.
Rating:
Summary: Not your average "end of the world" novel
Review: In Patriots:Surviving the Coming Collapse, James Wesley,Rawles has managed to combine a story of a socio-economic collapse with the advice that would help you survive it. The characters are believable ,the plot fast-paced,and the descriptions of how something was built were technical enough you would want highlight them to refer back to, but were straight forward enough that you could understand what was going on. All in all a great read for anyone who is interested in self-reliance or being prepared for the unexpected.
Rating:
Summary: A "how to" book Mad Max should have read
Review: This was a very good book. Sort of a "Red Dawn" blended with "Mad Max" and a "Boy Scouts Manual" for grownups added in. If you've ever wondered just what it would take to survive a second "Great Depression" or break down in the economy then this book is for you. The story is reasonable and the "techno tips" are very helpful. The downside to the amount of How TO information contained herein is that the character development is not the strongest. However, I don't see that as a big flaw, this book is a well researched manual intended to open your eyes and provide you with information and a way of thinking that could also save your life tomorrow not just WHEN we have a major social upheaval. This book's message is about not becoming a victim but it's also about rising up to become the best person you can be in the face of adversity set in an interesting format.
Rating: 
Summary: One to be missed
Review: I must be honest and say that I love a good end of civilisation as we know it novel. Alas, although Patriots fits well within the genre, it cannot be called a good work. To begin with the characters are two dimensional, cardboard figures, about whom we really know very little. Why they set up their retreat, what angst motivated them, how their alienation from society came about; these themes are hardly even touched upon and they are certainly not explored. The reader is told that the main characters are Christians: hardly a motivating factor one would have thought, but it is the only one that we are given. The novel also has a near pornographic obsession with guns and descriptions of guns. It is as if the characters only come alive when they are fondling their weaponry. Such activities may be of interest to a Freudian analyst, but it hardly makes for a page turner that cannot be put down. In his own introduction to this work, the author James Wesley,(sic) Rawles admits that he added reams of technical data deliberately. One assumes that what he wanted to create was a novel that also contained useful information. However, what he has created is a leaden prosed lump that is neither fish nor fowl. As a novel it fails because what little plot there is has to be halted regularly to allow for technical descriptions, usually of guns. As a technical work for those curious people who think that black helicopters and the United Nations are just waiting around the corner it fails because the information can be gleaned elsewhere, and in far greater detail. As a plot-line, economic collapse and a resulting invasion by foreign armies, has all the hallmarks of a good read. What a pity that this one failed to live up to expectations...
Rating:
Summary: A book you'll re-read many times.
Review: James Wesley, Rawles has written the kind of book I'd like to see more often, educational entertainment. I've worn out my first copy after reading several times, and am buying several more. It is a fine preparedness primer, giving the how and the why, not just a tale. Buy one for yourself, and more to give away for friends.
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