Book Review: Patriots, by James Wesley, Rawles

James Wesley comma Rawles novelizes his SurvivalBlog.

Ulysses Press, 2009, 384 pages

America faces a full-scale socioeconomic collapse in the near future. The stock market plummets, hyperinflation cripples commerce and the mounting crisis passes the tipping point. Practically overnight, the fragile chains of supply and high-technology infrastructure fall, and wholesale rioting and looting grip every major city.

As hordes of refugees and looters pour out of the cities, a small group of friends living in the Midwest desperately try to make their way to a safe-haven ranch in northern Idaho. The journey requires all their skill and training since communication, commerce, transportation and law enforcement have all disappeared. Once at the ranch, the group fends off vicious attacks from outsiders and then looks to join other groups that are trying to restore true Constitutional law to the country.

Patriots is a thrilling narrative depicting fictional characters using authentic survivalist techniques to endure the collapse of American civilization. Listening to this compelling, fast-paced novel could one day mean the difference between life and death.

( Guns, gold, God, and the eeeeeevil UN. )

Verdict: A somewhat didactic but only slightly preachy survival novel for the first two thirds, a paranoid Libertarian/Constitutional Party fantasy for the last third, Patriots is a political tract in the form of a novel. Despite that, the long, rambling speeches, and the mediocre prose, it's got a fair story and a lot of useful knowledge. Think of it as Ayn Rand-lite with more guns.

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