Very easy to read despite all of the technical jargon, great story that I will recommend heartily. It seemed to me that the author was very precise in his facts, however the flaw in the factual integrity that I found was the mention of USC as being acronym for the Pueblo campus of Colorado State University. It is CSU-P to people who know the school or the area. Small detail but still it makes me wonder if there were not more. ( )

Estados Unidos se enfrenta a una crisis socioeconómica total. La Bolsa se desploma, la hiperinflación paraliza el comercio y la crisis supera cualquier pronóstico. En medio de las hordas de refugiados y vándalos que deambulan por los núcleos urbanos, un reducido grupo de amigos de la región central de Estados Unidos tratará de llegar a un rancho en el norte de Idaho, donde podrán estar a salvo. Durante el trayecto tendrán que poner a prueba todas sus habilidades y todo aquello para lo que se han estado entrenando, ya que las comunicaciones, el comercio, el transporte y la policía han colapsado. Una vez en el rancho, el grupo habrá de rechazar los ataques provenientes del exterior.

almost like a manual for the survivalist ( )

I assume that you've read the publisher's summary, so here's my take. This is 21+ hours about small unit army tactics, stuff you need should the USA ever collapse and a few tips on living without electricity. Great stuff for a long drive across "Texas?" So it's a fun, thought-provoking read, but not for everyone. If you are interested in guns, "this Bud's for you." If you voted for Obama and still like him, you'll probably toss this book after the first few pages. It was centered on Boville, Idaho...a site near the U of Idaho in Moscow...that made it interesting for me, but it could have been anywhere in the USA. I guess the author lives near Boville? Most of the Indian heritage that form the derevation of local names were pronounced correctly. One could interpret this book as a diatribe about survivalists and I think that it is. But, it's my first and as such, is interesting...some Christian and no Aryan nation stuff. It's 21+ hours contain research details that could be omitted and still have a cogent novel. As always, the tactical interactions are less of interest than the author's opinion about strategy, politics and outcome. It has an ending and that's not obvious until some new characters are dragged out and used in the last half hour--surprise! I wonder what's in the second book? ( )

Militia-Style Survivalist Manual in a Fiction Format

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. ( )