Survivors, by James Wesley, Rawles
Atria Books kindly sent me a review copy of James Wesley, Rawles’ Survivors, a fiction novel in which the economy, and then the government of the United States falls apart. While visiting family a few days ago (and lacking internet there) I took the opportunity to read it.
First, a quick couple of links. You can order the book from Amazon, here. I am not an Amazon Associate so the link is a simple search link. At this moment, they are offering the hardcover book for about half-price, $11.99 new. Wow!
James Wesley, Rawles is the proprietor of the very excellent Survival Blog which should be on your reading list.
Now, back to the story and, it’s a good one. It’s also quite plausible. The financial collapse of the United States (and world) economies brings governments everywhere to a standstill. Indeed, they become irrelevant as hyper-inflation sets in. The dollar is worth nothing. Americans begin bartering, or using ammunition and pre-1965 (that is, all silver) coinage for money.
Government services, as well as many state services are gone. Towns or counties are left to their own devices. One of the protagonists is a serviceman whose deployment overseas has ended, but he can’t return to his family in the United States.
Meanwhile, a roving band of thugs — robbers, rapists, etc. — are plowing through the southern west portion of our country. Looting and burning their way through Arizona and beyond.
A phony, hypocritical provisional and totally unconstitutional “legitimate” federal government centered in Knoxville, TN, invites the United Nation forces to help them re-capture the country.
Although a bit heavy on military acronyms in the beginning, just plow through that and enjoy a fast-paced — nominally! — fictional novel of what could be our future if the Democrats continue to hold power.
One of the things I enjoyed most about this book is the wealth of survivalist ideas it presents during the story. Everything from investing (before ‘The Crunch’ as the book puts it) in silver to using the old Flash Cubes (remember those Sylvania flashes of brilliance?) [Terrible pun, Jeff. - ed.] as an alarm and deterrent device.
And, of course, keep a supply of vegetable seeds on hand if you have any speck of land around you.
An fun read, though it will get you thinking about your own survival if matters here come to the worst. I spent several hours after turning the last page, speculating about what I really need, should do, must do, to survive a collapse of our current government.
8 Responses to “Survivors, by James Wesley, Rawles”
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on 23 Oct 2011 at 2:07 pm # Karl
Good review, and I’d 2nd the recommendation. Books like this are great as they give you the long view of a possible disaster and how best to prepare.
This author comes from the economy side of disasters, so plenty of lessons-learned in the case of currency valuations and the value of precious metals.
I’d recommend a 2nd book which has more info on the personal and civic sides of a disaster: One Second After.
Between these two books, you’ll lose a lot of sleep and will have a better idea of what challenges you’ll face if the SHTF.
Karl
on 23 Oct 2011 at 3:48 pm # Matt
Karl, you beat me to the punch with “One Second After.” A sobering, and rather terrifying, read. And with the state of affairs in the Middle East right now, ever the more so.
on 23 Oct 2011 at 8:34 pm # dave
Great, now you’ve got me buying heirloom seeds.
;)
on 24 Oct 2011 at 9:32 am # Skean Dhude
A lot of these fictional stories make you think about what would happen if it occurred in real life. One thing for your non US readers to be aware of is that many of the items named that can easily be bought in the US are not legal to buy in other countries. For example I can’t (legally) buy pistols in the UK.
In saying that you can work around these things and story books have always had interesting lessons for us all.
on 24 Oct 2011 at 11:05 am # Ryan
I’ll have to read the book but off the top of my head, as an Arizonan for most of my life, I can’t see anybody looting and burning Arizona. There are too many people with guns and most people are friendly enough that they would band together. Tucson is a population of hippies, Mexicans, rednecks and Mormons. You wouldn’t expect that they would get along but if the SHTF they have more in common than they have differences and would probably band together fairly well (if they could keep the local politicians out of the mix). The only real problem would be Water. Without it, all bets are off and the desert wouldn’t be able to support more that a few thousand people.
I could see a local war over water but not wholesale looting and burning. It’s too damn hot for that.
on 24 Oct 2011 at 4:27 pm # Robert Slaughter
If you’ve read the other novel of his, Patriots, how does his writing compare? I found Patriots had issues in my eyes — it kept swapping from first-person, like most novels, to third-person as in most historical accounts. The details are nice, and the premise, but I found the writing style jarring and non-immersive.
on 25 Oct 2011 at 4:47 am # Jeff
I did not read Patriots so can’t compare the two. Sorry.
on 27 Oct 2011 at 2:17 am # Bill
Rawles writing has improved, but where Patriots read more as a first person account, Patriots seemed to have a “you are there” feel, whereas Survivors is more like a novel.
Sure, the switch from 1st to 3rd person in Patriots sometimes distracted, but the story was unique and fun to read.
Survivor is more “One Second After” than Patriots, also. For me, both of them are written almost as if they are designed for movie scripts. (One Second After has been optioned, or so I have heard.)
If you enjoyed these, you will probably enjoy Tom Sherry’s trio of “Deep Winter”, “Shatter”, and “Remnant”.
Sherry’s books were initially written as serials, so the flow sometimes gets a little iffy, and he initially self edited, so there are grammatical errors, but the stories are wonderfully full of “what you need to know” information.