August 25th, 2008 - Book review: Patriots by James Wesley, Rawles
Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse by James Wesley, Rawles is another of those post-apocalypse novels that I love. It’s quite different, however, from the others. This time, the main characters planned in advance! The book follows the apocalypse and the first few years afterwards, with flashbacks to the group’s founding and advance planning. In many ways, the book could be use as a blueprint for planning yourself (and surviving afterwards). The advance planning, in particular is very interesting–everything from one couple moving to land way out West to stockpiling food and supplies to choosing compatible vehicles (for easy maintenance, parts, and repairs). Another difference: it’s an economic collapse instead of war or environmental.
I have two major complaints:
1. The author is a former Army Intelligence officer and obviously a gun fanatic (enthusiast, he calls himself). Large sections of the book focus on guns, ammunition, bombs, and related weaponry, in great details. (There’s even a warning before the book starts about how the making of some of the things in the book is illegal in many places.) I understand the need for weaponry in post-apocalyptic situations. But I’m not really interested in reading about weaponry in such great detail. Despite this being so far out of my realm of knowledge, and interest, it has spurred me to be interested in at least learning how to shoot a gun. Presently, we own no guns and have no plans to do in the future. But if we ever do (Eric has greatly enjoyed target shooting in the past, both when he was in the Army as well as later with his friends in the police force), I would like to take a shooting course. But still, it got very tedious in the book.
2. If you had the choice to plant a garden or face 18 months eating solely from stockpiles which are mainly MREs, who in their right mind would choose the MREs? I was aghast that no garden was planted the first year (the apocalypse comes in the fall, IIRC, maybe spring, but enough time to plant and harvest that first year). One brief mention was made, but nothing was every actually done. Instead, they survived on MREs. From what I’ve heard, these aren’t the most pleasant meals, especially day in and day out, nor completely nutritious. Plus, if you did not know what the future held, wouldn’t it be best to keep the MREs around–they’ll last for years–in case of, oh, say, crop failure? Even a small garden would give you fresh food and variety for a few months, even if you eat everything and save nothing for the winter. Relatedly, they have no chickens, goats, etc. I think this goes along with #1–he obviously knows a lot more about security than about food production.
Oh, yeah, one other recommendation for a survival situation: When you run out of toilet paper, the next step for me wouldn’t be scratchy paper from catalogs (or whatever they used it from), but cloth. Way more comfortable as well as sustainable.
Overall, a fascinating read (excepting the weapons passages I skipped) that seems very realistic. I mostly enjoyed the characters, the plot lines, their solutions to problems, etc. I was definitely rooting for them ALL to survive and thrive. I did not want to put the book down!
Wesley, Rawles website has many details about the book. I read the Huntington House edition, which has been superseded by the Exlibris version which includes 2 more chapters.
The author’s last name is written “Wesley, Rawles” which made me curious. I was going to ask Eric if Rawles was some kind of Army designation, but never remembered to. I believe it is his own convention instead of hyphenating his last name. Towards the end of the book, a baby is born who is given a similarly comma-ed name, and the two names are the last names of his parents. Nope: Here’s his own answer from the FAQ: “I use the comma to make a distinction between my Christian name, and my family name. My Christian name (James Wesley) is my property. My family name (Rawles) is the common property of all those that share the Rawles bloodline, and our wives. ”