Patriots [Paperback]

'Patriots' is supposed to be a classic of survivalist literature. It's also been described as a `survival manual disguised as a book'. I found it to be neither.

The story is about a group that had set up a retreat so survive a `the end of the world as we know it' scenario. For the purposes of the book `the crunch' comes as an economic collapse of the US and much of the remainder of the civilised world. The book has a strong anti-socialism theme; the author explains that the collapse of the US was caused by the government running up a huge debt by allowing members of society to free-load. According to the author everyone should work or starve.

The first half of the book covers the members of `the group' making their way to the retreat, how they adjust to a more primitive lifestyle and defend themselves from aggressors. While the author goes into a little more detail on some of the survival aspects than might be strictly necessary I didn't feel it was a `manual for survival'.

Some areas are unrealistic, the group has been preparing for years and has hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition stored but didn't see a need to ensure there were sufficient sleeping quarters for everyone! Given that before the crunch they all spent a few weeks a year at the retreat preparing, training and storing equipment I fail to see how the sleeping arrangements couldn't have been already sorted!

The author is clearly a `gun nut'. No one simply "carries a gun", we have to hear what type of gun, length of barrel, type of clip, number of rounds, what sort of ammunition it's loaded with, type of gun sight and holster. Unless you're also obsessed with guns this gets a little boring after a while.

The book uses a lot of acronyms, and while there is a glossary at the end it's far from complete, unless you're ex-US army yourself, expect to Google a lot of terms as you read this book.

The double standards of the book annoyed me. The main characters feel it's acceptable for them to search anyone who passes on the road near their retreat but when others try and stop them they insist that they have the right to use a `public road'.

There is a section where the author goes back in time to before `the crunch' and introduces two new characters who are in trouble with the police over gun laws. I kept waiting for these two characters to be weaved back into the main plot but it never happened. I don't know why the editor didn't trim this unrelated thread. It's just a rant against federal gun laws.

But despite these weaknesses the first half is enjoyable.

The second half of the book degraded into a formulistic `invasion' of the US by foreign soldiers. A government is trying to re-organise within the US and has requested United Nations support. Since this new government has not been elected democratically, the `survivalist types' feel justified in opposing them, forcefully. For some reason the author made Europe `the bad guys' despite the fact that in the scenario as explained Europe was also in economic meltdown. The country most likely to be in a position to assist (or invade, depending on your viewpoint) would probably have been China. Despite the anti-socialist theme of the book it's somehow `evil' for those that America owes money to expect to be paid what they're owed. Apparently America is somehow special and is not expected to honour its debts. I can respect someone who has different standards but only if they apply those standards consistently.

Despite Mr Rawles being a retired Army officer who should know better, the plot degrades into a farce where we're expected to believe that a militia primarily made up of individuals whose 'combat experience' consists of shooting at deer a few weeks a year can be effective against a modern, well equipped, professional army. Disappointingly trite. If Mr Rawles wanted incompetent bad guys he should have picked an army from a third world country.

Three stars overall. The first half gets four; the second only two.

It has taken me months to wade through this book - but I didn't think that I could legitimately review it without having completed the task. For me, the best part of the book was the description of the economic breakdown which leads to the post apocalyptic scenario. Whilst not wholly convincing, it has the merit of being topical and is thought provoking. From then on I felt that the book went downhill. If you are obsessed with guns and want a detailed list of armaments and ammunition, this is the book for you. However, as the sort of hording of guns which Rawles recommends is impossible in the UK it is not very relevant here. The irony of the book is that the protagonists seem to lack the essential personal traits which would probably mark out survivors in a real post-apocalypse scenario - for example, adaptability. The post-apocalypse is tailor-made for the survivalist who has amassed a barrow load of guns and is prepared to shoot first and think - well, never. Had there been plague-type PA scenario these people would have been at a loss as to how to deal with the need for flexibility and co-operation.
For me the weakest part of the book was the one dimensional and unrealistic depiction of people. The good guys are overwhelmingly Christian, the bad guys are cannibals, rapists, drunkards and, of course, poor soldiers. The depiction of the two men with communist sympathies (cannibals) verges on the comical. Somehow we are meant to accept the fact that, because only the select elite are good, it is all right for them to kill so many without any compunction and to relish the body-count.
In the end I was left with the feeling that this book is one man's personal fantasy of the world he would actually like to wake up to. What it lacks is any insight into how survivors in a PA world could psychologically and practically deal with the unexpected or any problem that did not simply require a heap of weapons.
I wasn't sure how to rate this book, because as a military survivalist manual it is excellent and deserves five stars, but as a novel it is inadequate on many levels and barely merits one. For this reason I've balanced it out at three.

Rawles starts us out on an interesting, if somewhat unrealistic, end of the world survivalist concept, and this provides the real strength of the book. If one can put aside the fact that to prepare for the end of the world like Rawles "Group" is far beyond the financial means of most folks, the preparation material is quite good, providing fairly detailed information in an entertaining manner. For this reason alone I recommend the text. It is later in the book, when Rawles begins pandering to every known New World Order/anti-government conspiracy theory that the book begins to lose its appeal, along with a somewhat over-moralistic tone that is grating at times. For example, the author continually talks about individual freedom, but seems to think it OK for his "Group" members to stop and search anybody that passes along the roadway close to their retreat, engaging in summary executions of other survivors without trials, and so on. And one must question the true survivalist mindset in many of the scenarios, where ammunition is wasted to no gain, shooting dozens of rounds into one person, for example. Patriots is worth a reading, but take it with a rather large grain of salt.