Posted: 1/25/2011 8:45:51 AM EDT
Just finished reading it and must say for a first read of this type, it was pretty good. Just thought I would share my experiance and hey even my wife is reading it.
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| I kinda got bogged down with all the LP/OP references. I liked it overall, but not on the same level that I have enjoyed other similar books. It may be just me but that must be one huge house and basement for all the people that ended up there, not to mention all the food previously stored. Also didn't quite understand why anytime a new character was introduced, he/she had to tell their life story. I probably would have enjoyed it more if the characters had to struggle for resources as the years went by. |
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I liked it, but I had two issues with it.
-What was up with the random chapters about the two guys who had the shootout with the cops and then ran off? Didnt really add much to the story and left me with the feeling that the author was trying to say all cops were out to get everyone. -Too much religious undertone for me. I can understand that some people have deeply held beliefs, but if your first question to another survivor whom you just met is "Are you a good Christian?" your survival priorities are a little messed up. Likewise, for some reason virtually all the characters come off as being almost cultishly religious while everyone else comes off as heathan barbarians. All in all it was good for the most part and it did have some good info in it, but it didnt seem very believable in some cases. Just my .02 |
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Quoted:
I liked it, but I had two issues with it. -What was up with the random chapters about the two guys who had the shootout with the cops and then ran off? Didnt really add much to the story and left me with the feeling that the author was trying to say all cops were out to get everyone. One of the brothers was a "legandary" malitia leader latter in the book. It actually would have made a much better side story had he done more with the brothers. -Too much religious undertone for me. I can understand that some people have deeply held beliefs, but if your first question to another survivor whom you just met is "Are you a good Christian?" your survival priorities are a little messed up. Likewise, for some reason virtually all the characters come off as being almost cultishly religious while everyone else comes off as heathan barbarians. I wouldn't go so far as to say cultish, they just had strongly held beliefs that came out more as times get worse. Kinda like the revival we saw in church attendance post 9/11. When tmes get hard people tend to seek God for comfort, peace and answers. I thought it was interesting that they had 2 non Christians in thier group, and the rest didn't judge when they had members living together in sin. As to the two group leaders meeting, I can see where religion woul dbe a point both would want to discuss since it was an integral part of thier belief system. As a Christian I would want to know if someone I was going to depend on for mutual aid believed the things I did. I just found it odd how quickly they both took what the other said at face value and how trusting both were when they attended the meeting. Had either been less than honorable, the other would have been dead in a heartbeat. Overall I thought the book was a pretty good one. Much like Lights Out, Deap Winter and all the others, they were convienintly prepared. However at least in this book they demonstrated that the group members had thought everything out before hand and were prepared because of that. Unlike some others where by blind luck preps and finnances were provided to the group. Or others where everytime they needed something they just happened to have bought that in bulk and stashed it "just in case". They also pointed out in the book several things they had not done to prepare that they wished they had gotten around to. All in all it was good for the most part and it did have some good info in it, but it didnt seem very believable in some cases. Just my .02 My biggest problem with the book was the tactics. Why would you stop everyone passing by the house? They are basically concealed from everyone passing by, yet they go out of thier way to make others aware of thier presence and numbers. Why have everyone in your group show themselves when you identify a passer by and stop them? They were popping out of thier camoflaged fox holes, so the next time the same person comes back they know right where you are. The weapons choices left me scratching my head a bit. While I could understand requiring everyone to have tritium sights and liked how they showed how not having it was a hinderance. I just don't think requiring all the .308s to be HK G3s made a lot of sense. It is a pretty rare an d expensive rifle by most standards here in the states. Coupled with the fact it is hard on brass and most of the group planned to reload, it seemed an odd rifle to satnderdize on. Now had they allowed for clones like the PTR and Cetmes it would have made a bit more sense. If they were looking for the best .308 platform, they could have found more affordable choices that were easier to locate that were just as reliable. I also foudn it very odd that they didn't require thier group members to get quality optics for thier rifles. You can't tell me that people that can afford HK G3s and Colt AR-15s can't afford to top them off with Aimpoints and ACOGs. They had lots of defenses geard toward defense fromt he road and woods that ajoined to road. But mentioned nothing covering the back of the property. They took the town from the bikers for the same reason, seems like they would have seen the error in thier defenses then. I also found several technical errors, such as most of the group living in the Chicago area owning handguns and assualt rifles. Refering to the Armory on the base as the AP armory when they haven't been called the Air Police in years. Stating that there was no ammo storage on the Air Force base, wich would not be at all accurate for any Air Force Base with any deployable people. The McMillan .50 had a Leupold 10X at one point, then it has a Trijicon scope, that they never reference having a spare of or putting ont he rifle, with multiple reticles that change collor and are still powered by tritium and fiber optic. That scope wich as far as I know has never existed, was on the SSG, but all the suden it is on the .50, but then when he uses the SSG it's on there again. |
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Quoted:
I liked it, but I had two issues with it. -What was up with the random chapters about the two guys who had the shootout with the cops and then ran off? Didnt really add much to the story and left me with the feeling that the author was trying to say all cops were out to get everyone. Rawles pandering to the posse committatus fruit loop crowd in my opinion. -Too much religious undertone for me. I can understand that some people have deeply held beliefs, but if your first question to another survivor whom you just met is "Are you a good Christian?" your survival priorities are a little messed up. Likewise, for some reason virtually all the characters come off as being almost cultishly religious while everyone else comes off as heathan barbarians. Which may give some insights into the authors views of the world. All in all it was good for the most part and it did have some good info in it, but it didnt seem very believable in some cases. Just my .02 Personally, I thought the book was horrible and a total waste of time. As is his book on surviving the end of the world. The information is poorly presented, ranges from inaccurate to some what useful, but nothing that can't be found else where far less painfully. Also, as another poster stated politely the tactics suck. Not being a kinder gentler kind of guy I will flat out say his tactics are a permanent solution to a temporary problem (AKA suicide). Also, the social interactions are totally unrealistic. The folks you stopped WILL either come back in large numbers OR rat you out to some gang to try and save their own asses. Not to mention if you hide for two years while me and mine are defending the area when you come out from hiding all fat dumb and happy don't expect a warm friendly greeting. |
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Finished it up last week. Took away a little learning from it so I'll put it in the "win" category. A little heavy on the religious rhetoric for me. All in all though it sounds like they were prepped to the point of excess- not a bad problem to have, but from the prep side of the house they had a Sam's club amount of supplies inside a 7/11 size house. My benchmark is Lights Out- and the Deep Winter series, and Patriots falls short of these two.
On a side note I have a HUGE problem with the book's cover, the guy looks like a complete ass clown. The Army has realized their mistake with ACU's having moved to multicam and all through the book DPM's are the standard yet Rambo stands alone with a flat brimmed PC looking like a digital lime and a bolt gun (only one mentioned in the entire read). I'm only a chapter into One Second After and so far I like it better IMHO |
| Patriots was written in the 90's. Alot of the info about the firearms was based on Boston's Gun Bible. Back then the HK-91 was not nearly as expensive as it is now. Even the the current edition of the book is 2-4 years old so the ACU's were current then. Multicam would be a much better choice but I think he was going for what a "Modern" group may use. Take the book for what it is, a personal story of a group of friends. There are a few tidbits of helpful information in the book so look for those. The two brothers story line was something new for this edition of the book. I took the story line as how to "vanish" in today's society. Just MHO. |
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I liked it, but I had two issues with it. -What was up with the random chapters about the two guys who had the shootout with the cops and then ran off? Didnt really add much to the story and left me with the feeling that the author was trying to say all cops were out to get everyone. Rawles pandering to the posse committatus fruit loop crowd in my opinion. -Too much religious undertone for me. I can understand that some people have deeply held beliefs, but if your first question to another survivor whom you just met is "Are you a good Christian?" your survival priorities are a little messed up. Likewise, for some reason virtually all the characters come off as being almost cultishly religious while everyone else comes off as heathan barbarians. Which may give some insights into the authors views of the world. All in all it was good for the most part and it did have some good info in it, but it didnt seem very believable in some cases. Just my .02 Personally, I thought the book was horrible and a total waste of time. As is his book on surviving the end of the world. The information is poorly presented, ranges from inaccurate to some what useful, but nothing that can't be found else where far less painfully. Also, as another poster stated politely the tactics suck. Not being a kinder gentler kind of guy I will flat out say his tactics are a permanent solution to a temporary problem (AKA suicide). Also, the social interactions are totally unrealistic. The folks you stopped WILL either come back in large numbers OR rat you out to some gang to try and save their own asses. Not to mention if you hide for two years while me and mine are defending the area when you come out from hiding all fat dumb and happy don't expect a warm friendly greeting. This. Total garbage. |
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Quoted:
I liked it, but I had two issues with it. -What was up with the random chapters about the two guys who had the shootout with the cops and then ran off? Didnt really add much to the story and left me with the feeling that the author was trying to say all cops were out to get everyone. -Too much religious undertone for me. I can understand that some people have deeply held beliefs, but if your first question to another survivor whom you just met is "Are you a good Christian?" your survival priorities are a little messed up. Likewise, for some reason virtually all the characters come off as being almost cultishly religious while everyone else comes off as heathan barbarians. All in all it was good for the most part and it did have some good info in it, but it didnt seem very believable in some cases. Just my .02 I would have to agree with this post. |
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I liked it as well overall. But why stop everyone who walked by and interrogate them? Seems like it would be easier to just let them go by if you were unnoticed. Why give them an idea of what you have and your numbers to pass to someone else down the road?
I know the point was to be well prepared for such an event but I also would have liked for them to struggle with finding food a little more. You know, it's a sign of old age when you post twice on the same topic without realizing it till much later. Now if you excuse me, it's dinner time and I need to find my good teeth. 
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I read it... the structure of the book seemed unwieldy - almost forced into a structure rather than telling a story.
Chapter 2 - impromptu field surgery Chapter 3 - how to select members of a team Chapter 4 - packing a bug-out bag Chapter 7 - how to establish LP/OP Chapter 8 - barter 101 Chapter 15 - conducting movement to contact Chapter 16 - fundamentals of field electronic communications (I made the chapter numbers up.) It seemed like you were being beaten over the head with one topic after another. Oh, and what was up with the two dudes that escaped from the cops... ate their dog one winter and disappeared from the story line? 
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