Book Review: Patriots, by James Wesley, Rawles

[inverarity]

James Wesley comma Rawles novelizes his SurvivalBlog.

Comments

[paulliver]

You never know if a book will take off or not; I read that the "Protocols of Zion" started out as a novel before it became the handbook of hating Jews. I read a novel years ago about a small, underfunded Christian private school under constant threat from a hugely funded liberal pro-public school lobby; the plot turned upon the delivery of a letter leading to a fight between an angel and a devil in the post office of a rural town. As for Ayn Rand, I read about a poll asking Americans what book influenced them the most: three of the top ten titles had been written by Rand.

[l_o_lostshadows]

That would probably be the Modern Library Reader's list poll. Since it was a self selecting poll, that also allowed people to vote once per day, its not really a good indicator of any book's influence.

Atlas Shrugged did do well (#2) in a 1991 LoC/BotMC poll, but only that one as far as I can tell. (I can only find the first five online, and there's a large gap between number one and the rest of the list.)

[inverarity]

Yeah, IIRC a bunch of libertarians organized a "ballot stuffing" of that poll.

[paulliver]

Interesting; I'll have to add that cavat when I tell people in the future. Thanks.

[l_o_lostshadows]

I've always found the concept that, in the event of TEOTWAWKI, gold and silver will somehow still remain valuable, a bit bizarre. Since they're not very useful metals, for day-to-day survival, I wouldn't want to trade food, medicine, or weapons for them.

[inverarity]

Well, preppers will tell you that in the immediate aftermath of a TEOTWAWKI event, it's true that no one will care much about gold since you can't eat it, but the assumption is that, as in this novel, eventually society will start to rebuild, and in a barter society, precious metals will resume their place as stores of value.

Of course, preppers are usually gold bugs too.

[ext_2137784]

So in other words, the author is basically admitting that european-style socialism is a superior economic model? I mean, if the US collapses into anarchy while the EU arises as a superpower that would seem to indicate that the Europeans are doing something right.

[shortysc22]

I think we had talked about this book back when you posted about One Second After (or maybe it was Dies the Fire) and I'm glad you read this one and posted your opinion. I share a lot of your sentiment, that the first bit of the book as much better and then it took a turn for the crazy and the epilogue was way over the top.

I am looking forward to seeing what other post-apocalyptic novels you end up reviewing.

[knightpanda]

No comment on that cover? Cos gee golly, it's something.

[inverarity]

I figure it kind of speaks for itself.