Book Review: Apocalypse Law

Apocalypse Law by John Grit is the story of a man and his 13 year-old son after a pandemic wipes out most of the population, including the man’s wife and young daughter.

The main character, Nate Williams, is a veteran with combat arms experience and has a prepper attitude, but with no stockpiles. He lives in rural Florida on a bit of land with a milk cow and chickens, so has enough food for him and his son to survive.

However, as civilization collapses, someone with a bone to pick with Nate – a felon and a few of his buddies – causes problems for Nat and his son. There is an unrealistic scene here where Nate discovers this, but overall I think the premise of being vulnerable on a farm is valid.

Nate has a friend who is a hardcore survivalist, but who was recalled as a National Guard member so left his preps to the Williams family. This is also slightly unrealistic, but conveniently leave Nat and his son a place to seek refuge and this is stockpiled with food.

A stranger who first steals some of their eggs but later assists the Williams when the felons attacks is also incorporated into the story line. This strangers background and a coincidence in knowing each others families is a also bit implausible.

Overall this a good read and is recommended. The few drawbacks are not show stoppers and I like the fact that the problem of facing this situation with children is addressed.

Note: See Reflexiones Finales for upcoming reviews on this book.

Book Review- Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse

Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapsee (2011) by James Wesley Rawles is the sequel to Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse (2009). Survivors covers the same collapse event as Patriots, but with mostly different characters offering a different perspective.

Patriots was more of a survival manual in novel format. Survivors is a novel that does not needlessly duplicate much of the information on selecting group members, firearms, vehicles, and storing/preparing food and access to water, etc. It is probably also meant to address some of the criticisms of the first novel (characters vastly more prepared than most readers and mostly no children involved, making it less than ideal for most preppers).

Overall Survivors is not as good as Patriots, and this is accurately reflected in many Amazon reviews. While the editing was better, the story is a bit disjointed, seems rushed in the end, and still doesn’t really address the realistic issues most survivalists/preppers will face.

I read the Kindle version, which at $10.99 is a bit of a rip-off, unlike the Patriots softcover bought at the same price. If you’re a apocalyptic fiction junkie like me you’ll buy it anyway, but most would be better suited to get if from the local library. For the price point it needs to be longer with more character development, and to address the weak points.

Awhile back on Survival Blog, Rawles noted he’d expand on the characters Ian and Blanca. This was a waste of 10% of the book (from about 50-60% on Kindle). It’s the story of their courtship a history lesson in USAF ISR platforms with very little value added for a prepper. I skimmed/skipped past most if this useless information.

Two of the main characters are brothers, Lars and Andy. Lars is an OEF vet who lost an arm and eye, and lives on the family farm. Andy was in Germany (recently returned from Afghanistan) when TSHTF.

While Lars and Andy are preppers and begin preparing for a collapse – the even have shortwave radio transmitters for this purpose – when the collapse hits Lars doesn’t have any pistols or ammo put away. This is unrealistic, most will have firearms and ammo before a shortwave transceiver. Lars and his wife have a child, but the issues of prepping/surviving with a child are not discussed at all.

Andy’s story is a bit more interesting. He has to get from Germany to his fiancée, she is staying with his brother Lar’s family in New Mexico. I won’t go into the details, but he finds passage on a boat and then has to go cross country. To me, this was the most interesting aspect of the book and could have used some more development.

Overall this book is fair. As noted above, the Patriots is better and this one should be read at the library rather than buying one.

Note: See Reflexiones Finales for upcoming reviews on this book.