Book Review: The Last Pilgrims (Volume 1)

Michael Bunker’s The Last Pilgrims is a post-apocalyptic story set in Texas 20 years after a global economic collapse. The story centers around a large pacifist agrarian group called the Vallenses that are much like present day Amish, though they do have access to beer.

Beer is a good place to note that the book has many interesting bits of information on things I’d love to try or know how to do after a collapse. The beer is question isn’t what most of us would recognize as such, but made with a very old-world traditional method of brewing that actually produces antibiotics. This isn’t fiction, tetracycline has been found in he bones of Nubians who lived about 2,000 years ago. Another tip is that mesquite pods can be used to make coffee – highly caffeinated coffee. Aside from general ideas on preparing, these little or lesser known tips are why I read this sort of fiction.

The Vallenses were a group that practiced an agrarian and pacifist lifestyle before the collapse. Jonathan Wall is the pastor and leader of the group, while his former best friend Phillip commands a militia group that protects the Vallenses. Think Rangers protecting the Shire, or almost.

After the collapse countries dissolved into smaller kingdoms, one of which is Aztlan – taking the name used by some various Mexican nationalist movements that claim part of the U.S. southwest. The King of Aztlan has decided to wipe out the Vallenses, but the pacifist group refuses to fight, though the will flee.

Although the Vallenses won’t fight, or at least most of them, the Phillips militia does. There is a lot of back and forth, twists and turns, this book is part action-adventure. I recommend this book to anyone interested in this genre, but also just for the action.

The Last Pilgrims, as the title and nature of the main groups of actors suggests, also deals with religion, though not in a preachy or even very descriptive way. They pray, they have Christian values, but they don’t really get into it much. I’m Christian but I don’t think a non-Christian would feel put off by this book.

The author editorializes at times on the fundamental and systemic causes of the collapse, primarily the completely unsustainable lifestyle of most of the planet since the 20th century. I think most survivalists would agree with most of what he has to say about that. Personally, I wish our standard of living could stay nearly as good as it is now, but I just don’t think it’s possible.

There are a few negatives but I don’t think they detract too much. While the story, explanation of the cause of the collapse, and action was excellent, the dialogue was pretty wooden, with an exception or two it’s impossible to tell who’s talking. Also I thought the description of how prosperous the Vallenses community was and how well they lived probably painted a bit too rosy of a picture of post-collapse living, even 20 years later.

Normally I prefer books that get more into the mechanics of the collapse rather than years or decades down the road, but found that I’m sort of getting burned out on that and this book was a welcomed change of pace. Even so, there are several flashbacks that describe events of the collapse, so some of that itch is scratched. Also welcomed was the fact that it’s very well written and edited, not so common for self-published post-apocalypse books and a real pleasure.

Disclaimer: I was provided a free Kindle version of The Last Pilgrims to review.

Book Review: Our End of the Lake

Our End of the Lake, by Ron Foster, is about a man named Dave who finds himself in Atlanta, about 180 miles from home when a solar storm causes an apparently world-wide EMP event. He’s also cut off from the bug out bag in the back of his car, on the far side of the city in the wrong direction.

Dave is former Army, a moderately advanced prepper, probably in his 50s, and had just been hired on with FEMA the morning of the EMP event. So like many of the main characters in survival fiction, Dave is leaps and bounds ahead of the general public.

Unlike some depictions of FEMA employees as spineless, remora-like commies, Dave’s new boss, Jack, “was a grizzled old First Sergeant from the Vietnam era that had retired from the Army.” The boss, a few other employees and Dave were in a bar celebrating his new job – fairly carefree drinking is a theme throughout the book.

The power goes out and the FEMA guys quickly figure out what happened. As FEMA has no real plan to deal with such an event, Dave sets off for home on foot with a younger co-worker who needs to travel most of the same route.

Feeling naked without a pack and preparing for a long hike on foot, one of the first things Dave does is steal a drop cloth and some rope from an unattended painters van to make a horseshoe pack (complete with illustration). This is the first of a good bit of looting framed as scavenging that takes place throughout the story, enough to render Rawles catatonic.

This is a good place to note that the author picks out tips and little tricks that might be useful and turns them into a teaching moment with instructions. Some of these are useful, a few are strange, such as very detailed instructions later in the book for starting a vintage tractor that was unaffected by the EMP.

Since this is in the first few days of the event, things aren’t as dangerous as they will become, and they take the highway towards their destination. The do a good job of looting vehicles along the way, end up meeting some really nice people and getting slightly liquored up.

When they make it to the rural destination of the younger co-worker, again everyone is nice, everyone is pitching in to prepare, there is a fantastic BBQ, Dave make a deal to use an antique tractor to drive the rest of the way to his home, and there is a good bit of drinking.

Dave makes it home to his mother and makes contact with his ex-girlfriend, also a prepper. They pull in a few close friends and work on stockpiling as much food and supplies as they can, and they do pretty well. Although it’s now been many days since the EMP, they run into no real security issues, and there is some drinking going on.

They soon decide to leave their city before things fall apart and get dangerous. Using the tractor to pull a trailer with their supplies, they make their way to a secluded lake where they have a friend.

Once at the lake, they find most cabins deserted and commence systematic looting. They talk about security and firearms, meet some really nice people, had a feast of sorts, do some drinking, etc.

I don’t harp too much on the grammatical and spelling errors (glass houses and all) found in most recent self-published survival fiction, but the Kindle version had some annoying formatting issues that need to be dealt with.

And if you can’t tell, I fault the author with making the apocalypse sound sort of like a good time where you’ll meet a lot of nice folks and get comfortably numbed with booze, sounds like a party. Aside from sounding like a feel-good party, in a real situation like this if you start looting like Dave and crew were, you’d probably get shot fairly quickly.

Also, this book is sold as, “the complete Prepper Trilogy Containing Books 1-3,” which may be used to justify the $7.25 price tag, but seemed about as long as an average book.

Overall this is a fair read, but I’d borrow if from the library rather than buy.

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.

Book Review: As Wind in Dry Grass

As Wind in Dry Grass by H. Grant Llewellyn is the story of Albert Smythe, an eccentric, retired truck driver (after 20 years) who lives a self-sustainable life on his rural Indiana farm, and his survival after TSHTF.

This story is a bit unique in that it has two waves of events that alone could take down our society. The first is an apparently well-planned attack on the trucking infrastructure – terrorists – it’s not known if they’re domestic or foreign – plant bombs on hundreds of long-haul trucks and in their cargos, causing a lock up of that system that eventually crashes the economy.

My guess is most people don’t realize how vulnerable our trucking and rail transit infrastructure is, and how much we rely on it since the advent of just-in-time delivery awhile back. IMO, when any competent bad guys figure this out, we’re screwed.

The terrorist induced collapse was followed by some sort of global pandemic that finished off the job of collapsing civilization.

Albert, a man with no family ties, had been a frugal trucker who saved for 20 years, then retired to his rural Indiana farm where he had live stock, small scale farming, generators with lots of fuel, etc. He also constructed a hidden bunker on his property, and stockpiled weapons, ammo, etc. He had no family, wife, children, etc.

His perfect life ended when the terrorist induced shortages caused FEMA, backed up by local officials, to devise a plan to confiscate from local farmers their food stores. Without getting into too much detail, Albert ended up killing the FEMA reps and local authorities that came to take his food, and became a guerilla fighter. Then the global pandemic came and everything got even worse.

There are a lot of good preps detailed in this book. It’s also one of the best written self-published books out there.

However, the tinfoil hat conspiracies are in full force, complete with UN forces terrorizing Americans, raping and killing at will to restore law and order for the government. There is a long, somewhat bizarre rant on this topic. There is also a lot of racist talk/sentiment that detracts from the book.

A major flaw is the UN occupation (with U.S. government permission) – it doesn’t make sense, there is no logical reason or goal. It’s unlikely UN nations would be able to field troops after a financial collapse (that would affect the global economy) and a global pandemic, especially considering the U.S. funds most of the UN.

Good writing and interesting scenario, but I’m not comfortable with the racist rants and UN conspiracy theories. If you can ignore those aspects, it’s a good read.

Book Reviewe: The Jakarta Pandemic

The Jakarta Pandemic by Steven Konkoly is the story of a family in suburban Maine during and after a global influenza pandemic that kills off a large portion of the population and causes a temporary societal collapse. The main character, Alex, works for a “major pharmaceutical company” (just like the author) that sells a Tamiflu variant, and he is much more aware of what’s going on and the potential outcome that most. Alex is a former Marine officer and a prepper.

Well described is the likely slow, useless approach the government would take as the healthcare systems is overwhelmed, the slow breakdown of services as deliveries stop, the riots that would take place, suburban neighbors bugging out, the influx of refugees who drift in to take up those residences, and neighborhood tensions over food supplies. I won’t go into too much detail here, see the description and reviews at Amazon.

Alex makes several mistakes which I assume are to server readers of examples of common pitfalls. He has a bit of a temper and shoots his mouth off. Example; let himself get into an argument with a neighborhood hag wanting to collectivize and redistribute food supplies, leaving a lot with the impression he had ample supplies. He doesn’t set up security very well (not realistic for a Marine). Example; they all sleep through most nights, no guard set.

This book is well reviewed at Reflexiones Finales and Bison Survival Blog. Both describe Alex as a “yuppie” prepper, which is apt.

Alex is also politically an extremely unlikely representation of a former USMC officer; a left-leaning, Fox News bashing, vegetarian. It’s not impossible, there are some, but as someone who’s been associated with the military in one way or the other for over two decades, I can tell you it’s rare, particularly among officers.

Problem areas. I read the Kindle edition, which has a few editing errors (even after it was re-edited), but I’m generally not too picky about that. The dialogue between family members was flat and mostly irritating, and it was difficult to tell who was speaking at time as there was no real change in style. The biggest flaw of this book is that it took only a few months for the government to resurrect itself and start services flowing. I find this highly unlikely for today’s overly complex and interdependent system-of-systems that make up our civilizations.

Overall recommended. A plausible scenario and there are areas (preps and mistakes) to learn from. If you have some left-leaning family or friends you’d like to convince about prepping, maybe this a good book to give them; the main character has similar views as them, but is prepared with food and fuel stocks, alternative energy, has and knows how to use guns.

Book Review: American Apocalypse (series)

Over a year ago I bought a PDF version of the first installment of the American Apocalypse series by Nova. It was a slow starter (despite the Amazon description of “fast paced”) and horribly edited like a lot of self-published books, but by the end it had me hooked. The series currently has four main installments and one short segment that covers a summer of the main character’s life (the only portion I didn’t read).

This is a slow economic collapse scenario where the main character, Gardener, an IT specialist, becomes unemployed and learns to navigate the new reality of a declining America. Gardner’s socioeconomic position slowly worsens and he’s forced to life off the grid for awhile. He eventually hooks up with an Asian organization working IT issues and is accepted into that “clan.”

During this time he makes his first kill (a pedophile), and is assigned a mentor to teach him the ropes of self-defense and security (Max). He also hooks up with a young, Asian female leader of the clan (Night), and makes friends with a young Asian gamer who is part of the clan (Ninja). It’s nitty-gritty and mostly realistic. He eventually becomes a baddass killing machine.

The second volume was recently re-released as American Apocalypse: Wastelands (formerly just volume II). First thing I noticed was a VAST improvement in the editing, much improved the reading experience. In this volume, Gardener grew into more of a killer/survivor, and the slow collapse turned into a fast collapse.

It’s in Wastelands that the problem with this series comes about. Let’s look at the description of the book on Amazon:

Starvation, violence and death run rampant in the remains of our once-proud country. Federal troops, commissioned to protect the homeland, have turned their guns on the lawless population. Citizens find shelter in government safe zones while ruthless gangs enforce their will outside the camps.

When the military transforms Washington’s life-saving food bank into a gun collection center in order to disarm all but the soldiers themselves, riots ensue. Weary of the militaristic government’s intent to render the citizens defenseless, America’s remaining patriots begin a mass migration out of the camps in search of refuge.

American Apocalypse Wastelands tells of a young man discovering the role he must play to defend himself, others and his country as everything around him crumbles.

Anything about a Norse god (Freya) being introduced into the series? No? That’s odd, because at the end of the book that’s exactly what happens – a supernatural element is introduced.

The very last page of Wastelands has this note from the Author (abbreviated):

The introduction of Freya, a supernatural being, may have confused or even bothered some readers… This isn’t and was never intended to be a survival book…

The author also claims to be writing about “possible scenarios” we may encounter in such a collapse.

Bullshit. It’s his series, he can write what he wants. But none of the book descriptions (on Amazon) say anything about the supernatural element, it’s borderline false advertising. This is Fantasy, not survival or apocalypse fiction. You need to know that before starting.

The third and fourth books are okay. I had to skip about 25% of the text dealing with supernatural elements and was very annoyed by that.

The good of this series; it makes you contemplate what a slow collapse might look like and how you might fit in. It’s not pretty. You will get an idea of what hordes of hungry and desperate people might do – rampant looting, murder, rape, and cannibalism (a lot of that). It will put you in the prepping mindset and make you want to move from overpopulated areas.

The bad has already been noted – the bait and switch with Fantasy for a survival book. The books are also not quite full-length, so you’re essentially paying hardcover price for a longish regular book, it’s just broken up into four smaller books with smaller prices.

My recommendation; if you can live the a couple of Norse gods (Freya and Thor) doing magical stuff, go for it, it’s 75% good. If not, pass, there are a lot of other survival/apocalyptic fiction books out there without the supernatural baggage.

Book Review: Survivors

Survivors (1976) by Terry Nation is the story of those in England who survive a pandemic that wipes out over 95 percent of the earths population (also a TV series in the UK).

This novel starts off like a lot of pandemic apocalypse novels, everyone is slow to understand what’s going on as public transportation fails, the electricity goes off, and civilization slowly falls apart. Unlike a lot of similar stories, some of the survivors in this got sick and pulled through, in addition to those immune to the disease, a various of the bubonic plague in this case.

Value to survivalists? Middling. Survivors find each other and form small communities. Some fight each other. The collect/hoard the trappings of civilization, and try to farm. All pretty predictable. There are a few lessons here and there.

Also some problems.

• Although the main characters are concerned about bandits and raids, they never organize a guard schedule and security is very lacking, even after being attacked.
• They speak of using gasoline several years after collapse, with no mention of stabilizers, which may or may not have been around in the 1970s.
• The main characters decide they cannot maintain a sustenance level due to the climate and decide to move to Italy, hoping for warmer weather. First, those in the past could live there, why not them? Second, why would they think groups in Italy would tolerate immigrants?

It’s an entertaining read, but not really a survivalist story. The ending has a twist that is so improbably and so unnecessary that it also disappointed. Overall not recommended.

Book Review: Tooth and Nail

Tooth and Nail (2010) by Craig DiLouie is the story of a U.S. Army unit quickly redeployed from Iraq to New York to help restore order and fight a flu-like pandemic. Then things get crazy when some flu victims develop a fast acting rabies infection.

The pandemic starts as a respiratory infection with a high mortality rate. A small percentage of those infected develop a type of rabies that becomes active in hours rather than days or weeks. It shares a lot with regular rabies:

As the disease progresses, more specific symptoms appear and may include insomnia, anxiety, confusion, slight or partial paralysis, excitation, hallucinations, agitation, hypersalivation (increase in saliva), difficulty swallowing, and hydrophobia (fear of water). Death usually occurs within days of the onset of these symptoms.

It’s unknown if the rabies virus was modified for medical purposes (apparently viruses are often modified and used to target/kill various diseases) that accidentally got loose, or created by some hostile government or terrorist organization. In the end, it doesn’t matter; it’s highly contagious and hordes are infected.

So not zombies, but people with rabies, hypersalivating, and doing whatever they can to bite – but not eat – you. And they die in a few days. The only semi-believable variation of the zombie apocalypse scenario; a genetically modified rabies virus.

An excellent and maybe original idea, really badly executed.

Writing was so bad I had to force myself past the first few chapters. The dialogue, especially among unit members, is not realistic at all. Sorry, but you can’t write this much Army infantry dialogue and be even a little bit realistic without multiple f-bombs, just not possible.

There are other problems with the book not worth mentioning – read the three star and below reviews at Amazon to get an idea. Overall of little or no value to survivalists. If you’re a zombie junkie, you can probably ignore the stilted dialogue and enjoy the gore.

Book Review: The Last Centurion

The Last Centurion (2008) by John Ringo is set in 2017-2021. The narrative is first person “blog style” by a U.S. infantry officer who goes by “Bandit Six” (nickname and the “six” indicates he had a command) stationed in Iran.

The plot: when a deadly flue pandemic strikes the world – 30-60% or more mortality depending on the area – almost all U.S. forces worldwide are called back to the U.S. to help prevent a collapse. At the same time a global cooling cycle sets in that reduces harvests and causes a couple years of global famine.

For survivalists this book sort of rides the fence due to what IMO is a major flaw in the premise; fiftyish percent mortality with many more sick and away from work for days or weeks doesn’t cause the U.S. to collapse. I throw the BS flag on that. It’s convenient for the storyline, but completely unrealistic.

Given the description of the pandemic, there is no way fuel, rail, power, comms, etc. would still be up. At one point CONUS military bases are said to still have power and so be preferred places to live. Problem is almost all bases are on grid power, with generator fuel for only days and maybe weeks. Small detail overall, except to survivalist.

Although I belong to another service, I worked with Army folks for nearly 20 years and can tell you he absolutely nailed the way Army officers talk. It’s an organizational culture thing, could probably cut out a few dozen pages if the f-bomb was scrubbed from the book. Anyway, the author got the Army-speak and organization right as far as I can tell.

Read the Amazon reviews, most of the negative ones are left-wingers all ass hurt about what the book says of their views. Ringo does get into somewhat boring detail in some political and other areas, and a pandemic plus global cooling is probably unlikely, but the military action is pretty good. If the lack of apocalypse when there should be one doesn’t put you off, it’s a good read.