Survivors

I just finished reading Survivorsby James Wesley, Rawles. Yes, that’s his name: James Wesley Comma Rawles. He’s a former-military, conservative Christian, survivalist blogger/author/consultant.

It was very disappointing. I bought this book mainly because I liked the cover-art and the description suggested a slightly different story than what I got.

It kept me reading, because from the beginning there was a sense that something big and awful, perhaps awesome, was going to happen. It took a long time setting it up, which only increased the tension. But the closer I got to the end, the less I liked it. There was never a pay-off—no truly big, exciting episode, and no real ending. Also close to the end, the author introduces new characters that seemed as though they should’ve been someone we met before, and there was a several-page episode with new characters in a new location that never reappeared nor had anything to do with any other characters.

There was one character who at the beginning was a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan and who worked his way back home. Along the way he kept encountering people who spoke pretty-good English. So that was a big help. Plus all the gold and silver coins he happened to have hidden away.

Basically this book was just a description of how several (presumably fictional) characters and their families survived an economic collapse—mostly because they were prepared ahead of time with a lot of guns and ammunition, as well as gold and silver coins stored up in readiness for such a collapse. It included a lot of description of guns and other equipment. Also prayer and Bible verses, but certainly nothing that really indicated “God” actually exists or was listening or helping them out. 

I think it was shelved in the sci-fi/fantasy section of some bookstore. But it should’ve been in the Christian fiction section, if there was one.