Review: Very Good Heavy-Handed Prepper Authored Fiction
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 24, 2014
I think that opening the story with a discussion on ways to shoot off-calibers from your carbine rifles was interesting.  Anyone getting past the first couple pages is certainly on notice that this story will be heading in a very specific direction and is not shy about being heavy-handed in it's approach.  Nothing wrong with that.I like that the author discusses simple preps like non-fiat currency and a food plan.  While the author does note that he eats ramen to save money, and "home brews root beer" (can you even do that?), he discusses growing fruit trees and setting up a "vertical aquaponics" setup.  The author slips in a lot of prepper lifestyle stuff like keeping a "utility bag"/"go bag" at work, choosing non-flashy vehicles, and the struggle to maintain a budget to buy things over time.  The author also addresses the difficulty of finding a like-minded prepper spouse, both in the protagonists situation and by identifying how other married characters react and interact.  (I do tire a bit of prepper stories where every leading-lady ends up being a dependable supermodel who obediently follows and learns quickly how to survive by learning from her man... most people (women) I know do not like being told what to do by their man, are not supermodels, and the good ones are already taken (if they are prepper material, they are likely also good everyday wife material).I will readily admit that this book falls into the class of books my friends refer to as prepper-porn, but it does a decent job discussing the oft neglected topics of security and community solidarity.  Also, the author emphasizes the difference between buying guns and becoming a vandal (look up the origin of this word sometime) and being a law-abiding individual who is prepared for different contingencies.  That brings me to my final positive regarding this book; the nature of the emergency was not important to the story... one could just as easily substitute economic collapse, EMP, outbreak, etc. and still have essentially the same story.Hopefully this author makes some good $$$ on this book and has time to write another; next time, I'd like to see a little more length and supporting character development; it would be good if the author had individuals other than the "hero" contributing skills and good ideas.  Also, I'm hoping that his protagonist is not ex-military; while I enjoy those stories, and am a vet, 99% of the population has never served in the military and most preppers are not military.  It would be good to acknowledge that they won't be useless when bad things happen.