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18 Comments

  1. I totally agree. I’d read some of the older “apocalyptic” novels such as “Lucifer’s Hammer”, “The Stand”, “The Postman” etc., more current ones such as the “Die’s the Fire” series, “One Second After” etc, and then I discovered the mother-lode on Twitter Unlimited! I was living overseas with minimal access to books written in English when I signed up for a free trial of Twitter Unlimited. Much to my surprise, a lot of the writing on offer there had improved immensely since the last time I’d tried out this service. And to my great delight, there were now tons of “prepper”, “survivalist” “apocalyptic” themed books on offer.

    I started downloading as many as allowed and read my way through series after series. The quality varied, with some stand-out authors that wrote engaging books with well developed characters filled with info on preparedness. Some authors admitted that this was indeed a primary reason for writing these books, to impart useful info that could be life saving to their readers.

    Other authors were not as much fun(or useful) to read. I usually characterized those books as fitting in this category when in the opening first couple of paragraphs the power went out, dad(or mom) was far from home and the locals started savaging each other on the highway and looting the stores in the first hour!

    Reading them though gave me the chance to think about what seemed most likely to happen. Did I really believe that other than in certain neighborhoods where power failures always lead to looting, would everyone go nuts like this immediately?

    Thinking about the characters preps was also useful. Issues with the neighbors. FEMA and other government “assistance”. What did they do right or wrong?

    It can be daunting as I know that I’ll never have the level of preps that some of the best prepared characters had but still, on a continuum between the totally unprepared and those set to last for 10 years in their bunker, I have an idea where I’d like to and on that spectrum, given the realities of personal finances, etc. Sadly though, few are written from a woman’s perspective.

    So yeah, I concur that reading these books is a useful endeavor. And that there has been a proliferation of these books in the past few years tells me that others are finding them useful as well.

  2. I was in the US Army Special Forces decades ago. We would have our deployment kits set out for different areas of the world (Jungle, Dessert, Winter, Urban, etc) but we would rehearse different possible situations. We’d speculate “what if” situations and then plan, practice, modify, practice, etc. until we were comfortable our responses were appropriate for success. It was effective. Thanks for posting.

  3. Concur, I use disaster themed books and movies to expand my range of responses.

    On a related note. After travelling across most of America and back this summer, it struck me as to how many round bales of hay are lying in fields on farms and whether they would provide a method to improve the fallout radiation dose absorbed in the tornado shelter in a frame farmhouse.

    For example, if Farmer A stacked two rows of round bales against the frame house, stacked from ground level to roof level, as soon as hearing that fallout was coming, would the eight feet of hay absorb sufficient gamma radiation coming into the house horizontally to make a difference?

    Clearly most frame houses couldn’t handle the weight of round bales placed on the roof, or inside on the second floor, but they might handle square bales.

    Any EEs out there want to model the question and provide a calculated P factor?

    1. Oldparatrooper ,,,,,,,,not a good idea to use round bales that way ,,,.or hay in general ,,too high a fire risk ,gamma would be over before you would have a chance to move things ,the risk would be Alfa and beta from fallout in the long term ,a wash down system on the house would be of more value ,most A@B has a short reach ,a few feet to inches ,get it off the roof and stay in the center of the house would be your best chance ,
      If gamma is a concern move out of the target zone,if you can see the blast and flash you will get gamma no way around it

      1. Fallout particles do indeed emit gamma radiation, otherwise fallout shelters wouldn’t need any significant mass.

        If you are vulnerable to the blast and flash, you are too close to build a field expedient shelter after the blast. But for those in the fallout shadow, especially from a counterforce strike against the Minuteman III missile fields, you may have 24 to 48 hours before the fallout arrives. These are the farmers in the Upper Midwest that would benefit from using round bales to add additional mass to their houses.

        As for fire risk, sure, hay burns. But the majority of fires caused by a ground burst will be in the immediate vicinity of the blast itself. The Minuteman III fields were purposely built in low density population areas and the silo areas themselves provide little in the way of burnables, mostly a few outbuildings and grass. So minimal embers to drift, especially when compared to a city.

  4. re:
    creating fictions

    In goofball-central Eugene Oregon, we have the authors’ group WordCrafters. Several times a month, we exchange manuscripts so fresh eyes can destroy our ‘cherished beliefs’ (brought to life in the form of our fictional characters and their situations).

    Also, I’m using Self Authorship, the program developed by Jordan Peterson and crew. This encourages me to ‘re-write’ my history, a new script giving me power over those situations I thought I performed the role of victim.

    The up-side?
    These two tools give me the idea I am incredibly capable based on my incredible imagination… and maybe I am!
    .
    .
    PS:
    For any single gentlemen with a writing interest near Eugene Oregon, WoodCrafters is 95% single wimmen folk. Just sayin’…

  5. All good points.

    On the flip side however are the terrible ideas that have been propagated via survival fiction. Such as: Handwarmers instead of actual oxygen absorbers, using ridiculous stuff like 2 liter bottles for long term storage of grains as well as the big one: the ludicrous idea that you can be the one prepared person in your subdivision and the whole group of unprepared citizens will rally to you as the vaunted “savior of the subdivision”. Get out of town with that cr*p! It’s male fantasy nonsense by people that don’t want to make the true LIFESTYLE CHANGES necessary for serious survival- getting away from the cities, getting in shape, training regularly, etc.

    Unfortunately the preparedness movement has changed a lot in the last 3+ decades I’ve been involved in it. Now people make “lists” of cr*p they are never going to do, never going to buy and think preparedness is just an extended shopping trip to fulfill their OCD demons… It’s not everybody but it tends to fit a LOT of “preppers” nowadays.

    1. That is a great comment, Robert!
      Some authors propose not only terrible ideas but dangerous ones as well. One of the most prolific survival fiction authors succeeded in convincing scores of unfit preppers that it was plausible to carry a 60-80lb bug out bag packed with everything but the kitchen sink for 200+ miles. Ironically, that same author was unable to last more than 48 hours on the survival reality show “Alone” using gear that, for the most part, he chose.
      After 10+ years of prepping and reading survival fiction, JWR’s novels have no equal in the fiction/instruction manual department. If I were to recommend something for pure entertainment value, James Howard Kunstler’s “A World Made by Hand” series is probably one of the best ever written.

      1. Just a suggestion for useful information.

        On a BOB, go to the hiking community. I only get a few hikes a year in but some of these guys are out every weekend. They know the best containers and bags, just add your firearm and bush-crafting kits to the bag.

        On a BOV, the overlanding community is great. Also your local off-road clubs know the best places to go. I found a sought after trail close to home thanks to some locals. It was more than anything ill need to conquer. Also remember an easy trail to them might be epic in your Humble grocery getting suburban. (so fun).

        My only caveat is all hobbies, prepping, bushcraft, camping, hiking and overlanding are way over commercialized. I used to use youtube allot but its getting unbearable. Your better off finding a local group because it will help get you out there. Nope they dont have to know your planning on bugging out but they can help you get to that 15 mile a day hike. You get to use your gear and make some friends. Also got deeper in a trail then i wanted and a nice couple helped guide me out.

  6. Depending on circumstances and how I’ve “read” individuals after speaking with them a few times I have on a number of occasions suggested JWR’s book Patriots as something they may want to purchase and read. This serves several purposes, including an opportunity for some insight in to the type of individuals and families to determine who would either already be prepping, those that would step up to start prepping or to those that would do nothing and plan to have someone else take care of them. Some time ago I gave copies of Patriots to those I though may be potential preppers, but many of those books were never read, so after a while I learned that if someone actually orders the book, that action identifies them as likely someone willing to take responsibility and someone I want to know better. It also allows me do distance myself from those that don’t want to accept responsibility before they decide the best course of action is to “come to our place”.. Another purpose is the incredible amount of tactical information that is presented in the book and the opportunity to discuss it to further get to know each other better. During our prep group meetings we typically discuss a chapter of interest to member(s) or a chapter that is pertinent to what the group is currently focusing on. There are just so many ways that the books mentioned in other posts/responses can be utilized beyond just reading.

  7. I read pretty much all the fiction on Kindle Unlimited since it’s free. There are many good authors out there that write in practical tips for many facets of survival that can be helpful. From how to make a smokeless fire to designing defensive positions and early warning systems.

    Rarely do I read one of the many books out there and not learn something. Their is quite a plethora of books on Amazon that deal with everything from Solar disasters to man made ones covering pretty much anything you can imagine.

  8. I sometimes enjoy PAW fiction. But many times, the ‘hero’ has unlimited money to spend on preps, the inverse of my situation. I recently read a story by Jerry D. Young, which I thought was a more effective strategy. The hero did EVERYTHING wrong. He spent his last money on booze, not food, he drove a gas-guzzling sports car, he was the poster boy for unpreparedness. But it effectively showed what to do- the opposite of what he did.

  9. I’ve recently read, and re-read, The Killswitch Chronicles, by (?) Carter, which I found through PamsPrideRecommendations. It’s an ebook, and touches on a cooling climate, a nefarious plan to isolate the rural folks, and a society totally dependent (and controlled) by a networked worldwide computer system. It goes over the ‘reset’, the consequences, but then goes beyond to long term issues of different methods of government, religion, and rebuilding technology. Not so much a detailed how-to for surviving an immediate collapse, but food for thought for the long term.

  10. I wrote 2 dystopian fiction books a few years ago. I can’t tell you how many people have come to me after reading them and asked questions about preparedness. The most common comment was, “I never thought about that!”

    Just thankful it helped some people think a little outside the box about ‘what if’. Even had some teachers using the books to talk to students about what they thought would happen if our government, as we see it today, were to ever experience an economic collapse.

    If anyone is interested, the titles are FINDING HOME, A PLACE OF SAFETY and FLEEING HOME, FOR SAFETY’S SAKE.

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