Dear Sir:
Recently I acquired a copy of your novel “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse”. I have read a few works of survivalist fiction in my time, your book is one of the few that I could honestly say I would be happy to read again and again. There aren’t many books I could say that about
A little background here, I’m a former Royal Marine originally from England and now I live in Northern Ireland. There isn’t much of a survivalist movement here in the UK so I consider myself to be in a minority! I also write survival manuals in my spare time (which I don’t have much of lately) and I follow the word of the bible regarding preparing for the unforeseen. Far too often I have watched the news of some disaster and seen people stood with their hands out begging for help and expecting it from the government. Last year there was widespread flooding in the South of England, and I recall seeing several people on the news complaining that they had no clean drinking water. If I had been in this situation, I have about 200 gallons of potable water in store, and then I also have something like a years supply of purifying tablets, and a number of filters. When those run out, its the old fashioned way, boiling.
I grew up in an ethnically diverse community, and went to school with Asian, Oriental and Afro-Caribbean kids, so its quite refreshing to see you have added a blend of races in the characters. All too often, survivalists are labeled ‘Racist’, ‘Anti-semitic’, or ‘White Supremacist’. Your character ‘Kevin Lendel’ reminded me somewhat of the character Paul Rubenstein in ‘The Survivalist‘ series of novels, [by Jerry Ahern] which were in fact the first survivalist fiction I ever read.
I found the information in the book to be quite useful and it has taken me in new directions with regard to my supplies and techniques. Some of the gear your characters store is however pretty hard to come by in the UK. When reading of the guys using ALICE packs, this brought back memories of the ALICE pack I used to have a few years ago, and I spent most of the next few days on eBay trying to find a large one in a usable condition. Now I’ve found one, I just need to get the cash together to buy it. Best wishes, – Steve