"Patriots" by James Rawles is not a new book. It first appeared on the web for free under the title TEOTWAWKI and has been updated and expanded on a bit. Its the epitome of the paranoid, gun worshiping, bunker survival style.

It is considered by some to be a survival manual but it might more properly be termed adolescent action hero gun-porn because the focus is clearly on using violence to solve problems.

The secondary characters serve to demonstrate the superiority of the protagonist by acting as victims, object lessons warning of what happens to people who aren't armed to the teeth and paranoid, or predatory vermin to be destroyed. The protagonist shows equal measures of depraved indifference and contempt for both.

Great amounts of text are used to describe the weapons and their effects. Think Mad Max with fewer cars if Max spent half the movie describing his weaponry. The writing lacks both the redeeming social value and subtle character development of Mad Max. It is not high literature but it is a fun read as long as you understand that it is a caricature of conflict and just a step above a comic book. The comic book having an edge because it doesn't pretend to be realistic.

It really doesn't have much to say about actual survival in any realistic sense. If you want to understand survivalism, the caricature of practical real world survival you will at some time need to read Patriots.

But then lay most of what it says aside as childish and understand that violence and firearms as weapons are the smallest, and often the least important part of practical survival. That the vast majority of survival is a boring test of endurance and heroic action is a sign of a lack of planning and preparedness.