Urban Survival Book Review - American Apocalypse

Fiction books on Surviving the Collapse, a la “Patriots”, “One Second After”, “Lights Out”, and a host of maybe lesser known novels all serve to present us with problems that we surmise would be common or probable in a Survival environment.

The series “American Apocalypse” is such a story. Set around the Nation’s Capital this story picks up well into a gradual economic collapse where there are designated security zones separating the “haves” from the “have nots”.

What makes the scenario of this novel realistic is the host of reports that have recently came out warning of a disappearance of the Middle Class, see this article here.

The first book, “The Beginning” involves a decreasingly un-safe Urban Survival situations with conditions deteriorating from increasingly harder to get commodities and lack of security outside of the secured zone of Washington D.C. Some elements of normalcy exist with a fluctutating levels of sporadic electrical power and access to the internet, but inter-mixed with gang activity and murders among the mostly empty urban multi-story buildings of highly vacant urban area, and draconian government response to food riots.

The second volume picks up with the core characters leaving town heading to a rural interim safe position. The skilled Survivalist will recognize many bad habits and errors as the core group move overland, like a long range patrol in denied enemy terrain, as they move towards a safe area.

After arrival in a small town, the core characters face problems dealing with organizing the community for basic law enforcement and security; dealing with some hostile actions of competing groups.

The big lesson learned from my reading and observations was the failure of the characters to start developing a food supply through farming to supplement the meager food they had or what came in on increasingly rare shipments. This lack of plot line reminded me of “One Second After” where it took the surviving townspeople some time before they planted crops and tried to develop or barter for a livestock herd.

All in all I recommend these novels because I think they realistically portray what is going to happen in either a sudden or gradual economic collapse with the Urban areas becoming increasingly violent and essential tip over when utilities (water and power) and food shortages become critical short or non-existent. The flood of refugees out of the urban areas are going to massive. Imagine 6 million folks (or more) exiting the major Washington D.C. area. If you are in an urban area, you need to have a plan and make a decision before your Bug Out options are closed off to you. Plan, Prepare, Procure and Survive. Be decisive, as an 80% solution executed in a timely manner is always better than a 99% solution executed too late.