Urban Survival Book Review - One, by Conrad Williams

Since there are no real life Surviving the Collapse scenarios, other than short term disaster type situations and perhaps wilderness survival circumstances, we are regulated to reading fictional accounts of TEOTEAWKI/SHTF.

I read them these Post Collapse - Survival books as they serve a good purpose to the Survival Preparing community to present us with situations and examples for us to think about, learn from, plan for, ultimately prepare for if they are good, valid lessons.

In that vein, I ordered and recently finished the post apocalypse book "One – by Conrad Williams".

This book starts with an event, left identified, but similar to a nuclear holocaust or maybe even a meteor strike which find the main character Richard Jane barely surviving his deep sea diving job and intent on getting to London to find his 5 year old son and estranged wife.

This novel about post apocalypse in England is more of a tale of human suffering, both physical and emotional, with very little lessons to be learned or to be wargamed by today’s Survivor Preppers, other than to just prepare.

I had to struggle to get through the book and half way through, without so much as a tag line or date, the novel shifts to 10 years in the future with Richard still searching for his son and people eating bits and scraps of what has been left....until a crop of Zombie like, flesh eating creatures (called Skinners) start to appear and become a large threat.

This may good a decent novel for those you who like to read Sci-Fi type Monster stories, but not for the serious Survival Prepper trying to embed himself into a survival situation for lessons learned and wargaming problems presented. This book is like The Road, where the only lesson is the lesson to prepare well in the first place....maybe that's the lesson and I just couldn't see.

Book Review - Financial Armageddon, by Michael J. Panzner

Full Book Title: Financial Armageddon: Protect Your Future from Economic Collapse, by Michael J. Panzner

Financial Armageddon depicts a disturbing collapse of the U.S economy plunging us all into a very dire Survival Scenario. Michael Panzner takes financial gogbbledegook and makes it understandable for all. It is pessimistic and predicts hyper-inflation, a terrible depression and other very bad scenarios. And this was in 2006 when he finished the book, with an update in 2008. None of the things that have happened since have basically affected how the book was written, but present day events will certainly correlate what he predicts.

This book is really depressing, however realistic. If the crash comes like Panzner predicts it will be a horrible event. Urban Survival Skills.com believes this is the most likely Urban Survival scenario.

Panzner does provide some preparation guidelines so people can prepare themselves financially. This book “worst cases” a total economic breakdown making each of us on our own. Pensions, be it social security, private or governmental just may not be there. How can it with the U.S. falling steeply into debt?

Read this book, understand the possibilities of several scenarios, all not good at all, and come away better informed and with a will to prepare much better.

Publisher: Kaplan Publishing; Revised edition (May 6, 2008); ISBN-10: 1427797412; ISBN-13: 978-1427797414

Book Review – Patriots by James Wesley, Rawles

There are many “survival” themed books both in and out of print. James Wesley, Rawles’ Patriots: A Novel of Survival in The Coming Collapse is by far one of the best in this genre. The story has gone through several iterations, starting in an online format titled The Gray Nineties. The current book, available at both your local bookstores as well as Amazon through our link below, is the latest update to the original story line. Bottom line - this is highly recommended reading.
The story follows a group of friends who while in college start the nucleus of a survival group. This is not a book on how to grow your own food, how to select a piece of land in an appropriate survival location, how to build your own fortifications to strengthen your house, how to develop an early warning sentry system for your property, how to perform small unit tactical movements, how to select equipment for and outfit a survival group, or how to do countless other survival-related tasks. This is a novel which just happens to serve as an “how to” for all the above, and much more.
The story begins with economic collapse (a scenario we think is the most likely cause of any future anarchy and chaos). At this time the group had been preparing for numerous survival scenarios for a lengthy period of time. When the stock market collapses and hyperinflation kicks in, the group comes together in a prepared location in the mountains of Idaho. The story progresses from an everyday normal life to the complete disintegration of our society. While this is transpiring, the story follows the characters through all of the situations the they have to deal with; traveling to the retreat, fortifying the retreat, growing food, developing and manning watch schedules, repelling aggressors, coordinating with locals, etc…


With the latest release, there are some editing errors that will be rather obvious. However if you read the book with the mindset of reading for increasing your knowledge of survival preparedness instead of escaping into a wonderful world of fiction in order to escape your real world, then you won’t be able to put the book down. We recommend reading with a yellow legal pad and a couple pens and highlighters nearby; this will be one of those books with all kinds of notes in the margins.
I have personally purchased close to 20 copies of this book over the years and given them away to friends and family. Some have laughed at me, some never read it, but there have been a couple individuals who have read this book and completely changed their outlook on living and what is important to them; to the point of relocating their families out of large cities and bringing their extended families and in-laws with them.
Wherever you are on the preparedness path, you will learn something new from this book.
Publisher: Ulysses Press, (April 7, 2009); ISBN-10: 156975599X;
ISBN-13: 978-156975599