Survivors by James Wesley, Rawles
“I implore you: Get right with God, and get your Beans, Bullets, and Band-Aids together! Our only certain hope is in Christ Jesus.” – James Wesley, Rawles
WHAT IF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT ENDED TOMORROW?
The America we are accustomed to is no more. Practically overnight the stock market has plummeted, hyperinflation has crippled commerce, and the fragile chains of supply and high-technology infrastructure have fallen. The power grids are down. Brutal rioting and looting grip every major city. The volatile era known as “the Crunch” has begun, and this new period in our history will leave no one untouched. In this unfamiliar environment, only a handful of individuals are equipped to survive.
Andrew Laine, a resourceful young U.S. Army officer stationed overseas in Afghanistan, wants nothing more than to return home to Bloomfield, New Mexico. With the world in turmoil and all air and sea traffic to America suspended, Laine must rely on his own ingenuity and the help of good Samaritans to reach his family. Andrew will do whatever it takes to make it home to his fiancée, no matter how difficult the circumstances.
Major Ian Doyle is a U.S. Air Force pilot sta-tioned in Arizona with his wife, Blanca. Their young daughter, Linda, is trapped in the North- eastern riots. Three teenage orphans, Shadrach, Reuben, and Matthew Phelps, have no choice but to set out on their own when their orphanage closes at the beginning of the Crunch. Then there is Ignacio Garcia, the ruthless leader of the criminal gang called La Fuerza, who will stop at nothing to amass an army capable of razing the countryside. And over everything looms the threat of a provisional government, determined to take over America and destroy the freedoms upon which it was built. The world of Survivors is a terrifyingly familiar one. Rawles has written a novel so close to the truth, readers will forget it’s fiction. If everything you thought you knew suddenly fell apart, would you survive?
I found this book kind of hard to get into. This is no reflection upon the story or the author – I believe it’s just my personal taste in novels.
I’m not a big fan of novels with a lot of military scenes. I can read war/military scenes in books, but, usually, when that’s the main focus of the story, I find my mind wandering. The terminology, the stuff happening, sounds foreign to me and it’s hard for me to get into that type of setting. For example, I didn’t know what a magazine (I’m not talking about a monthly/weekly publication)was, I had to stop and look it up. I’m just not that familiar with war and military settings and lingo and I have to think too hard when I read books with too many of these types of scenes. However, I did find the premise of the story to be intriguing.
One interesting aspect that I found was that one of the characters was maimed in the war. It bothers him when people stare at his prosthetic hand and when they stare at the scars on his face. A stranger notices him, and guesses that he was hurt in the war and he thanks him for his service. I found that scene particularly touching. I don’t think we thank our military enough for all that they do for our country.
I could imagine a lot of males enjoying this book, and I did think the story was well-written. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.
Many thanks to Simon and Schuster for providing me with this free review copy.
Have you read this book, if so, what did you think of it?