Doomer Porn Reviews
Norm Olson
A new book by James Wesley, Rawles will be hitting the shelves later this week
You may want to get a first printing copy. See the info at:
Also,
My son, Kirk, is a masterful prepper and a well-read survivalist. He also provides book reviews
on the internet. Here are some of his reviews of books in print. I urge everyone to start
reading and building a library of good "how-to" books.
Regards,
Norm
There is a
rich sub-genre of sci-fi called "Post-Apocalyptic Fiction". Repeatedly mined for
movie ideas, the style is also a fertile ground for those among us who strive to
be ready for whatever Big Bad Thing is coming our way. These survivalists like
to call themselves "Preppers" because of their single-minded focus on
preparedness. Non-survivalists tend to view these folks as major downers who are
pessimistic in the extreme. Preppers want the Big Bad Thing to be as big and as
bad as possible, sort of like a Boy Scout challenge, to separate the real men
from the posers. As a non-survivalist with strong survivalist-sympathetic
tendencies, I half-jokingly refer to Preppers as "Doomers". Here is a depression
dozen (eleven) of the sort of books they like to read for tips, for education,
or just for fun. "Doomer Porn" if you will. 
Alas, Babylon - Pat Frank
I won't
make you read to the end to find to best book on this list - here it is. One of
the first works of post-apocalyptic fiction written during the nuclear age,
"Alas, Babylon"
pulls no punches. The Cold War goes hot and the human race is wiped out in a
blaze of megatonnage. What makes this book so interesting and useful to the
Prepper is the way it chronicles how small town America survives
the worst effects and continues a basic day-to-day existence on ingenuity and
stamina alone. If you've ever wondered what Wally and The Beav would do for fun
in the absence of electricity, gasoline, and all other trappings of late-50's
civilization, this is the book for you.
Literary value: B
Fun Factor:
A
Prepper Rating: A+
Earth Abides - George Stewart
For a while
there it seemed as if the nukes didn't kill us, some horrible disease would. And
not some germ from outer space (ala "The Andromeda Strain") or a weaponized
virus (ala "I Am Legend") either. How about the good old flu? Did you know that
a worldwide influenza pandemic killed 50-100 million people in the early part of
the 20th century? Something similar happens at the beginning of "Earth Abides"
killing over 95% of the population of the U.S. The
survivors band together and rebuild society over the course of several
generations. Gripping stuff, beautifully written. Not much here for Preppers
except good advice on how to pick through and live off the remains of grocery
stores, libraries, and car dealerships...oh, and a really handy use for all your
worthless pocket change.
Literary value: A
Fun Factor: B
Prepper
Rating: B
Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
This time
it's a killer rock from space. Not quite an "extinction-level" event but pretty
darn close. Again, the survivors band together and fight off marauding packs of
cannibal-zombie savages. A neat little tip of the hat to nuclear power about
half way through livens up an otherwise technology-sparse pro-technology sci-fi
novel. Warning: after the asteroid hits, there will be mud, LOTS of mud. A good
Prepper might want to plan some strategies now on how to deal with that (in
addition to stockpiling the usual canned food, batteries, and
ammo).
Literary value: B-
Fun Factor: A
Prepper Rating:
B+
The Postman - David Brin
Forget the
movie, it cannot touch the book. This time civilization flames out in a vaguely
nuclear/bioweaponish apocalyptic scenario. The survivors band together and duke
it out for supremacy over what little is left. The twist? This time the Preppers
are the bad guys! Morale of the story here is: hypersurvivalists are the fascist
stormtroopers of the post-apocalyptic wasteland. The conceit very nearly works
too, with plenty of gentle humanistic touches and anti-technology themes. Even
if you've already seen the film, give the book a try. It might change your
opinion of survivalists.
Literary value: B
Fun Factor: B
Prepper
Rating: C
Farnham's Freehold - Robert Heinlein
Heinlein
never met a sci-fi sub-genre he didn't like and often mixed a few together for
fun. This one has it all: nuclear armageddon, bridge parties, fall-out shelters,
and reversed racism. A family is blown into the future by a near-miss of a
massive warhead. They survive in a pristine wilderness with their intact, fully
stocked fallout shelter until their capture and enslavement by black Muslims. It
all turns out well though, after many signature Heinlein flourishes of dark
humor. Hilarious, masterful sci-fi from a true craftsman.
Literary value:
B
Fun Factor: A
Prepper Rating: A
On The Beach - Nevil Shute
If you
watched the Mad Max movies, you already know that Australia is the
place to be when it all hits the fan. The crew of a US nuclear
submarine find that out the hard way. They continue a dogged search for life
elsewhere on the planet but eventually resign themselves to the good life
(albeit post-apocalyptic) down under until even that becomes untenable. Bleak
baby bleak. But romantic too. The old guy who races his Formula One Ferrari with
the last of the gasoline is a hoot. You gotta hand it to those Aussies, always
poking death in the eye with a stick.
Literary value: B
Fun Factor:
C+
Prepper Rating: B
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
One of the
great books of ANY genre not just post-apoc sci-fi, "The Road" is simultaneously
haunting, unforgettable, and enigmatic. The world is wiped out (although we get
no clues as to how it happened). A man and his young son trudge through the
ashes in a heroic attempt to reach the sea. Why the sea? Again, no clue is
offered. But it seems to be the only direction for survivors to trudge, so we go
with it. Lots of horrible things happen on the way there and, even after the
pair arrive, the nightmare continues unabated. Right down to the grisly finale.
This is a grim book on the surface. But one that, when you read deeper into it,
reveals that our humanity and our basic sense of decency are all we really
"own". A transcendental masterpiece.
Literary value: A
Fun Factor:
D
Prepper Rating: B
The Children Of Men - P.D. James
Here's a
neat variation: the human race doesn't get snuffed out all at once but slowly,
over the course of a few generations. Babies stop being born. The population
ages and slowly dies off. Government scrambles to deal with the massive
breakdown in public order that this causes. OK, strictly speaking, this is a
novel from the dystopian fiction subgenre and doesn't belong on this list. I
include it only because it forces a reconsideration of the Prepper ethos. What
if life goes on for all of us after the Big Bad Thing happens (in this case, a
perplexing and universal reproductive sterility) but in such a painfully
distorted way that we lose the will to proceed? Survivalist and Prepper are moot
positions in that event. I'll admit it's a lot to digest, but I think it's
important to point out that there are some doomsday scenarios that won't be made
less painful by a cabin full of pork'n'beans, bullets, and batteries. Oh, and
I'm sure that by now I need not tell you to avoid the film. Not only is it a
messy approximation of the novel, but it completely misses the
point.
Literary value: A
Fun Factor: C-
Prepper Rating:
D
Damnation Alley - Roger Zelazny
Our hero
sets out an a cross-country road trip from LA to Boston in a super-survivable
armored car on a mission to deliver a much-needed vaccine against a plague that
is wiping out the remaining survivors on the US East Coast. What's he got to
deal with? Mile-wide radioactive craters, mutant beasts, hurricane force
windstorms, and more. Sound like fun?
Literary value: C-
Fun Factor:
A
Prepper Rating: C
A Canticle For Leibowitz - Walter Miller
Here's
another fantastic book for any genre. Technically post-apoc sci-fi, but
transcendent in so many ways. Set 600 years after a nuclear holocaust and during
a self-imposed Dark Age, it is a tale of an obscure monastic order in southern
Utah that is
struggling to preserve relics from the earlier civilization. In this case, a
fragment of a shopping list and a sketched circuit diagram. Lose yourself in the
minutiae of the workings of an Abbey, the Catholic Church, etc. and the book
will rescue you with its regular interruptions to jump the story forward a few
hundred years at a time. Gradually you realize that history is cyclical and we
are doomed to keep making the same mistakes over again. By the time you reach
the last page, you will want to start again at the beginning. Yes, this is one
of those rare books that stands up well to repeated readings. I've probably read
it four or five times myself!
Literary value: A
Fun Factor:
A-
Prepper Rating: C
Warday - Whitley Strieber & James
Kunetka
Here's a
typical story (nuclear conflagration at the end of the Cold War) told in a new
way. It reads like a magazine article but is packed with charts - mostly
gruesome ones covering things like fallout patterns and megadeaths by state.
While writing sci-fi like a journalist may seem inventive, the overall effect is
a watered down plot. Too many details, not enough story. But you'll think you've
earned college credit by the time you're finished.
Literary value:
B
Fun Factor: C-
Prepper Rating: B-
One Second After - William
Forstchen
Do you ever
wish someone would update "Alas Babylon" and set it in the present day? Someone
HAS! One small change to the plot replaces strategic 20-megaton nukes with much
smaller ones that produce grid-frying EMP when detonated at a high altitude.
Don't know what EMP is? READ THIS BOOK. Another small change moves our small
town north from Florida to North Carolina. Other
than that, "One Second After" is every bit the equal of that earlier classic of
doomer porn.
Literary value: B-
Fun Factor: B+
Prepper Rating:
A
Patriots - James Wesley Rawles
Of all the
books on this list, "Patriots" is likely the most polarizing. Having discovered
Rawles through his wildly popular survivalblog.com, I knew exactly what I was
getting when I opened this book. To the uninitiated, page-long descriptions of
how to modify the sear in an AR15, set up an ambush, or wire a field phone
network might induce much sleepiness. For the prepper, this stuff is the hardest
of the hard core doomer porn. OK, on to the plot. The financial system collapses
and hyperinflation wipes out the US economy over the course of a few
months. A band of preppers, who saw it coming a decade in advance, "bug out" to
their preselected rally point in Idaho farm country. There, they set up a
self-sufficient defensible commune and gradually reach out to neighboring
villages to form...well, I can't give it all away now, can I? Suffice it to say,
"militia" is not a dirty word in this book (like it was in "The Postman"). A
militia really is just an armed Neighborhood Watch when you come right down to
it. And, after you read "Patriots", you just might wish you had one
around!
Literary value: C
Fun Factor: A
Prepper Rating:
A+