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SHTF reading

P-14 said:
When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth, by Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow is going to be a speaker at Liberty Forum in February:

http://freestateproject.org/libertyforum


ETA Fiction: Enemies Foreign and Domestic Trilogy. Books 2 and 3 are SHTF stories. But, read Book 1 first! These are great stories written by Matthew Bracken.

Book 1: Enemies Foreign and Domestic
Book 2: Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista
Book 3: Foreign Enemies and Traitors
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Someone in another thread linked to the free excerpts on Bracken's website. I devoured those, then bought Kindle versions of all his books and am sucking them in as fast as I can.

Aside from the timeliness given the current "assault weapon" hysteria, and aside from the fact that he knows what he's talking about, he's also just a damn good writer.

I highly recommend Matt Bracken not just as a SHTF/TEOTWAWKI/guns writer, but as an entertaining storyteller.
 
KBCraig said:
Cory Doctorow is going to be a speaker at Liberty Forum in February:

http://freestateproject.org/libertyforum



Someone in another thread linked to the free excerpts on Bracken's website. I devoured those, then bought Kindle versions of all his books and am sucking them in as fast as I can.

Aside from the timeliness given the current "assault weapon" hysteria, and aside from the fact that he knows what he's talking about, he's also just a damn good writer.

I highly recommend Matt Bracken not just as a SHTF/TEOTWAWKI/guns writer, but as an entertaining storyteller.
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I have the kindle versions of books 1 and 3. If anyone has any interest I can "share" either (or both). I think it's a two-week "share", but not sure. pm me if you want to read it/them.
 
I stumbled on this one while looking for Kindle books:

Collapse (New America-Book One): Richard Stephenson, Susan Hughes, LLPix Photography: Amazon.com: Kindle Store

I am about halfway through it, and it is really good. The Amazon description called it 'Book One', so I assume there will be a series. I think this is the only one out so far.

There are several story lines, including some major hurricane damage, attacks on D.C., prisoners in CA, and a crazy Howard Hughes type in CO. Some pretty good storytelling that really pulls you in.
 
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

This book was an interesting, true and funny account of Bill Bryson's hiking the AT. There are some SHTF considerations that can be learned from his adventure: Animals in the woods, other hikers (good and bad), getting lost, eating noodles for every meal, etc. Sounds like Timber's adventure on the AT last summer!

Near the beginning of the trek, Katz decides that is pack is too heavy and starts tossing the food in the woods. Later, they decide that this was probably not a good thing.
A Walk in the Woods is a travel memoir on the Appalachian Trail, one of America's greatest hiking routes. The author, Bill Bryson lived in England for 20 years and came back to the United States with the urge to go on a long hike. Stephen Katz, an old college friend, and a former alcoholic accompanies him. Both men are out of shape, and beginners at hiking, so it is a wonder how they can endure such hardships along the trail. They had to carry a pack that contained their tents, food, water, clothes and other items. Katz and other interesting characters provide the book with much comic relief to keep the reader involved. At some points in the book I was laughing out loud.
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Id rather read something non fiction rather than some author's fictional envisioning of what SHTF is.

Check out "Listening to Katrina". Its a blog written by a guy and his family riding out hurricane katrina and what he experienced and learned from it.

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2
 
P-14 said:
Near the beginning of the trek, Katz decides that is pack is too heavy and starts tossing the food in the woods. Later, they decide that this was probably not a good thing.
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I read that maybe 10 - 15 years ago. Wasn't a lot of Katz's food Twinkies and junk food anyway?

Great. Now I want a Twinkie and I can't HAVE one [crying]
 
June4th said:
Just came across this book reviewed by Matt Bracken: Failure Of Civility

Looks like a worthy book with lasting reference value. I hope someone runs a group buy on it. If not I'll buy a copy for myself soon.
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I got my copy in the mail today. Just from skimming it, it looks like it has a lot of good information .

Although, the first page of the book is a fold out chart which lists potential disasters, their likelihood of happening, happening and the various impacts of them. It lists the financial collapse of the US, an EMP attack, and race wars as "Highly possible".

I'll let you know how it goes from there.
 
mclina said:
I got my copy in the mail today. Just from skimming it, it looks like it has a lot of good information .

Although, the first page of the book is a fold out chart which lists potential disasters, their likelihood of happening, happening and the various impacts of them. It lists the financial collapse of the US, an EMP attack, and race wars as "Highly possible".

I'll let you know how it goes from there.
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I got mine a few days ago. I am not super thrilled with it. I think they tried to cover too much in one book. If they had focused solely on the whole neighborhood protection plan it would have been better. I would have liked to have seen a whole chapter on things like defensive postions, patrolling, with more detail. Each chapter left me wanting more info. I felt like they could have expanded the basics just a bit.
Their food and supplies chapters were blah at best. One thing that stood out as kind of scary to me was them recommending stocking amoxicillin if you are allergic to penicillin. Everything I have read, seen understood is that if you have a pen allergy you should not take amox. The other thing I think is funny is that in the book they tell you to verify anyone claiming to be military especially with advanced training by seeing their DD214. THe kicker is you look at the back of the book and the authors faces are blanked out and I am fairly certain that those probably are not their real names. I do like the large print format but the pictures are poor and hard to see.

If you get the book understand that it is not an A to Z survival primer. I certainly learned some stuff from especially improving a perimeter but I am not sure it was worth the money.
 
If you're a fan of Lights Out they are trying to get enough money together to make it into a movie. You can follow the link to read more about it. Even without a big budget that book could be turned into a movie pretty easily, hopefully they get some decent actors.
 
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Following the genre similar to Rawle's, and Lights out, is "Grid Down: Reality Bites" by Bruce "Buckshot" Hemming.

For some proven surival techniques, the Foxfire series from the 1970's is a good, yet long read..It contains fun stuff like how to make soap from scratch..with hog lard and lye made from ashes..whiskey from your own corn..how to build a log cabin. mule-trading..chicken fighting..making simple toys..Hershel House demonstrated how to build a muzzleloader from scratch..and, as the books say "Other Affairs of Plain Living"

The series started as an english assignment for highschool kids to go out and record an oral history of life in Appalachian Georgia. The point was to have their grandparents give a first hand account while they were still alive and able to tell it. The series contains lots of low-tech gold.

The aforementioned "Buckshot" Hemming also has a survival guide and some videos as well. His take on survival is very low-cost.no high-tech or expensive gear.. Some of his early videos are funny as all getout..like his demonstations on how to snare fish.. or catch them with a 110 conibear trap..his snaring video is worth the watch as it is the kind of knowledge that would come in very handy in a survival situation.. I'll bet he was the red-neck at school everyone made fun of.. but he'll have the last laugh should the SHTF. BTW- Hemmings novel unashamedly plugs his own trapping/survival videos and snare kits at various points throughout the story.


Also, consider "Snares, Deadfalls, and Other Traps of the Northern Algonquians and Northern Athapaskans". By John M Cooper. This book, from 1938, is chock full of low tech, genius technology. This is fun stuff if you like anthropology. The machines in this book are so stupidly simple, yet you'd never be able to figure much of this out on your own. Again, it's great knowledge to have in your back pocket.
 
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resurrecting an aged thread

The fourth book in the 'Remaining' series was released a short time ago - will get to reading that shortly
Amazon.com: The Remaining: Fractured eBook: D.J. Molles: Kindle Store

A good SHTF series - follows a main character who is one of a dozen or so individuals that are sequestered in underground bunkers when 'events' occur, ultimately coming out 30-days after last contact with anyone - charged in trying to find survivors and to work on re-establishing society. In this series the event is the FURY virus - doesn't actually kill people and make them zombies, but rather destroys the brain and makes them fast moving killers. Enjoyed the three books so far, well written and often a late-night page turner.
 
wyatt1881 said:
If you're a fan of Lights Out they are trying to get enough money together to make it into a movie. You can follow the link to read more about it. Even without a big budget that book could be turned into a movie pretty easily, hopefully they get some decent actors.
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that would be a badass movie
 
I'm halfway through Enemies Foreign and Domestic right now, and IMO the writing leaves a lot to be desired. Like the plot, but does the author "grow" through the next couple books in the series?
 
pernox said:
I'm halfway through Enemies Foreign and Domestic right now, and IMO the writing leaves a lot to be desired. Like the plot, but does the author "grow" through the next couple books in the series?
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As a writer? Yes. There's not as much unrelated side-chatter in the next two.
 
While not exactly in the same genre as most of the other books listed in this thread, I highly recommend a book called "The Unthinkable" by Amanda Ripley. It's basically a series of case studies in human reaction to catastrophic situations. Interesting, informative, and will make you think about your own reactions in similar situations.

Buck.
 
just adding in some fiction series
Dies the fire by S M Stirling
Dies the Fire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Basically a big flash of light and then all 'hi energy' equipment stops working. This includes guns and steam engines (something about pressures in pistons never rising no matter how much energy is put it). Not very realistic but the first few books are interesting and involve starting a farming society from scratch...

also
the 'ring of fire' or '1632' series
1632 series - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anouther big flash of light and a small West Virgina town in suddenly back in 1632 Germany. Not really SHTF reading but kind of interesting in what they have to do to create as much technology as possible. Its the old 'knowing what a light bulb is or even how they are made doesn't mean you CAN make them' type thing. BIG series though so it will keep a reader busy for years (if you get all the web only stuff too).

And no one has mentioned
The anarchists cookbook? I grabbed one at a Barnes and Noble just for S's and giggles...
 
KBCraig said:
As a writer? Yes. There's not as much unrelated side-chatter in the next two.
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My way of looking at that series, along with "Patriots" by Rawles, is that its more of a how-to manual rather than a novel. Neither one of those guys will be winning a Nobel, but their work is packed with info, its just woven into a novel. The fact that its written that way probably gives them some plausible deniability also. "Why no Agent So-And-So, I never set out to write a step by step description of how to disable an M1A1 with improvised materials, its just a work of fiction."
 
headednorth said:
My way of looking at that series, along with "Patriots" by Rawles, is that its more of a how-to manual rather than a novel. Neither one of those guys will be winning a Nobel, but their work is packed with info, its just woven into a novel. The fact that its written that way probably gives them some plausible deniability also. "Why no Agent So-And-So, I never set out to write a step by step description of how to disable an M1A1 with improvised materials, its just a work of fiction."
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thermite was their friend. the statists with the JBT UN 'peacekeepers' were the most chilling aspects of those novels.
 

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