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Patriots (novel series)

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The Patriots Novels Series
File:PatriotsFrontCover36dpi.jpg
Cover of the most recent edition of Patriots
AuthorJames Wesley Rawles
Original titlePatriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
PublisherUlysses Press
Publication date
2009
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Trade paperback)
Pages400
ISBN978-1-56975-599-0
OCLC251196581
Followed bySurvivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse 

The Patriots Novels are a series of best-selling survivalist novels written by former U.S. Army officer and blogger, James Wesley, Rawles.

Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse, the first book in the series, was first distributed as shareware in 1995 and first published in paperback in 1998.[1] It was most recently updated and re-published in 2009. In one week of April 2009, shortly after its release, it was ranked #6 in Amazon.com's overall book sales rankings, which was attributed by the Library Journal to the book's appeal to "a small but vociferous group of people concerned with survivalism".[2]

Set in the near future amidst hyperinflation and a catastrophic global economic collapse, Patriots tells the story of a group of survivalists that flee riots and chaos in metropolitan Chicago to a survivalist retreat that they have prepared near Bovill, Idaho.[3]

Origins

The novel is based on a 19-chapter draft that Rawles wrote in 1990, and first distributed as shareware, under the title The Gray Nineties.[4] It was later expanded to 27 chapters and retitled Triple Ought, and then 33 chapters, under the title TEOTWAWKI: The End of the World as We Know It.[5][6][7] In 1997, the rights to the novel were purchased by Huntington House Publishers, a small Christian publishing firm[8] in Lafayette, Louisiana. They abridged the book to 31 chapters and re-titled it Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse. This was the publisher's best-selling title from November 1998 to January 2005.[7] In early 2005, Huntington House went out of business, and the copyright reverted to the author. In November 2006, responding to pent-up market demand, Rawles self-published a restored 33 chapter edition of the novel, through XLibris, a print-on-demand publisher. Patriots was the best-selling title for XLibris from late 2006 to early 2009. In late 2008, the rights to the novel were purchased by Ulysses Press, Berkeley, California. After updating the novel and adding both a glossary and an index, in April 2009 Ulysses Press released the 33 chapter edition under the new title Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse.

Setting

Much of Patriots takes place in the Intermountain west, specifically in the Palouse Hills region, in and around Moscow, Idaho.

Reception and Criticism

Critical reception for the various releases of the book has been generally positive, gaining a cult following among the survivalist community and a positive review from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.[9][10] A reviewer for the Tennessean newspaper called the novel a "combination military thriller and how-to survivalist guide."[11] Claire Wolfe of the World Net Daily reviewed Patriots in 2006, finding worthwhile the non-fiction information about survivalist techniques but the fiction elements "[not] exactly subtle".[12]

Over time the book has gained a larger following, with Rawles speculating that the ongoing financial crisis accounted for the book's popularity among a wider readership traditionally not interested in survivalist themes.[13]

Foreign Translations

The first of several foreign translations of Patriots was released in May, 2012. This was a Spanish edition, titled Patriotas. It was translated by Ernesto Rubio Garcia and published by La Factoria De Ideas, in Madrid, Spain.[14] ISBN: 8498007704.[15]

Sequels

Simon & Schuster has published two sequels to Patriots, also authored by Rawles: Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse in 2011 and Founders: A Novel of the Coming Collapse in 2012. Both sequels have also been produced as audiobooks (by Brilliance Audio), and as e-books.

Sales for the sequels have been strong, with Survivors and Founders both achieving the New York Times Best Seller List.[16][17]

Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse

Cover of the first edition of Survivors.

Much of Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse takes place in the Four Corners region, specifically in and around Bloomfield and Farmington, New Mexico, although the book's climax takes place in and near Prescott, Arizona and several sub-plots take place as far away as Afghanistan.

On its release day, October 4, 2011, Survivors rose to #2 in Amazon's overall book sales ranks and #1 in their action-adventure category. On October 23, 2011, it was listed at #3 in the New York Times bestseller list in the fiction hardback category.[17] Rawles and Survivors were the centerpiece of a Vancouver Sun article by Kim Murphy about the American Redoubt movement that was run by dozens of newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times[18] A review in The New American magazine was positive, summarizing: "In short, Rawles’ Survivors is well worth reading; astute readers may find themselves making notes of passages pertaining to survival planning which will be worth returning to once one has finished reading the novel."[19]World (magazine) called Survivors "...not as well-written as some articles Rawles has penned"[20]

Founders: A Novel of the Coming Collapse

Cover of the first edition of Founders.

Founders: A Novel of the Coming Collapse is a 2012 New York Times best-selling novel by author James Wesley Rawles and is a sequel to Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse.[21] The novel was released on September 25, 2012 by Atria Books. The book premiered on the New York Times Bestsellers list at #11, but dropped to #27 a week later.[22]

Founders: A Novel of the Coming Collapse is set primarily in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Montana.[23] It details how U.S. Army Captain Andy Laine infiltrates the Provisional Government's New Army headquartered at Fort Knox in the midst of a War of Resistance. It also details the cross-country trek of Ken and Terry Layton, and introduces a new character: Joshua Watanabe, a U.S. Air Force NCO, stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base, in Montana.

Founders[24] was released on September 25, 2012 by Atria Books. The book premiered on the New York Times Bestsellers list at #11, but dropped to #27 a week later.[25]

In his brief review of Founders, Gregory Cowles of the influential New York Times Book Review poked fun at the comma in Rawles's name, but granted: "Rawles is a well-known survivalist, and he’s surely the only writer on this list whose fans frequently ask him how best to stockpile food (it depends on which food) or whether to favor bullets over gold during the total collapse of civilization (“You can’t defend yourself near as well with a Krugerrand”)."[26] Founders was praised by talk radio host Brian Wilson (of WSPD), who called it "a great read".[27] In a lengthy interview with Jordan Rich of WBZ Boston, Rich described the book as a "taut thriller."[28] Founders was one of the topics of discussion in an interview with George Noory of Coast To Coast AM on September 6, 2012.[29]

Rawles uses an unusual contemporaneous approach to writing sequels. Rather than the traditional formula of following the same group of characters farther into the future, he instead portrays different charcheters in different geographic regions, but in the same near-future timefarme as in Patriots. In his Introductory note to Survivors, Rawles stated: "Unlike most novel sequels, the storyline of Survivors is contemporaneous with the events described in my previously-published novel Patriots Thus, there is no need to read it first (or subsequently), but you’ll likely find it entertaining."

Rawles is currently writing a third sequel in the Patriots series, entitled Expatriates: A Novel of the Coming Collapse, under contract for E.P. Dutton, scheduled for release in November, 2013. It will be set "primarily in central Florida, the Philippines, and northern Australia."[30]

Printing history of Patriots

  • The Gray Nineties (19 chapter draft). Distributed as shareware from 1995 to 1997.
  • Triple Ought (27 chapter draft). Distributed as shareware from 1997 to 1998.
  • TEOTWAWKI: The End of the World as We Know It. 33 chapters with six appendices, self-published edition, The Clearwater Press, Kooskia, Idaho, Velo-bound, 1997-1998.
  • Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse. 31 chapters, 342 pages, abridged edition from Huntington House/Vital Issues Press. It was in print from November 1998 to January 2005.
  • Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse. 33 chapters, 384 pages from XLibris. It was in print from November 2006 to February 2009.
  • Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse. 33 chapters, 400 pages, updated edition with glossary and index, from Ulysses Press, Berkeley, California.
  • Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse—Unabridged Audiobook was released on December 31, 2009. This audiobook, from Brilliance Audiobooks was narrated by Dick Hill.

References

  1. ^ "Revealed: The art of survival". The Independent. London. 2009-04-09. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  2. ^ "Survivalist Novel Patriots Rates High in Amazon, Not Libraries". Library Journal. 2009-04-14. Retrieved 2010-02-21.
  3. ^ "Survivalists get ready for meltdown - CNN.com". CNN. 2008-05-02. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  4. ^ On-line Underground. The Spokesman-Review (Spokane). Dec. 3, 1995, page H7
  5. ^ How America Uses The Net (Subsection Profile: [James Rawles] The Y2K Survivalist) Yahoo! Internet Life magazine, September 1999, p. 108-109
  6. ^ Some store food, gold, guns in case Y2K brings chaos. The Sacramento Bee, December 29, 1998, p. 1.
  7. ^ a b "Patriots, TEOTWAWKI, and Pulling Through, by James Wesley, Rawles". Rawles.to. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  8. ^ Alphabetical List of Christian book publishers Christian Online Community
  9. ^ "Amerikanischer Bestseller: "Patriots": Wie das Ende unserer Welt zu überleben ist - Rezensionen". FAZ. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  10. ^ "Book Review - TEOTWAWKI". Survival-center.com. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  11. ^ "Survivalist author has end in sight". The Tennessean. Apr 28, 2009. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
  12. ^ WND Commentary Five novels of freedom by Claire Wolfe, WorldNetDaily, September 30, 1999
  13. ^ Sara Nelson (2009-04-15). "The Most Dangerous Novel in America?". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  14. ^ http://isbndb.com/d/book/patriotas_patriots.html
  15. ^ http://lafactoriadeideas.es/
  16. ^ "Hardcover Fiction, October 14, 2012". New York Times. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
  17. ^ a b Taylor, Ihsan. "Best Sellers - The New York Times". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 2012-01-04.
  18. ^ Murphy, Kim. "Survivalists head for the hills; Author James Wesley Rawles looks to the future and sees trouble. He's urging Americans to prepare". The Vancouver Sun [Vancouver, B.C] 03 Mar 2012: C.1. A reprint of the same LA Times (Feb. 8, 2012) article by Kim Murphy.
  19. ^ http://www.thenewamerican.com/reviews/books/item/6471-james-wesley-rawles-new-book-survivors
  20. ^ http://www.worldmag.com/2012/03/apocalypse_when
  21. ^ "Hardcover Fiction, October 14, 2012". New York Times. Retrieved 13 October 2012. {{cite web}}: line feed character in |title= at position 32 (help)
  22. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/21/books/review/inside-the-list.html?
  23. ^ http://www.ashevilledailyplanet.com/news/2828-collapse-coming-survival-guru-tailor-tips-to-carolinians
  24. ^ "Hardcover Fiction, October 14, 2012". New York Times. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
  25. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/21/books/review/inside-the-list.html?
  26. ^ "Hardcover Fiction, October 14, 2012". New York Times. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
  27. ^ http://www.brianwilson.net/
  28. ^ http://jordanrich.com/
  29. ^ http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2012/09/06
  30. ^ http://www.survivalblog.com/2012/07/notes-from-jwr-479.html
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