Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I wasn't sure I should write a review for this one. It falls into the "Meh" category as liking it, meaning I didn't really. On top of that, I noted that most critical reviews have a suspiciously high number of "not helpful" votes, indicating partisanship not in line with anyone accepting unbiased reviews. Nevertheless, I had to write it simply because of the mistaken impressions it seems that many who liked the book came under with respect to the advice and the attitude. Overall, the story revolves around a fellow named Roman who, as our protagonist, ushers us through the events following a major solar flare that disrupts our modern life by frying our electronics. For anyone who "toshes" that this can't happen, be assured that such an event can happen and has surely happened in the past to varying degrees. For the most part, we human animals wouldn't really note much of it and haven't been significantly impacted by it. With electronics, the whole game has changed and it would present a watershed of change that we would be ill equipped to deal with. In that respect, I also respect the author's attempt to help and do so in a manner meant to be entertaining. But that is pretty much where my admiration ends for this book. Some of the advice is downright deadly. Food is not just for calories, it is for a variety of nutritional needs that includes fats, vitamins and minerals and so on. Anyone who believes that old dry beans and corn will do, is in for a nasty case of scurvy, bodily weakness and other illnesses in the long run. Beans become hard with age...yes, even those #10 cans packed for Long Term Storage. They require milling into meal after a while and even then will not necessarily soften but rather be small enough for a very long boil followed by incorporation into a sort of bread or mush with other ingredients. Just an FYI for folks. As for the action situations, some of it was disturbingly arrogant, foolhardy and would not work. As another reviewer wrote and I concur with, riding a bike in the dark at high speed is probably one of the stupidest things ever. The concept of moving up in a wave like that is smarter...always have someone watch your back...but the way it was done is very likely to leave anyone who tries it in real life laying on the side of the road with a broken leg or head right when there is no technology to help heal him or her. And the morality...good grief, who would do this? While I tend to be considered rather "hard" when it comes to the "what would you do if..." situations get spoken of, the hypocrisy and hubris here is just astounding. Killing a woman and child because the man with them poached a deer? Because they have no "protector"? So, by some miracle of omniscence Roman knows it would be better to be murdered than for them to make their way in life? And exactly how in a world without GPS where so many are dead is a wandering bunch of people going to know that they happened upon a deer that happened to belong to a person who was still alive? And then to have to thin the deer herd later. What an asshat. Let's be real. If it is okay to go collect stuff from areas where you know folks are dead but not okay for someone to grab a deer in a desolate bit of country then someone is a tad delusional. Just as the collector knows there is a chance that the owner or their legitimate heirs may, somewhere, be alive the hunter may not know that the property he hunts belongs to a private entity jealous of it's bounty. Also, I had to laugh about the whole special forces thing. As a 26+ year (and still going) military officer I can safely say that getting a few days of training from a bunch of shooters does NOT a special forces soldier make. The scene was to pat and far too easily done. Overall, this book reminded me of a lot of the more poorly done fiction on the message boards done by people whose only real experience with a major "hit the fan" episodes is via the same message board and a lot of fantasies. I really can't recommend this book and utter a caution to anyone thinking to use these tactics, preparations or justifications as a part of their planning.