Book Review: 299 Days:The Preparation by Glen Tate

The first in a ten book series being released two at a time every few months.  As I write this, the first four are out there.  The story's website: 299days.com has more detailed information about the author and how he came to write the story.

I have only read The Preparation so far.  It is 257 pages (not including the bonus chapter (see the website for details of those gems)).  The Preparation is the scene setup for the actions to come.  It focuses on the political, economic, and social circumstances that exist in these United States and the author's neighborhoods.  These circumstances lead to a partial collapse of the government and society in general. 

The author touts his story as different because in his story there is only a "partial" collapse and not a "total" collapse as most of the other novels in this genre portray.  Like the  Deep Winter series, this first book is a "how to" on prepping for disaster.  Time is spent explaining how to obtain and store food, how to open the "prepping/survivalist" conversation with others, how to find a group of like minded individuals, where to find information you might need, as well as other topics on the subject.  It's not bad, it's just that the real-life instructions are awkwardly placed.  The author pauses his story to tuck in valuable information for the reader.

The Preparation is written in third person style, but is clearly otherwise in autobiographical style with a stop at the author's childhood memories, a brief stop during his 20's, then the extended stay at current events.  The writing style is quite plain; the author doesn't have or didn't use the eloquence displayed by professional authors like King or Koonts.  (Not that I have that ability, either.  It's just an observation.) 

The Preparation doesn't contain much in the way of action, but you can tell that there will be plenty in the upcoming books.  The author admits to making this first piece the back-story to the rest of the upcoming parts.  Despite this, it's setting up a good enough story I think I'm in for the long haul.  I see myself going all ten rounds.  The message contained within is as plain as the writing style: keep an eye and ear open to what is happening, listen to that inner voice we all have, hope for the best but prep for the worst, and don't waste time... it's coming.