Book Review: 299 Days:The Stronghold by Glen Tate

The Stronghold continues the 299 Days story with the development of the main town, some development of the lesser characters that are building their own extended households, and more information on the situation in the major cities without effective law enforcement.

We see the main town and some of the lesser characters' locations pull together for security in their respective locations.  All of the security is done the same way, though: guard the front gate. There are a couple of other small ideas as well, that I'll leave to your discovery as you read through the books. 

In The Stronghold we get another dodge of a big battle.  We see some people from the main town go to the neighboring, larger town for supplies and get a good picture of how the author believes things will go in larger towns during a major, long-term breakdown. 

Some of these lesser locations start to develop a bit more.  We get more information on a functioning family farm with long term guests (the main character's co-workers from The Collapse).  The main character's pre-collapse community falls lower as it is led by a semi-psychotic big government resident.  A glimpse is presented into the state government workings from the view of a loyalty torn public information mouthpiece.  A couple other locations are described along with the how those local economies function with and without government assistance. 

The main town's community meetings continue and the main character continues to verbally spar with a man and his followers who disagree.  It seems as if the author uses this antagonist as an outlet to explain some of the things he believes, forgoing the need for an all-knowing narrator talking to the reader.  For the most part this works, with some awkward moments that don't seem like interactions real people would have. 

The books, this one included, end in cliffhangers, reminiscent of the One Thousand and One Arabian Nights.  Oh, well.  It doesn't hurt anything.

OK, now I wait for the next two books to be released. 

The author's blog and the story homepage.

Book Review: 299 Days:The Community by Glen Tate

Our story picks up, of course, where it left off in the last book, The Collapse.  The family and immediate community (hence the title) start to pull together. 

The author takes us through his vision of some occurrences in the local area.  The main group goes to "town" and split up to gather supplies, finding most things very expensive.  Fuel, groceries, household goods, are twice the normal price or more and many of the local businesses are rationing sales.  We see most people not taking the collapse seriously and not even thinking about stocking up on longer term items.  Lines are starting to be drawn as the larger area town divides itself into areas racially. 

In The Collapse we start to see some of the minor characters that lived or worked with the main character break off into multiple smaller side-stories of the main plot.  Perhaps the author will bring them back together somehow later in the story, or maybe they will remain separate and will just be used to demonstrate how other areas around our main town suffer and/or thrive in different ways.

Still no "action" in the sense of gunfights.  The author continues to feint at action like a man playing in traffic; he'll stand in the lane and jump away at the last moment before being hit by a car.  (There's my poor literary analogy for today, but reading the first few books it will make sense)

The main character begins his journey as a leader in the small town near his new home.  He and a permanent resident of that town start to form a leadership group and plan the safety of the area.

OK, enough for now.  The story is still good.  I'm still reading.

299days website

Social Unrest

A mindset important to survival is not just reacting to what happens, but paying attention to what is going on around you and being prepared for things that are not only possible, but are probable and predictable.  To be safe and secure you need to be aware of what is happening in your local area, your state, our nation and in the world around us. 

Here's the story behind the scenario for today's WWYD:

Last year the state welfare office in Atlanta had a glitch that caused food stamps to be issued late.  People weren't told they were getting no more assistance, they were told that there was a snafu and they would be a DAY LATE.  Many people lined up outside the office demanding THEIR benefits.  A couple of people told the news crew that they and their kids hadn't eaten all day because they didn't get their food stamp money.  For more details on this incident here's the news clip:Food Stamps Late

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind regarding the mindset of these individuals:
-the government benefits are theirs and they didn't get their money like they deserve
-they apparently don't have one child's meal worth of extra food in their house, nor the means to buy a 50 cent Cup-O-Noodles at the grocery store.

Today's WWYD:

Your state is having financial troubles and sometime in the near future declares bankruptcy expecting the federal government to clean up behind them.  OR The state employees go on strike and don't show up to work.  In either case, the machine breaks down and state monies aren't disbursed.  The welfare/food stamp crowd from this major city shows up at the office because their debit cards aren't credited their allotted amount and now their family can't eat.  There is no one to complain to because the state office is closed.  A riot breaks out.  The office is destroyed, but the crowd is not satisfied because they still can't eat.  They head to a nearby grocery store where looting commences. The crowd grows as people see an opportunity to run off with everything from a local megamart.  The sentiment spreads throughout the city and now there are several riots in various places.

You live nearby, WWYD?
-Bug out, assuming a large mob can't be stopped as police are overwhelmed and stay away? (see Rodney King riots)  Do you have a place to go and a plan on what to take and what to leave?
-Bug in, assuming your house will be bypassed or you can fend off a large, angry crowd?  What's your plan for defense, not only from people, but also fire supression from Molotov slingers?

You work nearby, WWYD?
-At what point to you head out towards home to get away?  Do you have various routes planned in case one is blocked? Do you have a way to stay at work and keep safe?

Bonus WWYD:

You have been paying attention to the news and know that they money won't be coming, so you have a couple days notice that something might happen.  WWYD to prepare?