Expatriates: A Novel of the Coming Global Collapse (Coming Collapse, Book 4)

Product was described as in Very Good condition. It actually looks brand new.

Background: I've now read the first four books in the series launched with JWR's  Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse .I liked Patriots a lot. Of course back then, - seven years ago - I was a frequent reader of JWR's blog, and I considered that first book a pretty nifty, if fanciful, cautionary tale (and general, "you need this stuff!" list).But when it comes to the 2nd through 4th novels, across the intervening years, a lot of my perspective has changed. I'm now focused much more on "local" & 'manageable' areas. So I'm more concerned about the prospect of losing a job, than I am that "Dem GD Blue Helmets!" will be hauling me & mine off to a Camp. :DAlso, the entire Post-Apocalypse genre has expanded a lot. It's a much more crowded than it was when Patriots released. Heck, we've had tv shows and even mainstream movies on the subject! All of which means I come to JWR's "sturm & drang" warfare, contrived "straw man" threats, and, 'You're finally getting yours!', fist-shaking at the UN and lefty politics in general, and it now reads much more shrill & screedy.As to this particular book:Overall, Expatriots was probably the weakest JWR book yet. Even on the 'bug-out gear' front (the meat & potatoes of any EOTWAWKI tome), I don't think I was tempted even once to make a note of anything. I mean how many Indonesian .223 rifles would anyone need (or be likely to come across)? The settings and environments are pretty irrelevant to my lifestyle and outlook.PROS:I did like some of the conceptual material:* Insight into Australia's current military posture (what posture?:P), and that there actually does remain a 'right' there to go with the 'left' policies that make news on this end of the world.* Exploration of the risks of gun-control within a culture largely "apart" from it's regional neighbors.* The prospect that Indonesia/Malaysia could pursue a jihad across the Asia/Pacific Rim.* And of course JWR has always been strong on miltech and milspec details. But like most authors in the niche, cranking back on the acronymony would help readability a lot. :DCONS:JWR's biggest flaws hit you right up front in the lead-off chapters: He has a tin ear for dialogue, and his 3rd-person perspectives and prose really make it difficult to 'get inside' a character. There's no 'people' in the book. They're just vehicles for "Agenda Point #2538".Not to mention the way his blandly evangelical. 'born-again-or-worthless!', viewpoint pervades the book. I'd forgotten howham-fisted JWR is when it comes to peddling his religeon.Frankly, I almost closed the book after a particularly artificial 'flirting' scene in chapter 3, that involves a direct demand from 'the girl', that, 'the guy', immediately commit to being Born Again, er Else: “Yes, but do you know Jesus the Christ as your personal savior?” ... “Here’s my mobile number. I would like you to ring me up, Chuck. But before you do, I’d really like you to be able to tell me, with sincerity, where you stand with God.”-- Does anyone anywhere actually talk like this? Even post-service at the coffee pot in the middle of "Born Again Baptist Church"? This isn't subtle stuff. And it's not an isolated example.And when it comes to dialogue, the primary problem is JWR has only a single 'voice', no matter which mouth is delivering the words. From 70 year old filipino, to aussie born again young woman, to texan demolitions expert: It all sounds like a single actor playing all the roles in a script, with no real character, or flavor. Characters trudge in, deliver turgid directives to, "shape up! or else!", and then trudge off.And then there's the mystery of, "The Lost Family in Florida": He spends chapters developing & outlining activities in Florida, and then completely 'loses' track of threads and the characters until the last chapter of the book! The balance of the book is focused almost exclusively on Australian happenings (or the process of marching his pawns from the Philippines down to Australia).But finally, the book's ending read like he'd hit a target page count, mid-war/mid-invasion, and suddenly he decided he could quickly jump ahead and use a deus ex machina to kill off the invaders, and be done and out in a few chapters.I was like, "Where'd the war go?". Suddenly he's writing epilogue wedding scenes?...So: If you're a prepper/survivalist, no doubt you've already read the book, or own it and are waiting to read it.And if you're a _Born-Again Xtian_ prepper, well, this is going to be red meat for you!And if you're an "International Left Wing Conspiracy!" type, this will be comfortable, well worn territory, too.But, if you're more interested in finding a solution for the cut worms in your garden, or having money in the bank against the next family/neighborhood/city-level calamity, this is probably going to be more than a little over the top reading.Of course, in the EOTWAWKI niche, if you're just looking for an excuse to buy more "Beans, Bullets & Bandaids", well this book will pile on some more motivation to continue spending dough and filling up your garage with dusty 'stuff'. :DFor me, what this book did give me, was the motivation to move on to Angery American's next Going Home novel, instead. :P

This novel is the fourth in the series which began with  Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse , then continued with  Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse  and  Founders: A Novel of the Coming Collapse . These books are not a conventional multi-volume narrative, in that all describe events in the lives of their characters in roughly the same time period surrounding "the Crunch"--a grid down societal collapse due to a debt crisis and hyperinflation. While the first three books in the series are best read in order, as there is substantial overlap in characters and events, this book, while describing contemporary events, works perfectly well as a stand-alone thriller and does not contain substantial spoilers for the first three novels.The earlier books in the series were thrillers with a heavy dose of survival tutorial, including extended litanies of gear. The present volume leans more toward the thriller genre and is, consequently, more of a page-turner.Peter and Rihannon Jeffords are Christian missionaries helping to run an orphanage in the Philippine Islands wishing nothing more than to get on with their lives and work when the withdrawal of U.S. forces in the Pacific due the economic collapse of the U.S. opens the way for a newly-installed jihadi government in Indonesia to start flexing its imperialist ambitions, looking enviously at Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and ultimately the resource-rich and lightly populated "Top End" of Australia as their manifest destiny.Meanwhile, Chuck Nolan, a Texan petroleum geologist specialising in explosive seismic exploration, working in the Northern Territory of Australia, is adjusting, along with native Australians, to the consequences of the Crunch. While not directly affected by the U.S. economic collapse, Australia's highly export-driven economy has been severely damaged by the contraction in world trade, and being dependent upon imported food and pharmaceuticals, hardships are everywhere and tragedies commonplace.Back in the United States, Rihannon Jeffords' family, the Altmillers, are trying to carry on their independent hardware store business in Florida, coping with the collapse of the currency; the emergence of a barter economy and use of pre-1965 silver coins as a medium of exchange; the need for extraordinary security precautions at work and at home as the rule of law and civil society erode; and escalating worries about feral mobs of looters raiding ever wider from the chaos which was Orlando.As the story develops, we exerience a harrowing sea voyage through hostile waters, asymmetrical warfare against a first world regional power, irregular resistance against an invader, and local communities self-organising defence against an urban "golden horde" ravaging the countryside. You will learn a great deal about partisan resistance strategies, decapitation of opposition forces, and why it is most unwise for effete urban populations to disarm those uncouth and disdained denizens of the boonies who, when an invader threatens, are both the first and ultimate lines of defence.This book is meticulously researched with a wealth of local and technical details and only a few goofs and copy-editing errors. Like the earlier novels, the author dispels, often with spare prose or oblique references, the romantic notion that some "preppers" seem to have that the collapse of civilisation will be something like a camping trip they'll enjoy because they're "ready". These happy would-be campers overlook the great die-off, the consequences of masses of people suddenly withdrawing from mood-altering drugs, roving bands of looters, the emergence of war-lords, and all of the other manifestations of the normal state of humanity over millennia which are suppressed only by our ever-so-fragile just in time technological society.

Very interesting read, highlights vulnerabilities and possible outcome.

That pretty much sums it up. The story line was all over the place until the author decided to focus a bit on what was happening in Australia. I was expecting more of a focus on preparedness. I wasn`t expecting a war novel.The book still needs editing. I found a few mis-spelled words.Mr. Rawles, I hope you do write another novel.

I hate to say it but if I am going to be honest I was really very disappointed in this book. Having read all of the authors other books... I just found this book wanting. Although the book is edited well, I found the way it jumped around and the lack of depth for the characters left me unable to bond with any of the characters.I was really looking forward to this book. Now I feel like I wasted my money.

I like this series from James Wesley Rawles. Of all the volumes, this one was the shortest. But, every page was enjoyable.

I wouldn't buy them if I didn't want them. Always good. Especially these authors. I need to add more words so. There.