It's told in the first person by a soldier post-apocalypse. As another review indicated, it's like reading someone's well-thought out blog. It contains a LOT of acronyms, vulgar language and right wing sentiments.

But all the arguments put forth (community trust process, political leadership failures, emergency response efforts and etc) are backed up by some "evidence" inasmuch as you can have evidence for something that hasn't actually occurred. It has a nice ring of truth to it so if you read this and discovered after reading it that it was a true account of events (say, from a different planet) you would not think it unbelievable.

It's not badly written, or badly argued, and even though it's right wing, it's not loopy-loony or anything. In a way, it's similar to Max Brooks' World War Z where there's a believable "historical" accounting of an event that didn't actually occur. ( )

This book appears to be roughly on a level with James P. Hogan's "Kicking the Sacred Cow", in terms of wingnuttiness. Mixed in between the slightly obligatory MilFic, is what makes it so that if you look up 'straw man argument' in the dictionary, you will find a picture of this book. ( )

Limiter: vulgar language -- narrator is enraged 21st century American solider, and talks like one

The book's mantra is "React, adapt, and overcome."

The first section is a diatribe against creeping socialism and a culture of entitlement which hits a lot of junk science, sociology, psychology, and political theory. Bandit comes off as rabid -- as a survivor with his stated background probably would be.

The second section is highly detailed military information about how they leave the Middle East. They see a lot of battles, and a lot of military jargon is used.

The third section is about his work back in the US to repair the damage of the previous administration. He starts with the agriculture.

The narrator is avowedly Republican, but is also against some present-day Republican policies. He comes off more as anti-Democrat and anti-liberal (with full historical hindsight) than as blindly "Republican". He tends to make casual, grandiose statements first, then explain the reasons why he knows "better". But the reasons are rational and thoughtful, not "because they are just wrong" or "because I say so". Reasoning is based on the scientific "experiment" of hindsight.

Reviews said anti-Hillary. More anti-"stereotypical, self-aggrandizing, egotistical, feminist"; take all Hillary's faults or vices, exaggerate them, and add no virtues or receptivity to outside ideas. Female President with biographical similarities to Hillary is an effigy for the narrator's flame thrower. ( )

Fans of John Ringo will probably enjoy this book, although he departs fairly radically from his past works in terms of writing style (although not so much in substance). The story is written as though it's a blog created by the protagonist, who has lived through a global disaster, during which a major epidemic has killed a major fraction of the world's population, combined with sudden onset of global cooling. The blog format allows Ringo to offer quite a bit of combined political and sociological commentary on his projected future -- in which a liberal President manages to push the US into terribly wrong responses to the problems it's encountering. Ringo has clear opinions on many things surrounding how to people and reality interact, and he provides arguments for his positions in the blog format -- although, like a blog, there's not much counterpoint.
Despite the somewhat odd writing style, I found it an enjoyable and absorbing read. ( )

Weird and wonderful. If you liked the Ghost series by him, you'll love this - it's not quite as nasty or explicit, but there's an awful lot about the technical aspects of blowing people and things up. Very heavy politics - Ringo is well over to the right. I actually find this fascinating - being a (more or less) liberal myself, I'm quite familiar with liberal stereotypes of conservatives. I enjoy seeing the reverse. Ringo displays his stereotypes very strongly ('tofu-eaters' is a frequent identifier), but when it gets down to people (only in the last third or quarter of the book) he's (character, and apparently author) perfectly willing to accept that there are decent people on the 'other side' and with training they can become quite acceptable...

Interesting variant on apocalypse and post-apocalypse story. Civilization doesn't fall apart, despite a double hammer-blow of epidemic and sudden mini-Ice Age; it's all about hanging on until you can work through these problems and get back to normal. More or less. The first part of the book Ringo spends a lot of time talking about how different areas handled the problems - these are the most annoying to a liberal, because he states categorically (and with liberal use of stereotypes) that the 'tofu-eaters' fail in every possible way. The middle is the character's own adventures - not only fights his way through a destabilized Middle East but leaves it on the road to recovery (reasonable borders are a good idea, but it's a bit Mary Sue that he can produce them so easily). The last section he's back in the US and dealing with individuals instead of stereotypes - and wonder of wonders, there are idiotic conservatives and capable-of-thought liberals to be found...that's the best part - most realistic - to me. And where-o-where did that wife come from? It stops rather abruptly, I'd have liked a little more or at least an epilogue. And there's one logical hole - when he's swept off to the Pentagon. If the MSM are as much worshipers of the President and her policies as depicted, why are questions about the farm policy a problem, or why are they happening at all? Sorry, weakness.

Overall a not-bad book. Part primer on how civilization can fall apart, part men's adventure story (blow things up! and girls!), part an interesting exploration of people getting things working again. Better than Ghost but very much in the same vein. I like Ringo better when he co-writes with David Weber, but I'm glad I read this and may well re-read. ( )