Founders is the third fiction book by Jim Wesley, Rawles. These books are a bit different than most because they run contemporaneously. So in other words Patriots, Survivors and Founders are all happening at the same time.
This book covers the Layton's cross country treck from Chicago, Ill to the super retreat in Idaho in significantly more detail than it previously was touched on in Patriots. It also wraps in a couple other sets of characters from the second book.
The book spends a good bit of time on the composition of the new Provincial Government out of FT. Knox and how it occupies new areas and regulates occupied areas. I don't want to get too much deeper into the plot and spoil anything.
I have heard some criticisms of this book that deserve to be addressed. Some folks said they got less out of this book then previous ones. These books, in particular Patriots, have been characterized as survival manuals worked into fiction novels. This viewpoint certainly has at least some truth to it.
Using the old fiction series The Survivalist as an example you are going to get less out of book 6 than book 1 if you have read them all in order. It isn't that book 6 necessarily has any less value than 1 but that you have heard most of the authors major points and pet ideas by then. At some point in a series it is sort of inevitable that you will have been exposed to most of the major lessons the author has to give.
That point aside onto the usual format.
The Good: I appreciated that this book displayed a lot of fairly regular folks and their effort's to make it through a hard time. It had some interesting points where characters tried to stock up at the last minute and found the obvious guns/ammo/fuel missing. This is good because too many books let folks somehow get 4 guns, 12 cases of ammo and a years worth of food after an economic collapse. The characters then picked up some other useful items that were still available. Stuff like extra rifle scopes, hunting clothes and such. Interesting food for thought.
Even the more skilled and prepared folks made some good moves and some less good ones. There were not John Rourke figures who get into gunfights with 40 hard core bikers and kill them all. The more survivalist fiction I read the more I appreciate this.
Now that I think about it the book was fairly low on violence though some is realistically present. The book dealt more with folks getting prepared, day to day issues and the structure of both Pro Gov as well as the resistance. This worked well and made things interesting without getting all ridiculous. In this regard the book had a sort of different focus than Survivors which focused on less prepared folks figuring out how to get by or Patriots which had the uuber prepared group with the sweet survivalist retreat.
The threads about folks in the US military and how they did and did not cooperate with the Provincial Government and UN were pretty interesting. This part was well thought out and entirely plausible. Also it gave us some credit which is appreciated. Definitely something to think about.
Also this book did a pretty good job of staying off the gear and all too common specific model gun porn soap box. It seemed much more 'got a pistol, a rifle and a .22' so guns are covered than folks falling short because they lack the coolest Blast O Master 6000. This made me happy.
The Bad: There were a couple gun porn .308/30.06 moments. At one point a character inferred that the M4 was not effective at intermediate distances (I think it was about 300 meters) which is just ridiculous. There was also another moment that fell into the 'battle rifle' long distance 'ambush' point of view which in my opinion is not really a viable strategy. That being said we all have our 'things' and the 'battle rifle' is one of the author's. It didn't detract from the book and was easy enough to just ignore.
Also the 'pre 1899' firearms came up in what I think is a less than plausible context. The new evil government that was banning pretty much everything
kept the current loophole of exempting pre 1899 firearms. Like some
evil UN Mercenary is going to stop and look up if a 30-30 or a 12 gauge
was made in 1899 or 1935 or 1957? These guns have some distinct benefits today
but thinking this would help you out in a totalitarian gun grab is
probably wishful thinking.
The Ugly: Like the second book Survivors this one follows multiple characters and sort of jumps back and forth between them. It just didn't to work quite as well here. I think it just moved a little too fast. Sometimes we just stayed with a character for just a few pages and then moved on. A couple character threads would have been better served by either getting filled out a bit more or otherwise cut out entirely.
Overall Assessment: I liked this book and enjoyed reading it. At this point if you have read the previous books Patriots and Survivors you know JWR's beliefs/ writing style and generally what to expect. If you liked his previous fiction books (particularly Survivors as it is more similar to Founders than the first book) then I think you will like this book.
Founders can be purchased here.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book to review.
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