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Counter-Caliphate Chronicles #1
Land of Promise
New York Times Bestselling author James Wesley, Rawles's Land of Promise is a bold piece of speculative fiction that posits the establishment of a Christian nation of refuge, in response to the establishment of a global Islamic Caliphate in the near future. Launched by a pair of free-thinking venture capitalists and an Israeli art dealer, the fictional Ilemi Republic is carved out of a disputed border region between Kenya and South Sudan, with the consent of the governments of these two neighboring nations.
The fledgling Ilemi Republic is a nation of firsts in modern history: The first nation as a dedicated place of refuge for Christians and Messianic Jews; The first nation with absolutely no taxes or levies of any kind; The first nation with no licenses or permits; The first nation with minimalist government; The first nation to reject fiat currency and establish a tri-metallic currency (gold, silver, and platinum); The first nation to have a self-policing citizenry with a citizen's militia--and hence no standing army and no police force; The first nation with a near absolute right to keep and bear arms, where only weapons of mass destruction are restricted from private ownership; and the first nation without a parliament or congress, where all decisions are made by public referendum.
"In Land of Promise, [Jim Rawles] crafts an exception to the rule: He speculates on proactive efforts to carve out a liberty lifeboat on Earth. It is the last refuge of free people in charge of their own lives. In every other place on Earth that man has put down roots, the usual suspects come out of the woodwork to offer advice on how to run his life and eventually develop systems that strangle that very life out of them. Some of these have been much worse than others as witnessed in the blood-soaked twentieth century." —Bill Buppert, ZeroGov Forums
About the Author
James Wesley, Rawles is a internationally recognized authority on family disaster preparedness and survivalism. He has been described by journalists as the "conscience of survivalism." Formerly a U.S. Army intelligence officer, Rawles is now a fiction and nonfiction author, as well as a rancher. Some of his his books have been translated into six languages. He is also a lecturer and the founder and Senior Editor of http://www.SurvivalBlog.com, the Internet's first blogs on preparedness that has enjoyed perennial popularity and now receives more than 320,000 unique visits per week. He and his family live at a remote self-sufficient ranch surrounded by National Forest lands that is is cryptically identified as located "somewhere west of the Rockies."
331 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2015
42 people are currently reading
315 people want to read
About the author
James Wesley, Rawles
22 books249 followersJames Wesley, Rawles is a internationally recognized authority on family disaster preparedness and survivalism. He has been described by journalists as the "conscience of survivalism." Formerly a U.S. Army intelligence officer, Rawles is now a fiction and nonfiction author, as well as a rancher. His books have been translated into seven languages. He is also a lecturer and the founder and Senior Editor of http://www.SurvivalBlog.com, the Internet's first blogs on preparedness that has enjoyed perennial popularity and now receives more than 320,000 unique visits per week. He and his family live at a remote self-sufficient ranch surrounded by National Forest lands that is is cryptically identified as located "somewhere west of the Rockies.
Rawles worked as an Associate Editor and Regional Editor (for the Western U.S.) with Defense Electronics magazine in the late 1980s and early 1990s and concurrently was Managing Editor of The International Countermeasures Handbook. He worked as a technical writer through most of the 1990s with a variety of electronics and software companies including Oracle Corporation. In 2005, he began blogging full-time. On his book covers and in his blog, he presents his name with a comma, as James Wesley, Rawles, to distinguish between his given name and his family name.
James Wesley, Rawles was born James Wesley Rawles in California in 1960 and attended local public schools. Rawles received a Bachelor of Arts degree from San Jose University.
From 1984 to 1993, he served as a United States Army Military Intelligence officer. He resigned his commission as a U.S. Army Captain immediately after Bill Clinton was inaugurated as President of the United States.
Rawles is the editor of SurvivalBlog.com, a popular blog on survival and preparedness topics. The blog has been described as "the guiding light of the prepper movement." The main focus of his blog is preparing for the multitude of possible threats toward society. In his various writings, Rawles has warned about socio-economic collapse, terrorist attacks, and food shortages.
He is now a freelance writer, blogger, and survival retreat consultant. One journalist called him a "survival guru" He was described as the "conscience of survivalism." Rawles is best known as the author of the survivalist novel Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse.
Rawles is an outspoken proponent of family preparedness, especially regarding food storage and advocates relocating to lightly populated rural "retreat" areas. His preparedness philosophy emphasizes the fragility of modern society, the value of silver and other tangibles for barter, recognition of moral absolutes, being well-armed, maintaining a "deep larder," relocation to rural retreats, and Christian charity. In an interview in The New York Times, Rawles identified himself as a "guns and groceries" survivalist.
Rawles interprets the 2nd Amendment as supporting citizens' individual rights to bear and keep arms. He believes they should be able to take arms to public events.
Rawles is opposed to racism. He supports abolition of modern slavery in the world.
Rawles is a spokeman for the surivalist movement. A central premise of that movement is that there is a high risk of a coming societal meltdown and the need to prepare for the repercussions. Rawles said that the popular media has developed an incorrect far-right "lunatic fringe" image in part because of the actions of a radical few such as Timothy McVeigh. He called this a distortion of the true message of survivalism. Unlike the handful of fringe proponents, Rawles focuses instead on family preparedness and personal freedom. Rawles explained that the typical survivalist does not actually live in a rural area, but is rather is a city dweller worried about the collapse of society who views the rural lifestyle as idyllic. Speaking from his experience, Rawles cautions that rural self-sufficiency a
Rawles worked as an Associate Editor and Regional Editor (for the Western U.S.) with Defense Electronics magazine in the late 1980s and early 1990s and concurrently was Managing Editor of The International Countermeasures Handbook. He worked as a technical writer through most of the 1990s with a variety of electronics and software companies including Oracle Corporation. In 2005, he began blogging full-time. On his book covers and in his blog, he presents his name with a comma, as James Wesley, Rawles, to distinguish between his given name and his family name.
James Wesley, Rawles was born James Wesley Rawles in California in 1960 and attended local public schools. Rawles received a Bachelor of Arts degree from San Jose University.
From 1984 to 1993, he served as a United States Army Military Intelligence officer. He resigned his commission as a U.S. Army Captain immediately after Bill Clinton was inaugurated as President of the United States.
Rawles is the editor of SurvivalBlog.com, a popular blog on survival and preparedness topics. The blog has been described as "the guiding light of the prepper movement." The main focus of his blog is preparing for the multitude of possible threats toward society. In his various writings, Rawles has warned about socio-economic collapse, terrorist attacks, and food shortages.
He is now a freelance writer, blogger, and survival retreat consultant. One journalist called him a "survival guru" He was described as the "conscience of survivalism." Rawles is best known as the author of the survivalist novel Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse.
Rawles is an outspoken proponent of family preparedness, especially regarding food storage and advocates relocating to lightly populated rural "retreat" areas. His preparedness philosophy emphasizes the fragility of modern society, the value of silver and other tangibles for barter, recognition of moral absolutes, being well-armed, maintaining a "deep larder," relocation to rural retreats, and Christian charity. In an interview in The New York Times, Rawles identified himself as a "guns and groceries" survivalist.
Rawles interprets the 2nd Amendment as supporting citizens' individual rights to bear and keep arms. He believes they should be able to take arms to public events.
Rawles is opposed to racism. He supports abolition of modern slavery in the world.
Rawles is a spokeman for the surivalist movement. A central premise of that movement is that there is a high risk of a coming societal meltdown and the need to prepare for the repercussions. Rawles said that the popular media has developed an incorrect far-right "lunatic fringe" image in part because of the actions of a radical few such as Timothy McVeigh. He called this a distortion of the true message of survivalism. Unlike the handful of fringe proponents, Rawles focuses instead on family preparedness and personal freedom. Rawles explained that the typical survivalist does not actually live in a rural area, but is rather is a city dweller worried about the collapse of society who views the rural lifestyle as idyllic. Speaking from his experience, Rawles cautions that rural self-sufficiency a
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 5, 2015
This was a difficult book for me to read. It clearly understands, and many times mentions, that the characters, the ideas, and even the book itself will likely be condemned by many as racist, prejudiced, and discriminatory. As a result, I will review it in two different streams of thought: once, as a fictional story in a mythical world, and secondly, as the premonition of the future that this book appears to actually be intended by the author.
A short summary: This book takes place several decades into the future on Earth, where the World Islamic State (Shiite-Sunni collaborated version of ISIS) controls many of the nations, leaving the remainder countries to bow and scrape as semi-subjugated nations before it. The premise of Land of Promise entails the formation of a brand new nation out of sliver of contested land in Africa, in order to provide refuge and safety for persecuted Christians worldwide. Think of Israel for Christian Libertarians, but without any particular holy or religious sites to the location selected, and a complete absence of taxes, licensing, gun laws or other forms of government. Tensions grow between the fledgling nation and the Islam-dominated world around it, and the story follows from there as one might imagine.
Let's start with a review of this book as a work of fantasy-fiction: If you simply replace the words 'Islam' or 'Muslim' with, say, a fictionalized evil bad guy term such as 'Orcs' (Lord of the Rings) or 'Empire' (Star Wars), and replace the term 'Christians' with a generic mythological yet religious group of people, does the story still entertain? Is the writing compelling as a fictional novel? When I separate away the portions that may be viewed as a discriminatory or prejudiced commentary of actual groups and peoples, what is left over is actually quite bland and boring. The characters and their development are shallow, with perfunctory and unrealistic reactions to the situations around them. The emotional connection between male and female characters, who have a habit of asking each other to court for marriage within a day of meeting each other, is wooden and awkward, like watching two mannequins attempting to waltz. The 'good guys' seem to do no wrong, contain very little complexity of emotion or character, and likewise are incredibly boring and interesting.
The Equipment, on the other hand, receives ten times as much attention to detail as any character does! I feel like the author doesn't actually have an understanding of how to write 'people' because he does not understand them, but has a superb understanding of machines, equipment, and (most significantly) weaponry. At numerous points I felt I was reading a manual for a new firearm I had purchased, or was watching a documentary on the benefits and downsides of various ammo types. As I previously have served in the military, I was able to follow most of this bizarrely meticulous delves that the author takes into the detailed workings of a particular jeep or magazine. But it is a terrible sign when the author thought it necessary to include a 50 page glossary to describe all of the obscure acronyms and terms used in this book (yes, that means over 15% of the book is Glossary). He clearly has a broad knowledge and understanding of the subject matter of warfare, logistics, and construction, but the endless segues into the workings of hydrogen-cell vehicles bogged down the actual plot too much of the time. The most interesting parts were the brief yet well combat scenes when terrorists infiltrate the newly formed country. But this was too little and too late to keep a reader interested. The author also has some interesting predictions about technological advances that I thought were intriguing, and so the descriptions of these post-modern weaponry and devices held a mild James-Bond-esque feel.
All in all, as a work of fiction, with any offensive connotations of it relating to the 'real world' removed, the book is unfortunately quite dull, lifeless, and entertaining only in the sense that a survivalist might love to hear about how to construct an underground bunker-home. The author would make an excellent non-fiction analysis I'm sure of 'how to clean and care for your G3 rifle', but he has no understanding of how to write realistic dialogue or hold together the flow and tension required for a story to maintain reader interest. If I was the editor of this book for some bizarre reason, it would be reduced in size by about 50% and still fully cover the actual applicable plot, as it were.
Now, unfortunately, I must address the book as it actually is meant to be: a clearly skewed and unhelpfully discriminatory view of the world, and a call to action of warfare between Christianity and Islam. Firstly, I am concerned about Jihadi terrorists and groups such as ISIS. But I also recognize that the world is a complex place, with many other factors at play, and that painting Muslims as 'enemy' with a broad brush is incorrect, irresponsible and provocative in all of the worst ways. The author clearly disagrees on this point. In his book, everything is black and white, with no shades of grey (like a Sith vs Jedi Star Wars struggle). All characters who are Muslim that appear in this book are cruel, angry, sinful, hypocritical (even the President of the World Islamic State is said in an aside to actually be non-religious and just 'doing it for the Power'!) and vengeful. Even more head-shakingly strange is that this world-conquering Islamic group is entirely incompetent when it comes to dealing with the newly formed Christian nations: all their assassination attempts are horridly botched (bombers blowing themselves up prematurely, or shooting wildly into the air with no fire discipline)...how the heck did they manage to conquer half the world at that rate??
Are some Muslims in the real world cruel, angry, sinful and hypocritical? Sure! Are some Muslims caring, generous, good-hearted, and faithful? Of course!! The author never bothers to ask the second question though.
On the other hand, every Christian character encountered in any real detail is caricatured as a hard-working, faithful, and absolutely obsessed with guns/rifles/weaponry. The most laughable line of all (paraphrased) is when the founders of the newly formed nation decide that no police form is needed, because this is a nation of Christians...why would we need police when everyone is a good Christian?
The best comparison I can make between this book and another would by Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" (though with the insertion of a heavy Christian presence, of course). A single quote for the billionaire Christian who finances the founding of this new state sums up the connection nicely: 'As they ate, some of the finches moved in...hoping to find some crumbs. Heston glanced at them and said, "Oh. Please don't toss them anything, or it will turn them into pests. Sort of like dispensing welfare."'
In conclusion, this book will be offensive to many people for its caricatured stereotypes and jingoistic overtones. If you are not a Christian Libertarian, you will not enjoy this book. If you ARE a Christian Libertarian, you still may not enjoy it as the story itself is poorly written, wooden, and awkward. The best you can hope for is to learn some in-depth knowledge on survivalist techniques, military technology, and fan your internal flames of intolerance in the hopes that by dividing the world further, it can be made better. That last point, sadly, appears the more likely result of books like this.
A short summary: This book takes place several decades into the future on Earth, where the World Islamic State (Shiite-Sunni collaborated version of ISIS) controls many of the nations, leaving the remainder countries to bow and scrape as semi-subjugated nations before it. The premise of Land of Promise entails the formation of a brand new nation out of sliver of contested land in Africa, in order to provide refuge and safety for persecuted Christians worldwide. Think of Israel for Christian Libertarians, but without any particular holy or religious sites to the location selected, and a complete absence of taxes, licensing, gun laws or other forms of government. Tensions grow between the fledgling nation and the Islam-dominated world around it, and the story follows from there as one might imagine.
Let's start with a review of this book as a work of fantasy-fiction: If you simply replace the words 'Islam' or 'Muslim' with, say, a fictionalized evil bad guy term such as 'Orcs' (Lord of the Rings) or 'Empire' (Star Wars), and replace the term 'Christians' with a generic mythological yet religious group of people, does the story still entertain? Is the writing compelling as a fictional novel? When I separate away the portions that may be viewed as a discriminatory or prejudiced commentary of actual groups and peoples, what is left over is actually quite bland and boring. The characters and their development are shallow, with perfunctory and unrealistic reactions to the situations around them. The emotional connection between male and female characters, who have a habit of asking each other to court for marriage within a day of meeting each other, is wooden and awkward, like watching two mannequins attempting to waltz. The 'good guys' seem to do no wrong, contain very little complexity of emotion or character, and likewise are incredibly boring and interesting.
The Equipment, on the other hand, receives ten times as much attention to detail as any character does! I feel like the author doesn't actually have an understanding of how to write 'people' because he does not understand them, but has a superb understanding of machines, equipment, and (most significantly) weaponry. At numerous points I felt I was reading a manual for a new firearm I had purchased, or was watching a documentary on the benefits and downsides of various ammo types. As I previously have served in the military, I was able to follow most of this bizarrely meticulous delves that the author takes into the detailed workings of a particular jeep or magazine. But it is a terrible sign when the author thought it necessary to include a 50 page glossary to describe all of the obscure acronyms and terms used in this book (yes, that means over 15% of the book is Glossary). He clearly has a broad knowledge and understanding of the subject matter of warfare, logistics, and construction, but the endless segues into the workings of hydrogen-cell vehicles bogged down the actual plot too much of the time. The most interesting parts were the brief yet well combat scenes when terrorists infiltrate the newly formed country. But this was too little and too late to keep a reader interested. The author also has some interesting predictions about technological advances that I thought were intriguing, and so the descriptions of these post-modern weaponry and devices held a mild James-Bond-esque feel.
All in all, as a work of fiction, with any offensive connotations of it relating to the 'real world' removed, the book is unfortunately quite dull, lifeless, and entertaining only in the sense that a survivalist might love to hear about how to construct an underground bunker-home. The author would make an excellent non-fiction analysis I'm sure of 'how to clean and care for your G3 rifle', but he has no understanding of how to write realistic dialogue or hold together the flow and tension required for a story to maintain reader interest. If I was the editor of this book for some bizarre reason, it would be reduced in size by about 50% and still fully cover the actual applicable plot, as it were.
Now, unfortunately, I must address the book as it actually is meant to be: a clearly skewed and unhelpfully discriminatory view of the world, and a call to action of warfare between Christianity and Islam. Firstly, I am concerned about Jihadi terrorists and groups such as ISIS. But I also recognize that the world is a complex place, with many other factors at play, and that painting Muslims as 'enemy' with a broad brush is incorrect, irresponsible and provocative in all of the worst ways. The author clearly disagrees on this point. In his book, everything is black and white, with no shades of grey (like a Sith vs Jedi Star Wars struggle). All characters who are Muslim that appear in this book are cruel, angry, sinful, hypocritical (even the President of the World Islamic State is said in an aside to actually be non-religious and just 'doing it for the Power'!) and vengeful. Even more head-shakingly strange is that this world-conquering Islamic group is entirely incompetent when it comes to dealing with the newly formed Christian nations: all their assassination attempts are horridly botched (bombers blowing themselves up prematurely, or shooting wildly into the air with no fire discipline)...how the heck did they manage to conquer half the world at that rate??
Are some Muslims in the real world cruel, angry, sinful and hypocritical? Sure! Are some Muslims caring, generous, good-hearted, and faithful? Of course!! The author never bothers to ask the second question though.
On the other hand, every Christian character encountered in any real detail is caricatured as a hard-working, faithful, and absolutely obsessed with guns/rifles/weaponry. The most laughable line of all (paraphrased) is when the founders of the newly formed nation decide that no police form is needed, because this is a nation of Christians...why would we need police when everyone is a good Christian?
The best comparison I can make between this book and another would by Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" (though with the insertion of a heavy Christian presence, of course). A single quote for the billionaire Christian who finances the founding of this new state sums up the connection nicely: 'As they ate, some of the finches moved in...hoping to find some crumbs. Heston glanced at them and said, "Oh. Please don't toss them anything, or it will turn them into pests. Sort of like dispensing welfare."'
In conclusion, this book will be offensive to many people for its caricatured stereotypes and jingoistic overtones. If you are not a Christian Libertarian, you will not enjoy this book. If you ARE a Christian Libertarian, you still may not enjoy it as the story itself is poorly written, wooden, and awkward. The best you can hope for is to learn some in-depth knowledge on survivalist techniques, military technology, and fan your internal flames of intolerance in the hopes that by dividing the world further, it can be made better. That last point, sadly, appears the more likely result of books like this.
May 3, 2018
A Good Foundation
Rawls lays a good foundation for this series, but clearly the main action will be in upcoming entries in the series.
The idea of a Christian homeland nation probably is controversial, but shouldn't be. Besides the Israeli precedent, numerous nations serve as defacto homelands for one group or another. China, Mexico and many other nations consider their ethnic emigres still to be citizens. Mexico, IIRC, still permits its emigres to vote in Mexican elections, no matter where they may have settled.
The United States still has some legal prohibitions against dual citizenship, but over the last couple of decades has effectively ceased enforcing those laws.
It would be interesting indeed to see a national Christian homeland created. Even more interesting would be to see how entry and citizenship is determined -- begging the question of the definition of a Christian. In this novel, Rawles doesn't address that question as boldly as he could have; rather, he skirts it via the "Second Reform" descriptor without directly addressing what that means, in detail. The Israel model worked in practice because it cast a fairly wide net for accepting the varieties of Jewish beliefs and national identities as emigres to Israel.
Many readers will find themselves in a quandary as to the Libertarian nature of the nation of Ilemi. Most readers being partial to libertarianism, they will enjoy it immensely...as I did. However, at some point those with law enforcement, military or national security experience are likely to find themselves questioning the viability of such a nation amidst the ravening wolves of many modern nation-states with aggressive natures and acquisitive inclinations. Rawles correctly depicts that a modern Caliphate would be hostile to ANY explictily Christian-homeland state -- but I believe he vastly understates the effectiveness and persistence of that hostility, once directed. Rawles seems to have set the stage in this book for such confrontations in ensuing episodes of this series. Further, he suggests, subtly, that leveraging higher technologies, such as advanced sensors and certain cyber-operations, will be the solution.
On the other hand, in his Patriots novel, Rawles painted a vivid picture of how asymmetrical warfare could overcome huge technological advantages. How such scenarios play out will be the subject of many future war college case studies. I guess only time will tell.
It will be interesting to read other books in this series. I recommend it
Rawls lays a good foundation for this series, but clearly the main action will be in upcoming entries in the series.
The idea of a Christian homeland nation probably is controversial, but shouldn't be. Besides the Israeli precedent, numerous nations serve as defacto homelands for one group or another. China, Mexico and many other nations consider their ethnic emigres still to be citizens. Mexico, IIRC, still permits its emigres to vote in Mexican elections, no matter where they may have settled.
The United States still has some legal prohibitions against dual citizenship, but over the last couple of decades has effectively ceased enforcing those laws.
It would be interesting indeed to see a national Christian homeland created. Even more interesting would be to see how entry and citizenship is determined -- begging the question of the definition of a Christian. In this novel, Rawles doesn't address that question as boldly as he could have; rather, he skirts it via the "Second Reform" descriptor without directly addressing what that means, in detail. The Israel model worked in practice because it cast a fairly wide net for accepting the varieties of Jewish beliefs and national identities as emigres to Israel.
Many readers will find themselves in a quandary as to the Libertarian nature of the nation of Ilemi. Most readers being partial to libertarianism, they will enjoy it immensely...as I did. However, at some point those with law enforcement, military or national security experience are likely to find themselves questioning the viability of such a nation amidst the ravening wolves of many modern nation-states with aggressive natures and acquisitive inclinations. Rawles correctly depicts that a modern Caliphate would be hostile to ANY explictily Christian-homeland state -- but I believe he vastly understates the effectiveness and persistence of that hostility, once directed. Rawles seems to have set the stage in this book for such confrontations in ensuing episodes of this series. Further, he suggests, subtly, that leveraging higher technologies, such as advanced sensors and certain cyber-operations, will be the solution.
On the other hand, in his Patriots novel, Rawles painted a vivid picture of how asymmetrical warfare could overcome huge technological advantages. How such scenarios play out will be the subject of many future war college case studies. I guess only time will tell.
It will be interesting to read other books in this series. I recommend it
August 11, 2017
This was a very interesting read. I like the idea of a Christian nation of refuge, but I'm not sure if I would give up on America just yet. The only problems I had with this fictional "llemi republic" is the direct-democracy approach to government. In a real life scenario this would most likely lead to mob rule. I support LIMITED GOVERNMENT not anarchy. Other than that it was a very interesting story and a good read!
November 1, 2025
I liked the idea of the story, but got to bogged down in the weapons descriptions. The idea of a full Christian nation was very interesting, but not very plausible in real life for me. But this is a work of fiction so I went along for that reason.
August 8, 2023
An interesting take on establishing a fictional libertarian country.
December 23, 2015
The idea of establishing a Christian nation would have wide appeal amongst those feeling harassed, ignored and outright shunned by their own governments because of their religious beliefs. The realities of being able to do such a feat would require a billionaire angel and all of the providence presented in this book.
The detail of gun lingo was lost on me as the author showcased his knowledge of weaponry. I had really hoped for more action but realize much groundwork had to be laid since we are talking about the birth of a nation.
This was also a good introduction, in practical terms, of the ideas of libertarianism and how they would play out in real life.
I am looking forward to the next book in this series!
* I received a free Advanced Reader's Copy as part of a Goodreads giveaway *
The detail of gun lingo was lost on me as the author showcased his knowledge of weaponry. I had really hoped for more action but realize much groundwork had to be laid since we are talking about the birth of a nation.
This was also a good introduction, in practical terms, of the ideas of libertarianism and how they would play out in real life.
I am looking forward to the next book in this series!
* I received a free Advanced Reader's Copy as part of a Goodreads giveaway *
March 9, 2016
This is the start of a series...a series outlining in depth the start of a new nation based on libertarian ideals and protestant christian values. Characters are sterile at this point...tough to identify with any of them....descriptions of munitions is almost endless....and almost zero spirituality. Expected more but got less. The appendix (used primarily to get the meaning of firearm acronyms and gov't agencies is approx. 40 pages). I urge less technical verbiage and more real people, with actual personalities, interaction. In this world Poland is a haven for Russian Orthodox...all the catholics are in chile, Paraguay and another country in South America. The one country in Europe that will remain catholic til it's dying day is poland.
December 19, 2016
Had to wade through the details of all the armaments the tiny nation purchased in order to sift out the plot. This book was written with a greater agenda than conveying an interesting story. In the end, it just ended, leaving me with the feeling this was a partial book, published for the sake of future books or just getting the agenda out there.
Throughout the book I couldn't help but discern the potential of greatness, but was left waiting for a sequel I'm not sure will be worth the effort. Definitely not up to the author's usual standards.
Throughout the book I couldn't help but discern the potential of greatness, but was left waiting for a sequel I'm not sure will be worth the effort. Definitely not up to the author's usual standards.
December 28, 2015
Disappointing but interesting too. It was exciting to see how the story will turn out (yes, I did pre-order the book, the premise was original enough). But sadly it ended up being war and gun "porn" and stopped being interesting because of too much politics involved in the tater part of the book. Not enough characters and characters development almost all absent. I do not know If I will be continuing to read the series, but it was still a good alternative history read.
December 18, 2015
Novel or Forecast? Hopefully a bit of both!
One wishes the leaders of our day had faith and moral compass enough to make the darkness unimaginable, but they are ignoring the warnings and selling us out to the IS demons.
Rawles suggests a faith driven forward path, one that may be our main hope is survival in these days.
Excellent read and sets the stage for what promises to be a great series.
One wishes the leaders of our day had faith and moral compass enough to make the darkness unimaginable, but they are ignoring the warnings and selling us out to the IS demons.
Rawles suggests a faith driven forward path, one that may be our main hope is survival in these days.
Excellent read and sets the stage for what promises to be a great series.
August 20, 2016
It was better the second time around
I liked this book a little better after the second time I read it. I usually love all of James Wesley Rawles books but the religious part of this book was way over my head. I am a religious person but this was for the advanced Christian not us mere folk. If his writing s any indication of his brainpower then Jim Rawles has got to be the smartest man alive, because I learned some stuff from this book.
I liked this book a little better after the second time I read it. I usually love all of James Wesley Rawles books but the religious part of this book was way over my head. I am a religious person but this was for the advanced Christian not us mere folk. If his writing s any indication of his brainpower then Jim Rawles has got to be the smartest man alive, because I learned some stuff from this book.
January 13, 2016
Liked the story. The characters aren't the best written, but they don't seem to be there for anything but to advance the history and cultural narrative of the Illemi Republic. The author is at his best in the action scenes. The action is tight and suspenseful and I got sucked in by the attention to detail about the military aspects. Overall I quite enjoyed it.
December 17, 2015
This book was ok. There may be great story here but it gets lost in too much detail about guns and ammunition. You can tell that author is a military man and knows a lot but it starts to read like a textbook. I received this book from goodreads giveaways.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews