EMP: Equipping Modern Patriots

With a Story of Survival

By: Jonathan Hollerman

Narrated by: Kent Clark

Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's Summary

EMP: Equipping Modern Patriots is a harrowing story of survival after the destruction of the electric grid and nearly every electronic device in the country. Jonathan Hollerman paints a vivid and disturbing picture of society falling apart after an Electromagnetic Pulse attack against our nation.

Can you imagine a world with no phones, no TV, no internet, and no way to access your bank account? Without the electric grid, there would be no lights, no heating or air conditioning in your home, no public water, and the sewer could back up into your home. Without modern vehicles or interstate trucking, the supermarkets would quickly run out of food. Since the majority of the military is not hardened against an EMP, they would be unable to come to the aid of its citizens and maintain order. Our humanity is questioned when survival of the fittest becomes reality.

This is not only a thrilling story but offers practical, life-saving advice for an imminent threat. If you enjoyed Patriots by James Wesley Rawles or One Second After by William Forstchen, then you will enjoy this story of survival.

©2013 Jonathan Hollerman (P)2014 Jonathan Hollerman

Very good, but with annoyances

Overall, I found this book enjoyable and will likely buy the sequel (mentioned at the end of the presentation). There were, however, a few quirky aspects of the writing that kept nagging at me the whole time...

The dialogue in this book reminds me of an episode of "Leave it to Beaver". The story is set in the current time - people just don't talk that way! It's like the conversations from a book written in 1950 got mixed in with this story. "Gosh, son, that would be swell". I'm fine with leaving out the profanity is the author isn't comfortable with it, but it has to be believable. Large groups of people don't spontaneously break into "Amazing Grace" (yes, that really happens).

I also think the author must have an advertising deal with several companies who sell equipment to preppers, because he has a maddening habit of providing WAY too much detail about tactical equipment and firearms. As an example, I might ask my father to hand me the pistol. To be more precise, I might ask for the Ruger pistol. In this book, a character would ask for the "Ruger P-89DC semi-automatic 9 mm with a ProFab enlarged dot tritium night sight in a MavCo crossdraw holster with reinforced stitching". A simple flashlight becomes a "LightWorks D-13 LED flashlight with the optional K224-3C nylon webbed belt loop in desert camo".

Having said that, I think the story was well thought out and fun. The main characters are likable (other than their dialogue) and the EOTWAWKI storyline seems plausible and scary. This book is great at getting you to think about how you would react in the same situation - I've found myself laying awake at night imagining how I would protect my family if something similar happened at that very moment. There is plenty of action to keep the story moving quickly, but enough time is taken to discuss the specific way this group is planning survive long term. There were very few logical flaws that jumped out at me, which surprised me once I noticed the quirks above.

The narration wasn't great. Most voices are OK, but a few are so 'overdone' that they verge on being cartoon-like.

Despite all this, I'm glad I bought the book. Recommended.

Right up my line...

If you liked "One Second After," "Alas Babylon" or the new "Survivalist Series"... probably going to like this new EOTWAWKI. This one follows one member of a prepper group as he helps his non-prepper friends and extended family organize post an EMP... then joins his prepper group at their retreat and deals with out of control small town government. I keep thinking that writers will run out of interesting twists for this genre, but again I enjoyed his new twists. Very little swearing, no overt sex, no gratuitous violence... but some intense protective battles and emotional stress. This is a stand alone book, complete in one... at least so far. There is some sharing of favorite supplies and guns as he teaches his family, similar to "Patriots." No zombies or science fiction, just families figuring out how to stay alive and having courage to do it.

Wanted to Love It...Had to Force Myself to Finish

What would have made EMP: Equipping Modern Patriots better?

Sure the story line has been covered before, but it is the gift that can keep on giving if done well. Sadly, I think this one fell well short of the mark. Coming off of the A. American series I was in the right mindset and really wanted to love this book. Here's the Readers Digest version of why I didn't:

The story line was a missed opportunity, nothing about it seemed compelling - mildly interesting yes, but nothing grabbed at me.

The main characters were sterile, anachronistic, and lacked any real connection to people living in a post 1940s world. That said, their "aw-shucks" dialogue and evident sense of moral superiority camouflage a disturbing case of situational morality to which the author appears blind. There is no internal struggle and no suggestion that characters are self-aware enough to recognize their hypocrisy - that would have made the book far more interesting and readable.

Unlike some other reviewers, I don't mind the fact that the author provides granular detail about weapons and equipment. I imagine his intention was to wrap sound advice in a story. What did bother me was the ubiquitous references to prayer and the author's apparent need to bludgeon the reader with the main characters' religious piety. I don't object to books where the characters have religious beliefs, but it was over the top in this book and added nothing substantive. Rather than write that the characters prayed, the author felt the need to write out the prayers in the dialogue. I would have been far more interested in the inner-dialogue of characters as they came to grips with a new reality that challenged their religious beliefs. But alas, the characters pray out loud wrapping themselves in the blanket of moral superiority and then commit sins in the oldest of ways - without a single introspective thought about the obvious dichotomy. I can't leave this topic without noting that the author did no favors for Christianity by aggressively injecting it into this story in a way that tends to impeach its values.

From my point of view, there a a number of other flaws with this book but I've already spent more time on this than it merits. So, I will close with what may be my greatest indictment of a book that I believe was intended to serve as something of a warning and guide. It was too frequently unrealistic from a practical standpoint. Much of the author's advice sounds as though it comes from a person who learned a great deal of theory, but has little real world experience to contextualize it. I know, I know it is a work of fiction and no one has real world experience with a wide-spread EMP. Just humor me here. The author is a former Air Force SERE instructor (a very sincere thank you for your service). However, SERE does not teach urban survival in a post-apocalyptic world. Rather it teaches airmen to evade capture, survive for short periods of time, resist interrogation, and escape from captivity when the opportunity presents itself. All great skills but not directly applicable to the setting of this story. All this is to say that while A. American was able to communicate in a way that convinces the reader he's actually done the things he writes about in the Going Home series, this author sounds more like it's all something he read somewhere. Much of the advice is highly impractical and even exposes the survivor to greater danger than is necessary under the circumstances.

How could the performance have been better?

Let me preface this by saying this is no fault of the author. The narration is TERRIBLE. Seriously clownish and distracting. The narrator sounds as though he's reading a book to second graders. His attempt to give identity to character dialogue through voice tone and inflection is just painful to listen to and actually had me laughing out loud in several places. Seriously, this narrator is so off-putting that I stopped listening to the book three times before forcing myself to finish it. Should have gone with my gut at the outset...

Dont Waste a Credit

The summary suggested if you enjoyed 'Alas Babylon' and/or 'One Second After' you would probably enjoy this one. Sadly this is not the case. Both AB and OSF were riveting pieces of work with realistic dialogue and storyline. The characters in these situations are under some serious stress. This is something the author of EMP seemed to miss. The husband and wife relationship of the main characters was like something out of a Mills and Boon novel. I simply could not suspend my disbelief. The narrator did not do the story any favours. Sometimes the story was rushed and sometimes drawn out. There was no consistency and I found the narrators inappropriate expression irritating and distracting. Normally I can come to grips with less than magical narration but after two hours I gave up (reluctantly). Do NOT purchase this with the expectation that it is anything like 'Alas Babylon' or 'One Second After'. Both the story and the narration don't come anywhere near this standard.

another EMP based series

The only thing I didn't like about the book is the spiritual/religious moments. The author is clearly Christian oriented, which is fine in itself, but there is a strong influence written in the book and I struggled to get thru those moments. I do NOT mean to say that the author preaches, but there are several moments of prayer and other religious aspects that could have been restrained a bit. additionally, and likely due to the religious aspect, there is very little vulgarity written in, which is not realistic. Other than that, the book has some interesting insights within the story of survival.

Who are the looters?

If 'Christian' gets to the deserted store first, before the "looters", and packs off with thousands of dollars in goods, isn't the Christian the first looter? These characters believe they are superior... and they are not. Maybe three stars are too many?

I've read lots of "end times" books. The best is "Alas Babylon". It doesn't bombard with product names and gun types.. and has a deep sense of humanity that this effort does not convey.

Prpeeprs who are "good guys'' but also ''looters"?

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The interactions with the various different characters seemed very unnatural to me. I still cant wrap my mind around the main character being on one hand a morally upright and honest person and then in the next situation the head looter at the local dug store and grocery store? I also could not grasp the idea of bringing your pregnant wife along during potential life or death situations as a member of the ''security'' team? Worst of all is the showdown at the end of the book. I'm all for the good guys saving the day but the way the survival group interacted with the evil rich town leader was just lame. I wanted to like this book, I really did, but there was just to much nonsense to ignore.I will say in the beginning description of the effects of the EMP were interesting for about 5 min but as soon as the main character then went into ''survival mode'' and decided to start loading shopping carts with the first run of items he looted from the grocery store and then decided he and his pregnant wife would then push the carts through the snow for a few days to mom and dads house the story line left train tracks.

Did EMP: Equipping Modern Patriots inspire you to do anything?

If an emp goes of get some good bikes or even better yet a couple of good horses.

Looking forward to book number two

A very good read .
This was an excellent book and I'll definitely be looking forward to book number two in the coming months.

Terrible performance. Author is trying too hard

What could Jonathan Hollerman have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

The author tries hard to write an entertaining story and at the same time make the book educational. It would have been better if he just stuck to the story and not tried so hard to write a survival manual.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator was horrible. His deep voice was painful to listen to as he attempted to change from character to character. It was painful to listen to and this was almost the first audio book I returned for a refund.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from EMP: Equipping Modern Patriots?

If I could have edited this story I would have drastically changed the main character. The main character comes across as know it all. In the scene where he gathers his coworkers and tells them he thinks the country was attacked by an EMP he starts rambling about survival skills. It was ridiculously stupid.

Any additional comments?

I was more disappointed in the authors opinions and suggestions of survival and equipment during the story. I have served in Military Special Operations, currently work on a SWAT team and own my own firearms training business. The opinions expressed by the author concerning gas impingement weapons is false and he is spreading the myth that there is something wrong with gas impingement weapons like the standard AR15. Additionally he discusses the use of his "sniper rifle" and clearly does not have any reputable training in that skill set. At the end of the day I would rather have the author write a survival manual and detail his opinions more clearly or write a good book and not try to express his uneducated opinions.

Self Righteous,disturbing God Fearing & Gun Loving

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I bought this book on special offer, so I should not feel too bad that the experience fell below expectations. As flagged in the title the story kicks off with an EMP attack on the USA and follows the journey of Sean and his (extended ) family in surviving this event. So far, so expected. What I did not welcome was the clumsy wrapping of lectures on survival techniques into conversations between characters, the overtly religious references, the elevation of the main character to super hero , virtually worshipped by all, and the justification of looting ( ie depriving others of potentially life saving food or medicine) within hours of the event going off.

I am struggling to differentiate the behaviour of the main character and his family to roving Bandits - they break and enter, steal, threaten others with guns, to get what they want.

Speaking of which - boy, does the author love his guns, detailed descriptions of weapons, holsters, sights, almost pornographic in its drooling portayal of their destructive power.

Whilst this is not exactly untypical in books of this genre, generally other authors do a lot better with characterisation and making the reader care about what happens - so far I am struggling to engage with the story or the characters.

Any additional comments?

A book firmly crafted toward a gun toting , religious audience. Not mainstream.

Good storyline but oh the dialogue...

In retrospect, I should have guessed by the title...
It almost had me puking with the sickly holier than thou patriotic rhetoric. God save 'Christian gun toting NRA Americans'.
Recommended only for readers from the 'good old' (?!) US of 'A'. A bullet and a prayer for all of you.

Good storytelling.

Good storyline & advice on preparing for the effects of long term power failure and how society will inevitably degenerate.
The narrator of this instalment of the story is totally unsuitable I am sorry to say. I am sure Mr Clark would be great at narrating non fiction, but the lack of expression and character differentiation made it difficult to follow the story at times.
I hope the next two instalments will benefit from the change in narrator.