Friday, June 04, 2010

Review: Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life

Emergency, track's Niel Strauss' attempts to prepare himself for TEOTWAWKI - or in laymen's terms: The End Of The World As We Know It. In doing so, he tries out every strategy he can get his hands on - from attaining dual citizenship, to learning wilderness survival. Heck, he even goes as far as attending a cryogenic freezing seminar.

For quite some time, this book kept me guessing where he was going with this quest. It became obvious in a hurry, that Emergency isn't a How To book. While Strauss learns all kinds of new skills, the book doesn't attempt to teach them in any depth.

My next thought was that the book was serving as a sort of introduction to the survivalist movement, and how you'd be a fool not to see the signs that society is crumbling. I got pretty frustrated with this theme, as I think much of the evidence he presents is pretty weak. For example - he suggested the retina scan behind Clear Card is some sort of ultimate government Big Brother program. When of course, it's just an accurate way to record your identity.

In the end, though, the book is really much more positive than that. I don't want to ruin the end of the story, so, suffice to say, the quest is a long one - but one that's worth following to the end.

Suffice to say, the book was a lot more thought provoking than I thought it was going to be. If you're looking for a guide to surviving the apocalypse -- this isn't it. If you're for a story about improving your life in unexpected ways, well, then, this book is worth a read.

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