This is a list of the five best nov­els I’ve come across (and Ive read many) for prep­per fic­tion.. they are not in any par­tic­u­lar order. The cri­te­ria I used to add a book to this short list is as fol­lows: 1) a good sto­ry line; did the book have a sto­ry line capa­ble of keep­ing me turn­ing the pages? 2) it has use­ful info; does the book have infor­ma­tion worth­while for me and oth­er prep­pers about how to prep for and sur­vive a cat­a­stro­phe? 3) its plau­si­ble; does the basic premise of the sto­ry war­rant prep­ping for and is it sur­viv­able? There are many such books avail­able and some may excel at one of the above cri­te­ria but tak­en as a whole these rep­re­sent the five best Ive come across. If you know of a book you think should be added sound off in the com­ments sec­tion.

One Second After by William R. Forstchen

This New York Times best sell­er brought the idea of sur­viv­ing a grid down event out of the realm of prep­per fic­tion to main­stream fic­tion. This book is a great read about an EMP caused by a rogue nation full of use­ful info about a grid down sce­nario the social unrest that fol­lows and the steps tak­en by an iso­lat­ed moun­tain town to sur­vive. It has two sequel nov­els that was equal­ly as good but not as good as the first as a prep­per resource. I actu­al­ly give this book as a Christ­mas gift to peo­ple I think are ready to enter the world of prep­pers and may be look­ing for a place to start.

The Jakarta Pandemic by Steven Konkoly

This book has been very well received with over 1000 reviews and over 4 stars on Ama­zon reviews. This is a great read about a dead­ly flu strain that spreads through­out the world; our main char­ac­ter must pro­tect him­self and his fam­i­ly from not only the virus but the social unrest that fol­lows from rule of law being nonex­is­tent. There is a fol­low-up stand-alone nov­el called The Per­sied Col­lapse but it has less use­ful info than the first.

EMP: Equipping Modern Patriots: A Story of Survival by Jonathan Hollerman

This nov­el about an EMP caused by a rogue nation may be not as well known as One Sec­ond After but it is still worth men­tion­ing in this list due to the mas­sive amounts of use­ful infor­ma­tion that author has put into its pages. Our main char­ac­ters in a run-of-the-mill Penn­syl­va­nia town have been part of a prep­per group for sev­er­al years and are well pre­pared for a cat­a­stro­phe but still find sur­viv­ing dif­fi­cult in the result­ing grid down Amer­i­ca. There are vol­umes 2 and 3 in this series and you’ll more than like­ly find your­self fol­low­ing the sto­ry to its con­clu­sion.

299 Days by Glen Tate

This is actu­al­ly a series of 10 books each of them a quick and good read about the result of a finan­cial col­lapse and how our main char­ac­ter and his com­mu­ni­ty in the Pacif­ic North­west sur­vive (and ulti­mate­ly thrive) in post apoc­a­lypse amer­i­ca. Read­ing these will prompt you to get involved in firearms train­ing phys­i­cal fit­ness food stor­age and oth­er aspects of prep­ping you may be lack­ing in… or give you ideas on how to improve preps you’ve already made.

Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse by James Wesley Rawles

This is the first book I read on prep­ping… and may very well be the first book many prep­pers read on prep­ping… its kind of the book that start­ed it all (its in its fourth edi­tion now) In Patri­ots our main char­ac­ters are part of a sur­vival group that retreats to rur­al ida­ho after a finan­cial col­lapse; the book details how they pre­pared for and sur­vived food short­ages unrest and even­tu­al­ly a gov­ern­ment restart. There are sev­er­al fol­low up books by Rawles but none com­pare to the info put forth in his orig­i­nal.

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