c.2019, Chicago Review Press
$16.99 ($22.99 Canada)
240 pages
Three. Two. One.
Boom, and the world still exists. There was no cataclysm, no complete grid failure, no total world anarchy — at least not yet, but are you prepared? You know — and as you’ll see in “Apocalypse Any Day Now” by Tea Krulos — anything can happen.
Or not. For centuries, doomsday stories have circulated through human cultures and they pop up with regularity even now, as Krulos points out. Our first end-of-the-world prediction was made shortly after America became a country, and the latest one to make news isn’t likely the last one.
Knowing that, and knowing that “TEOTWAWKI” (The End of the World as We Know It) might be nigh, Krulos decided to learn what to do when it actually happened. Starting near his Wisconsin hometown, he talked with preppers who explained that planning is the key to survival in the worst of times. It also helps to have a garden and the support of your loved ones.
So what if zombies attack? Be aware that you shouldn’t follow advice from your favorite movie. Neither should you rejoice if you find a space pod to shuttle you to another planet; remember, Krulos says, aliens might come here first.
He spoke with a human-like robot that can evade questions while having a conversation. In talking with her creator, Krulos learned that robots have been known to develop and share their own language with one another, but not with scientists — and that maybe there aren’t enough roadblocks to keep that from happening again.
He took a disaster-related survival course and learned to live off the land, and he looked at bug-out bags for sale at conferences and seminars. He toured a pricey underground condo, also learning that surviving the Apocalypse in style ain’t cheap. And he studied TEOTWAWKI predictions, noting that we really could witness the End — if we could just manage to survive long enough.
The Bible says we know not the day, nor the hour. The Doomsday Clock says we’re dangerously close to worldwide destruction. In “Apocalypse Any Day Now,” author Tea Krulos finds everything in between, and it’s scary-fun to read about.
And yet, despite its obvious tongue-in-cheekiness, what you’ll learn inside this book is serious stuff. Armageddon doesn’t happen every day, for example, but natural disasters do, and preparation could make the difference between surviving and dying. You might not spend hours thinking about total devastation, but what goes on behind scientific doors and in government offices surely gives plenty of people plenty of sleepless nights. Yes, some of what Krulos finds is silly, and its practitioners plainly seem to know that. The followers of other survival ideas, though?
Keep reading, and let’s just say that you might start looking for an old backpack…
Astute readers will notice, overall, that one word keeps floating to the top of this highly-entertaining, highly-informative book: hope. It’s what preppers want, what survivalists take on bug-outs, and what “Apocalypse Any Day Now” leaves readers with. And really, isn’t that all you really want in … three, two, one….?