However, it is extremely unrealistic considering the economic opportunities afforded to the protagonists.
Hey Rah45 sorry I don't understand bro, what opportunities do you mean? Karate man was a pretty normal guy without much preps to begin with.
I think you are confusing it with Patriots where the main characters had millions to expend in a retreat, personal planes, armored stuff, cars just in case etc etc.
No, I own Patriots and have Lights Out on my computer. They both have that element. I don't want to ruin it for anyone, so here it is:
SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!
The fact that he doesn't have much is realistic. The "opportunity" I'm describing is his magical boss who just happens to be one of those psychotic people who preps in order to restore order in his own private manner, ruling as a dictator. Seriously, no one is going to have a boss who gives them that much money in silver coin, gives them that much fuel, and doesn't think twice about it. That gave the characters in the book a huge edge. Was it better than Patriots? I think it was. I think it's the best WROL-scenario fiction I've read thus far. However, to say that it was realistic regarding their economic opportunities would be false. Nobody is going to magically get all that hard currency, and, furthermore, that many people aren't going to accept hard currency. In Lights Out, they were spending silver everywhere and everyone was willing to take it. In real life, people aren't necessarily going to hand over valuable goods for pieces of metal. Precious metals are only of value if there is an established economic trade system in which one ounce of a precious metal is recognized to represent "x" value of a commodity. Without that, you're back to trading what you can use for what he can use.