THE AZRIEL UPRISING BY ALLYN THOMPSON

Copyright 1982.

It is ten years after a Soviet sneak attack has decimated the United States. The cities are destroyed, and the rest of the country is occupied by the Soviets. Yet a resistance network has slowly formed and ready to launch a general uprising. The mysterious woman only known as Juanita has become a mythical figure in the resistance. She travels around the country organizing and rooting out traitors. A former Air Force Lt. Col becomes her companion and lover as they travel organizing the big uprising code named Azriel. Finally, the big day arrives, and they attack the Soviet garrison at Valdosa, Georgia.

This book has a simple idea. The Soviets have launched a surprise attack. The attack was obviously one sided as they seem to have totally caught the country off guard. The main character is a beautiful but driven woman to drive the Soviets out. This book reads like a travelogue as Juanita and her companion travel from Florida to New Hampshire and back. Along the way we find out about her past life and why she is so cold. The story ends on a high note although a major character dies.

The post nuclear world is believable with what seems to be a Soviet state in decay. The only thing we find out about the rest of the world is at the beginning there is a brief mention of an incursion by the Soviets across the Canadian border. The Canadians apparently have the political and military clout to get the Soviet commander court martialed. There is also one sentence that mentions the border wars with China and the use of human waves. Otherwise, we are left to wonder what the state of the world is. At the end during the big uprising the American rebels reveal themselves to have jets and a B-52 to transport their provisional government representatives. I would have liked to explore this further, and it would have made for an interesting sequel. Unfortunately, this is as far as I know Allyn Thompson’s first and only novel. An enjoyable standalone novel of a Soviet invasion of America.

AFTER THE ZAP BY MICHAEL ARMSTRONG

Copyright 1987.

It is after The Zap which is the explosion of a nuclear bomb(s)? that scrambled people’s brains. Nobody can remember their past. Some have special abilities like readers who can read the old words. Some are memors who can recall everything they heard since The Zap. Holmes Weatherby Aye Aye Aye is a reader. He knows his name because he read it off his ID. He has come to the People’s Republic of Alaska (PRAK) and gets involved with some crazy people on a dirigible called the Wonderblimp. They go around collecting nukes and giving them away. Only the catch is the code is implanted in the heart of a close family member. Anyway, the goal of these anarchists is to find a Zap bomb on Mt. Denali. Holmes has to battle through religious fanatics and the various crazy people that inhabit this post-Zap world.

I remember seeing this when it came out and thought about getting it. For some reason I decided not to. I saw it recently and decided to pick it up at Half Price. I will say that my younger teenage self knew what he was doing. This is a weird book and not in a good way. There were some stuff that had potential. Everyone is a bit crazy because their brains are scrambled. They give themselves names like Nike and John Deere because they were wearing something with the name on it.

Still, it was a confusing mess. I didn’t really understand the whole reason for the Zap. Was there a war or just some huge bomb. They talk about the government implanting codes into people’s hearts and giving them nukes. It has some stuff about radioactive cocaine and sled dogs that have a power to transport themselves through some type of dimension jump. The main character was revealed to be a scientist responsible for the Zap bomb. Also, apparently Japan manufactures all the guns. They are all made by Nissan. Mitsubishi and Suzuki. I have to say the writer of the book kept me interested enough to see how it ended. Only the ending wasn’t very satisfying. I don’t really recommend this book.

WRATH OF GOD BY ROBERT GLEASON

Copyright 1994.

It is the future after a nuclear war has devastated the planet. From the ruins rises a man who calls himself Tamerlane after the conqueror of old. His horde lays waste to the Eurasian continent. Now his sights are set on America. With his horde he crosses the Bering Strait and sacks New Anchorage. Other cities soon follow. Katherine Magruder is the founder of the Citadel in New Arizona. She gets correspondence from her grandson on the horde. She has a son who is a scientist at Los Alamos and combines time travel technology with Apache shamanism. He is able to bring back three people from the past. George Patton, Stonewall Jackson and Amelia Earheart. Plus, a triceratops egg that gets hatched by the pet bald eagle Betsy Ross. They manage to organize a defense against Tamerlane and his evil horde.

This was a book I just had to get when I found it back in 94′. I mean it was a post-apocalypse type book which I always love. But the whole idea of bringing back these historical figures to fight a guy who thought he was the second Tamerlane is just batshit nuts. It is indeed batshit nuts but in a good way. A very epic saga that has no grey shades in it. There is clearly a good and evil side. Tamerlane is just pure evil. He rapes and kills on a massive scale. He has The Cuddler which is his chief torturer and a sidekick Englishman named Forsythe. This combination of the three historical figures and a triceratops raised by a bald eagle sound nuts but actually works. I loved this book back then and still love it now. If you want something unique to read I would highly recommend this book.

SURVIVAL 2000 3 FROZEN FIRE BY JAMES MCPHEE

Copyright 1991.

David Rand and his son Lee, lover Zera and pit bull Melmouth continue the hunt for Shreever and his kidnapped daughters. They first run into huge grizzlies that almost tear them apart. Then they are captured by some crazy monks that want to keep them as slavers. The quest continues to a resort town and on Christmas David has to fight off an old woman and her daughter that want to keep him as her husband. Finally, they catch up with Shreever at an old, abandoned shopping mall for a final confrontation.

The final book in the series comes to a satisfying conclusion. David manages to rescue his daughters and kill Shreever. Along the way they battle a whole slew of goofy characters, grizzlies and cottonmouth snakes. The series only lasted three books and I can see why. It was a fairly mediocre series. James Laurence is a great post-apocalyptic writer, but this is not his best work. Most of the series was our main characters wandering around and miraculously finding stuff. There were some good moments and action scenes. Yet it just felt like filler to sell some books. An OK read that I don’t regret getting but not highly recommended.

SURVIVAL 2000 2 RENEGADE WAR BY JAMES MCPHEE

Copyright 1991

David Rand with his teenage son Lee, lover Zera and pit bull Melmouth continue the hunt to rescue his two daughters. The quest takes them through western Montana. Along the way they pick up a doctor and another young woman. They catch up with Sheever and his army deserters. Only a massive volcano eruption stops a final confrontation.

The second book in the series is a bit of a letdown. For an action book series there was very little action going on. It was more of a travelogue with the group wandering around. They find a stocked cabin with food. They go to a whorehouse and have a confrontation with two of Sheever’s men. They pick up a black doctor who gets killed. They find another well stocked house with a woman who joins them. She gets killed too. They cross a frozen lake, and a volcano interrupts the final confrontation. Oh, and they beat up an old woman for some food. Nothing really impressive to this entry. Sort of like the author had to write three books and just phoned this one in.

SURVIVAL 2000 1 BLOOD QUEST BY JAMES MCPHEE

Copyright 1991.

In 2049 an asteroid hit the Earth and destroys civilization. Dave Rand and his teenage son Lee along with their pit bull Melmouth are camping in New Mexico. After some time, they make their way home to California. They find a postcard in the mail that says his wife and two daughters decided to spend time with their grandmother in Montana. Thinking they may still be alive they travel to Montana and pick up a teenage girl named Zora on the way. They make it to Montana only to find that a group of army deserters lead by Shreever has killed his wife and taken the two daughters.

Back in the nineties Gold Eagle released a number of new series. They only lasted three books, and this was their attempt to establish a new apocalypse series after the collapse of the USSR. This one used an asteroid hit in the far future. It was written by Laurence James a British author responsible for the first 30 books of the popular Deathlands series. He also did another trilogy for Gold Eagle called Earth Blood. This series is similar to those. It isn’t his best, but it does a good job of telling an interesting story. The first book does a good job of setting up this world. Introducing the characters and setting up the main villain. A fun book to read.

TRAVELER #13 GHOST DANCERS BY D.B. DRUMM

Copyright 1987.

Reports are coming of strange things going on. The dead are returning, and people are committing mass suicides. There are also reports that the Russians have rebuilt themselves and are prowling around with nuclear submarines. Traveler gets a visit from an old friend that he has to go back to the pueblo. So, he burns his home and the Meat Wagon and heads to the southwest. Along the way he stops at New Washington and finds out that a fundamentalist Christian who is defense secretary wants to start a nuclear war with Russia so the rapture will occur. Traveler finds that baby Alexander who he saved in Mexico has now grown into a teen. Alexander has great wisdom and is putting people through some quantum portal to escape the coming nuclear war. Traveler isn’t interested in starting life over in an alternate dimension so opts to go back in time. He will kill President Frayling and stop the first nuclear war. Only he ends up in the Veteran’s hospital just before Christmas Eve 1989. He has to get to Washington but naturally everyone thinks he is nuts and drug and put him in a strait jacket. A psychologist finally believes him, but it is too late. WWIII starts and Traveler finds himself back at the beginning.

The final book in the series was a fairly big nothing. Not much happens. People see visions and kill themselves. A fanatic takes over the government and starts WWIV. Endless conversations on quantum physics. Must have recently read Stephen Hawkings. Traveler travels back and ends up at the place he started from in the first book. The book ends with literally the first chapter of the first book. It ends with ” Traveler had a problem with time. He would always have a problem with time”

I read a review that stated this was both a daring move and stupid at the same time. Possibly but I liked this ending. It has Traveler stuck in some never-ending time loop. Doomed to forever go through the events of the series. Somehow that appealed to me when I first read it and still does. Ed Naha wrote a very pessimistic book. I suppose for a radical leftist the eighties were a very pessimistic time.

My final thoughts on this series. I loved it. This has to be the best of the road warrior type books to come out. It was pure pulpy cheezy fun. Of the two writers I would have to say that John Shirley was the better. He wrote the first half and delivered a coherent storyline with a beginning, middle and end. Ed Naha is a good writer but uneven. He started out strong with the first book. After he took over, some were brilliant, and some weren’t. He tried new stuff which was hit or miss. Part of his problem is taking the series into something else it wasn’t meant to be. He also has a tendency to go into left wing rants. Still, I have fond memories of this series and reread it a number of times. After all these years it still remains a fun read.

TRAVELER #12 THE PREY BY D.B. DRUMM

Copyright 1987.

Traveler gets news that he has a brain tumor and little time to live. He gets a call from his old pal Orwell who now heads up the rebuilt CIA that he has a job for Traveler. Going to New Washington which is just outside Las Vegas, he gets recruited for a mission. Young couples are being kidnapped from an oil rig turned into a gambling casino out in the Gulf of Mexico. Going under cover with a female agent and posing as a couple they head down. They do get kidnapped, and Traveler finds himself part of some mad scientist’s experiment. He has genetically created an ultimate predator that he will take over the world with. He puts Traveler in an island wilderness to survive for 24 hours to save his wife and his life. Thus begins a deadly game of cat and mouse with a fearsome creature.

This entry in the series is somewhat of a dud. Obviously, it is an adaptation of The Most Dangerous Game which I always considered a mediocre story. This was a fairly mediocre story also. The kooky scientist is the son of the guy who developed the neurotoxin that Traveler was dosed with before the war. He finds out that he doesn’t have a brain tumor but is evolving to a higher stage of evolution.

The story is competently written and keeps your interest. What I didn’t care for was that it just gets rid of the post-nuclear world. Everything is now back to normal. This could have been a story in a Mack Bolan or Destroyer book. Set in contemporary times or any point in the past or future. The cool post-nuke world filled with roadrats and mutants is gone. When you take that away you basically take the reason for this series to exist. Which with the next book we will see brings an end to Traveler’s travels.

TRAVELER #11 THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE BY D.B. DRUMM

Copyright 1987.

The country is starting to get back on its feet. Traveler finds out that people now want nothing to do with mercenaries. After being run out of a town he decides to head over to the California coast and spend some time at the beach. In the small community of Bay City, Traveler gets involved with some teen kids that discovered the police chief is up to something. Traveler manages to infiltrate the corrupt police chief’s organization and save the mayor. Along the way he has to deal with some bratty kids, a shrew of a mother and a ruthless mercenary. He finds out that the evil President Frayling is behind the takeover of Bay City. He has gathered an army with neurotoxin and nuclear bombs to take out the fledgling new government and install himself as ruler. Thanks to the kids with Traveler, they are able to destroy his base and Traveler contemplates going after Frayling who said he was going to China.

This book was the beginning of the end for this series. Kind of like a Mad Max meets the Goonies. While technically not a bad book. It was interesting and well written, it just seemed to be losing its road warrior vibe. The country is getting back to normal. There is electricity, telephones and canned beer. Teen kids now have time to solve mysteries like the Scooby gang. There is a lot of left-wing rants about how bad America is. It was hinted that Traveler might start traveling to China. Sort of take this series to other parts of the world and explore that. I cool idea but nothing came of it.

TRAVELER #10 HELL ON EARTH BY D.B. DRUMM

Copyright 1986.

Traveler is living at an Indian Pueblo as the storyteller. He tells stories to the mutant outcast children. He had a bit of a nervous breakdown after seeing a roadrat massacre and tried to kill himself. Only the village shaman saved him and took him back to the pueblo. One day his old friend Link is found wandering in the desert. He tells of being a prisoner in literally a hell of Earth. Before disintegrating he tells Traveler that his old girlfriend Jan is also a prisoner. Traveler quits being storyteller and goes back to being Traveler to rescue his girl.

He meets up with an old man in a trailer who claims to be the Archangel Michael. He tells Traveler that Satan is building his Hell on Earth. Traveler thinks the guy is some government scientist gone nuts and his archenemy Frayling is behind this Hell. He joins forces with St. Michael, and they do find a Hell being built on Earth. It is patterned after Dante’s Inferno with all the various levels. All being reached by escalators. They make their way to the final level and confront the evil that is responsible for this Hell on Earth.

Naha decided to take the classic story of Dante’s and make it into a Traveler story. I loved this book. It is probably my favorite of the series. A real modern updating of this story with the first level for the virtuous pagans being some sort of fifties version of Leave it to Beaver. Throughout this story the reader is left to wonder if this is really Hell or just some demented creation of the evil Frayling. I know that Niven/Pournelle did a modern update and that is the only one of their books I so far never got around to reading. I did buy it last year and hope to rectify this oversight.

I won’t give away the ending, but it was a very satisfying conclusion. Sadly, this was the pinnacle for this series. After this book it started to go downhill.