POCKETS OF RESISTANCE BY WILL SUNDOWN

Copyright 1990.

It is the future and America is an authoritarian police state. Hovik is a former Marine who got caught selling guns to the resistance and is now at a prison camp in Nevada. Hovik isn’t himself a very political man but he is caught up in the bureaucracy so now is assigned to this camp for political prisoners. One day there is an escape and the commandant decides to send all those that were in the work detail that didn’t escape to Camp 351. The prisoners sent to this camp are rumored to be part of medical experiments and no one ever returns. So while being transported, Hovik escapes. With him is a young timid computer hacker. The two evade the security forces and make it to San Francisco. He hooks up with the local resistance and agrees to lead an assault on Camp 351. So with a bunch of “amateurs, losers and psychos” he must assault a guarded camp and shove the government’s germ warfare project down their throats.

What strikes me the most about this book is how not dated it seems even though its thirty years old. There are endless wars in the Middle East. Everyone uses credit cards because cash is discouraged so the government has more control over the people. The whole government is not really an Orwellian one but a half-assed authoritarian one. Described as a car that just slowly falls apart over time. Something that comes about over time because of neglect and apathy. One where the real power is faceless bureaucrats that operate behind the scenes. In one scene one of these bureaucrats shows a political prisoner one of his books. He states that they aren’t illegal to own although not on the approved list for schools or libraries. That with over half the population functionally illiterate and only one in ten even being able to understand what the book is about. So they don’t even care if they exist.

Hovik the hero is an anti-hero in the vein of Snake Plissken. A tough old guy who got kicked out of the Marines and spend most of his life in petty criminal ventures. The resistance is as much an enemy as the government. They knew about the camp but want it intact for propaganda purposes. They seem more interested in their own power and conducting purges. The author clearly has a distrust of those on the left and right as being the same power hungry individuals. So Hovik and this group find out that the camp was developing a virus to cleanse the world of undesirables. Something that they inadvertently release causing a global pandemic.

The author has a dedication at the beginning that acknowledges all those in DC and elsewhere that are working tirelessly to make books like this believable. Sadly that seems more true then thirty years ago.

THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR BY BILL S. BALLINGER

Copyright 1975.

It is 2012 and civilization has collapsed. A combination of plague, famine, pollution and war has reduced humanity to small enclaves. One enclave in New York called the Barony is ruled by the Baron. The Baron manages to recruit a new champion in Carson. The Barony has successful farming thanks to a genius who has developed seeds resistant to disease. Yet the Barony is slowly dying and the Baron has plans for Carson to take his granddaughter who is pregnant out of the city to a safe island off the coast of North Carolina. An attack by a vicious warlord named Carrot forces the Baron’s plan to be moved up. So now Carson with the seeds to guarantee the future must guide a pregnant woman about to give birth through the subway tunnels. Hot on his heels is Carrot and his murderous gang.

This is a novelization of the Yul Brynner movie. I first saw this movie as a kid late at Saturday night. It was a creepy movie that did a good job of depicting a bleak and hopeless future. The book was a good adaptation to the movie. It really excelled in the fight scenes which were a bit flat in the movie. The writer and director of the movie Robert Clause is known for mostly kung-fu movies most notably Enter the Dragon. Now Yul Brynner looked real badass shirtless but lets face it, her was no Bruce Lee. One difference from the movie is at the end Carson and Melinda meet up with a group of friendly survivors recruiting for a new commune in New Jersey. This must have been in the original screenplay and dropped. It was a good idea to drop this. It felt contrived and awkward. Better to have the two continue on to the island as the movie did.

Here is the trailer for the movie.

DARK ANGEL AFTER THE DARK BY MAX ALLEN COLLINS

Copyright 2003.

The transgenics of Terminal City have now been excepted by normal human society. They have set up a profitable arts and crafts business. Soon they will get representation on the city council. The only problem is Ames White the NSA agent. Now on the run from the government and his snake cult people. Captured in Canada by the snake cult Ames makes a deal. He will deliver Max to the cult. So he hires a Seattle gang to kidnap Logan Cale. Now Max and her fellow transgenics must track down White. The trail leads to a cult run mental institution and their plan to rule the world when a comet comes on Christmas 2021 that will release a plague on the world.

Well the final book in the trilogy. This one tied up a lot of loose ends from the series. It comes back to me as I read it. Kind of forgot how goofy the second season was with its snake breeding cult and the genetic virus that infected Max and Logan. This was because the producer thought the two were getting too close and wanted to preserve the sexual tension. The virus was gone because in the last book Kelpy took on the likeness of Logan and that somehow made the virus go away. We also find out the snake breeding cults plan. That two thousand years ago a comet left a virus that could wipe out humanity but they were breeding themselves to have immunity. Only the founder of Manticore was the father of Ames White and gave Max the cure in her DNA. So she could produce a cure for the world. Only the comet does come and nothing happens. A very anti-climatic ending. Oh and Max and Logan finally get together. Plus it set up that the next season would be the search for Max’s mother.

The trilogy was an interesting read. Not necessarily high quality but an enjoyable romp down nostalgia lane. It was interesting to get some closure on the series and what was planned for it. I suppose it would have worked for a TV series. If your a fan of the series I would recommend.

DARK ANGEL SKIN GAME BY MAX ALLEN COLLINS

Copyright 2003.

The transgenics are now trapped inside Terminal City. A deserted part of Seattle that was abandoned after chemical spills. Only the transgenics can survive exposure to the chemicals. Now the police and National Guard surround Terminal City. The press thanks to NSA agent Ames White who has his own ulterior motives is fueling the hate and fear in the news. Max the X-5 who has become the leader for the transgenics tries to negotiate a peaceful solution. Unfortunately a transgenic is stalking the city and skinning people alive. The fear grows and soon the National Guard will storm Terminal City. Max and her friends go after the serial killer who turns out to be Kelpy. Kelpy is make from chameleon DNA and wants to build himself a human skin suit. Max and her friends also find out Kelpy is being manipulated by White. Now they must capture Kelpy and expose the plot by White.

So the second season was a departure from the first. It introduced a whole bunch of transgenics and sort of had a X-men type story of transgenics vs. normal people. It left off with them trapped in Terminal City and their decision to stand and fight. The books gives the first chapter over to the final part of the season final to refresh readers memories of that episode. While once again it reads like an average TV episode it does give us what was going to happen in the third season if this show was renewed. Through a contrived story they manage to expose White on national TV and make peace with regular society. It was nice to have some insight into where this series planned on going. A great book for fans of the show but otherwise would hold no interest to those that never watched the series.

Season two trailer.

DARK ANGEL BEFORE THE DAWN BY MAX ALLAN COLLINS

Copyright 2002

It is 2009 in Gilette, Wyoming and a group of young transgenics escape from the Manticore facility. Max and her siblings were breed to be genetic super-soldiers for the government. Max manages to hook up with a kindly woman and adopted into her family. Eventually the abusive father forces her to flee and she makes her way to a street gang living in the abandoned Mann Chinese theater in Hollywood. The gang survives in this post-pulse America. A dystopian world where terrorists set off an electro-magnetic pulse that sends the country into third world status. One day she sees a pirate video from Eyes Only that shows one of her brother transgenics Seth that escaped with her. So she heads off to Seattle and along the way makes friends with Original Cindy. The two get jobs at a bike messenger service called Jam Pony. Yet the evil Colonel Lydecker from Manticore is hot on her trail. Along with a billionaire computer mogul involved in smuggling art, the Russian leader of a gang from L.A. that wiped out her former gang and Colonel Lydecker all meet up at the abandoned Space Needle for a big showdown.

Back at the turn of the century James Cameron fresh off his success with Titanic developed a new series. It was a cyberpunk series set in the future of 2019 after a terrorist attack crashes the U.S. economy. I found it an enjoyable series but it was a victim of poor timing. The cyberpunk genre was at its end. Also the 9/11 attacks soured people on a dystopian future when the present was looking pretty dark. Kind of fun to read about the future of 2019 when you are actually living in 2019. Reading it you see that the 2019 envisioned is really transporting the nineties to 2019. Which is what most future based stories are. Just transposing the present to the future.

A trilogy was released after the series was cancelled. This one was a prequel to the pilot and gives some backstory to what Max did in the years between her escape and ending up in Seattle. An OK story if reading somewhat like an average TV show. Still brings back a lot of nostalgic memories for this forgotten TV series.

AIKI BY JOHN GILBERT

Copyright 1986.

In this future dystopian world society is highly chaste based. There are the professionals or those with technical skills and live in enclaves and the untouchables which are the vast poor. Both sides have one thing in common the Arena. In this future professional wrestlers compete in gladiatorial games. Games that are fought with a variety of weird weapons and to the death. Lately there have been a growing number of desertions from the military. A group known as Aiki or in Japaneses spiritual harmony has been spreading.

Into this comes Capitan who is a monitor in the group and runs a dojo in Brooklyn. His involvement eventually gets him involved with the Arena. The main champion Mantis who started the blood sports and wants to fight Capitan. A novel filled with deep mystical eastern philosophy of good and evil battle for the future.

So this book is one that by mom found in the dollar bin at Walgreens and thought I would like. She said it reminded her of the movie The Running Man which we had just recently seen. Yes there are some similarities with a future of gladiator death sports televised. I remember that when I read this a new game show called American Gladiators had come out. No to the death fights on it but got me wondering if that was the future down the road. It still does since a decaying society does turn to more extreme bread and circuses.

Now this was a book I would have never bought on my own. The title doesn’t engage me and the cover was also not that exciting. Which is probably why it was in the dollar bin at Walgreens. I found this to be an enjoyable read. A future where the government had infiltrated the martial arts to coop them. There was a sort of hubris to how the death sports in the Arena came about. Mantis at a match in Tokyo asked the audience for a thumbs up or down. When they gave the thumbs down he obliged. Then argued in court that it was hypocritical for the government to allow lethal weapons in the Arena that did at times result in death but condemn him when he follows the will of the audience. A somewhat believable outcome for a society in decay.

Capitan and Mantis are the personification of good and evil. There is a lot of deep mysticism to the story. I found that reading this the future it envisioned didn’t seem that dated after all these years. Sure there are some things like a Soviet Union still around and they use land lines. Otherwise the future was still believable. This was John Gilbert’s first and to my knowledge only novel. A nice little happy accident thanks to my mom.

AMERICA UNDEAD BY PHIL ELMORE

Copyright 2017.

It is the future in this dystopian America. Vampires have been outed to the world. Now one is President of the United States. Woodrow Braslov of the Social Democrats is now President for life. The military is deployed overseas to fight endless unwinnable wars. His army of Fedvamps along with militia from Muslim enclaves enforce his rule. In truth Braslov is a former Turkish officer Altan Bin Ramseur who was turned and left to die impaled on a pike by none other than Vlad Tepes aka Dracula himself. His eventual goal is a worldwide caliphate with himself as its leader.

There is a resistance. Taggart Jones a Thompson sub-machinegun toting member gets involved with Vincent Harden. Hardan a vampire since the Revolutionary War has just become the leader of the Cousinry. An ancient order of vampires that are dedicated to living in peace with humans. The two join forces to rescue Adam the world’s first vampire from captivity. Adam holds secrets that would expose Braslov and his plans.

This is the first in a series from the estate of Jerry and Sharon Ahern. Jerry had this as an idea and hired Elmore to help write it. One of the many examples where deceased authors continue to live on with others writing their creations. I loved this book. It had a fascinating dystopian future that was believable even without vampires. I know the Twilight series probably did an incredible amount of damage to vampire stories. Thankfully this helps reverse that damage. The vampires in this world are basically invincible. They are burned by direct sunlight but not killed. They instantaneously regenerate their bodies. Bullets will be popped out and limbs or eyes grow back. There was a funny scene where Harding is driving a truck and taking hits from bullets that are going through is cheek and knocking out teeth. His thoughts are this is going to hurt a lot. The only way to kill one is fire, decapitation or starving them of blood. The Cousinry feed only on animal blood. The bad guys of course prefer human. An enjoyable new series that I look forward to for the next book.

CHRISTMAS SLAUGHTER BY MARK GRANT

Copyright 1991.

The Christmas holiday is approaching and the mutants are getting ready to celebrate. Seems they have adopted the holiday are their own and celebrate with presents and carols such as “We Wish You A Mutie Christmas.” Things are looking bad for humans. Emperor Charlemagne has a plan for the final solution. Dr. Narfod Moonguley a graduate of MIT(Mutant Institute of Technology) and Time’s Mutant of the Year is heading a diabolical plan. Forming Planned Genocide Inc. humans deemed surplus are being shipped to the P.G. Pyramid in New San Francisco. There they are ground up and the needed DNA is extracted and stored for future use.

So the human rebels hear and send their best which is Max Turkel and his companions Jack Bender and Phil Potts. They go into New San Francisco to find the local resistance The Cleavers. Named after the sixties radical Eldridge Cleaver the group has a suicidal fanaticism in fighting the mutants. Lead by Hosannah Brown the African Queen they conduct raids that slaughter mutants all over the city. Max and friends also get a new ally in SU912. SU stands for seduction unit. A terminator unit that was created to specifically assassinate Max. Unfortunately the mutants gave it too much initiative and the unit is disgusted with the mutants and goes over to the resistance. Called Sue she is a beautiful redhead who is nearly indestructible and very deadly. The rebels attack the mutants operations in a final action packed assault.

So what is more festive than a killer mutant in a Santa Claus outfit. The final book in the series came out in December and the writer decided to have it occur during Christmas. Now David Bischoff wrote the first four. This was written by a Bruce King. I admit I didn’t notice a change in the writing style. He kept up the same elements. A goofy plot, funny names and plenty of action and gratuitous sex. San Francisco in the mutant future apparently attracts the counter-culture types as it did when the world was human. There are hippy mutants. Gay mutants. Hare Krishna Mutants. Of course all are gleefully gunned down by the human rebels. They get great pleasure in shooting down mutants as they go about the holiday shopping or Christmas caroling.

One part of Charlemagne’s plan is he is disgusted by human reproduction and wants them to not enjoy it. Dr. Moonguley seems to have had some success as our heroes find out when they are captured and taken for breeding.

“I don’t collect the sperm samples, sweetie.” she said as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “I just get you primed for the collector.”
The door opened then, and through it rolled another of the insectoid robotic assistants. Turkel took a dislike to it on the spot. The machine rolled silently over to him, and from the assortment of apparatus with which it was covered, something that looked like a metallic mouth glided forward unerringly and enveloped his stalwart tool.
“Excuse me, but I’m picky about where I put my prong, okay?” Max declared. “Agh!” The orifice had just clamped tightly around the poker. “Well, the appetizer was terrific, but I don’t think I’m going to enjoy the main course,” he said to the girl who still stood by the door.
“That’s a real safe bet, baby. Believe me,” she said.
Then the robot turned on the vacuum and the voltage, and Maximillian Turkel’s sexual horizons were once again expanded as he bellowed what he thought of Charlemagne.

Interesting that this book dropped the Mutants Amok. I don’t know if this was some new marketing ploy. I think the publisher knew that this series time was limited. This book is hard to find because of a small print run. I was lucky to find it going for $10. Used ones are going for $35 and new over $400. So if you find one at a garage sale or bookstore you should grab it. Might make a good profit.

Now I think the writers had fun writing this series. I know I had fun reading it. Probably the publisher came up with the idea and David Bischoff seeing how goofy it was just let himself go. A fun way to end the year. So next year I’ll be back with something more down to Earth. Until then have yourself a Mutie Christmas and Happy New Year.

MUTANTS AMOK #4 HOLOCAUST HORROR BY MARK GRANT

Copyright 1991.

Emperor Charlemagne is up to no good. He has recruited a turncoat human Edward Wilkins. Wilkin’s grandfather was a nuclear scientist and hid some nuclear weapons at a secret location in Arizona. Now Charlemagne is close to possessing nuclear weapons which he plans to use in conquering the world. Braingeneral Hartan is appalled at the thought of nuclear weapons that could start a new arms race and mutants being mutants would most likely destroy the world. So he notifies his reluctant ally Max Turkel.

Turkel is hanging out in the deserts of Southern California with his buddies Jack Bender, Phil Potts and Jill Morningstar. The human resistance has already found out Charlemagne’s plan. Now they have to battle the Braingeneral Fixx who is in charge of security. He has a new mutant weapon the Rotants, a hybrid of humans and rats. He also has advanced cyborgs. It all ends in a spectacular nuclear exploding final.

Well this book has a lot going on. First Jack Bender loses his girlfriend Jill in a raid. He is despondent although coming to the realization that she was batshit cuckoo. Unfortunately he is such a stud he isn’t allowed to get some time of morning without some girl crawling into his bed. A girlfriend of Phil’s develops the hots for him and he wakes up and finds her in bed with him. He also sleeps in the nude and wonders if maybe he should stop doing it. He does manage to convince her to sleep with Phil so he can finally get some rest. Apparently he has been having sex almost constantly since he was fifteen and likes the time off. This guy has had a hard life.

Max finds himself a girl in Captain Marty Abrahams of the 47th Guerrilla Division of the General Resistance Movement. Here is a quote that describes her leadership style.

When she caught her men looking at her, the usual dialogue went something like this.
“Soldier, you looking at my boobs or my butt?”
“Uh…Well…”
“You wanna fuck me, mister?”
“No sir!”
“Why not?”
“I-uh-I…”
“If I catch you looking at me like that again, soldier, I want you ready to get down and dirty. But I gotta warn you, asshole. You don’t get it up, you don’t keep it up, you come too soon… or in any way, shape or form you ain’t man enough to satisfy me.. I’m gonna cut your balls, eat’em for breakfast, and do a review of the meal for Stars and Stripes!”
Then she’d start unbuckling her belt and the man would invariably not only back off, but never even think of her in a lewd way again.
Which was okay with Captain Marty Abrahams.
She’d rather kill mutants than fuck any day.

Sounds like a real high maintenance girl to me. Still her and Turkel hit is off.

“Oh Jeez. Oh, you bastard.”
“MMMMMMph!” said Turkel.
“Okay, okay. Fuck me!”
“HmmmmmmmMMMMMMPH!”
“Oh..Jesus…Okay. GOD! Fuck me Turkel..Please!”
Turkel stood up and dropped his pants. Old Faithful was saluting the officer before it, eager to storm the gates. He spread her legs and she groaned with gratification as he slid his swollen self into her hot and glistening center. Soon enough Turkel didn’t care who might be watching. All he knew was that if someone was, he should charge for this incredible performance.

Well some other interesting tidbits. The renegade scientist is assigned an Igor. A mutant designed to be a lab assistant. They are called Igor because of a second brain stored in a hump on the back. Dr. Wilkin’s abuse of his Igor named Trevor results in Trevor turning on him at the end. And also forgot but last book we learn that the country they are in is called The United States of Canada. The rebels are also well equipped. They have tanks and hinted they have B-52s.

So there is one final book in the series. Appropriately enough it came out in December and was a Christmas themed book. So it is only appropriate that I will have the review on Christmas day. Its festive title and cover demand a posting on that day.

MUTANTS AMOK #3 REBEL ATTACK BY MARK GRANT

Copyright 1991.

Max Turkel has escaped his captivity and has news that Jack Bender’s girl Jennifer is still alive. She has been taken to Hollywood to appear in a mutant snuff film. So the next thing for the group is to head on to L.A. They first hijack an armored RV and after killing a few Mutant Highway Patrolmen are off to Hollywood. Along the way Max finds out he can’t drink alcohol anymore. This is because Braingeneral Hartan has replaced his liver with a mechanical one. It also can pop out of his abdomen and talk. Seems Hartan wants to make sure that Turkel honors his agreement. He supports going to L.A. and wants the group to assassinate one Martin Luther ‘Hairy’ Kahn. Kahn is the big shot producer in Hollywood. He is described as a villain, a thief, a murderer, a child molester, a pervert and worst of all a thundering bore. Sounds like Hollywood hasn’t changed after the mutant apocalypse.

Meanwhile Jennifer is cast in Kahn’s next big production Blade Babes from Babylon. Directed by Foxtrot Bennington-Spleen. Jennifer’s only friend is Algernon Waugh an English mutant who is the casting director. She falls in love with the mutant. Unfortunately she doesn’t know that she is to be killed so her DNA can be combined with Marilyn Monroe so the that industry can crank out an endless supply of beautiful blond actresses to use.

So Max, Jack Bender, Phil Potts and Jill Morningstar arrive in L.A. They find it a polluted city with twenty-four hour gridlock and overrun by gangs that have the DNA of Chicano and Black gangs from the Twentieth Century. Once again sounds like nothing has changed after the mutant apocalypse. They go to Max’s halfsie contact who is a clone of Elvis Presley. An Elvis fanatic created a whole bunch and later was hunted down by his creations and stabbed with a sharpened guitar neck. They fight their way to the studio and in a spectacular showdown defeat Kahn. Jennifer decides she loves Algernon Waugh and will accompany him to New York where he got a job as an editor for a book publisher.

Just when you think it couldn’t get more outrageous or crazy the author outdoes himself. So where to begin. The talking liver that Max has. The wild party thrown by Kahn. He literally makes a writer eat shit. Spread it on a cracker like pate and eat it. I guess writers still get no respect in Hollywood. The goofy film they are producing. In a move that Corman would love they don’t need special effects. They have the extra mutants literally kill each other for the fight scenes. The ending has a tribute to Mel Brook’s The Producers. Apparently mutants love Mel Brooks. Here is the scene from it.

EVA: You look so dashing today, mein Fuhrer!
HITLER: It is the light of love in my heart, fair Valyrie!
EVA: My heaving loins yearn for the pounding of your mighty member and your single but quite manly testicle.
HITLER: Ja, but first we must conquer Poland.
EVA: Liebchen! But of course. But allow me first to kiss your brave and valiant sword of the Fatherland.
HITLER: Of course. Just don’t slobber too much.

Well this sounds like a quality production. So we have Max who by his own words only knows the three Fs- Freedom, Fighting and Fucking. I can say that the guy does have trouble with any abstract concept that doesn’t involve the three Fs. Then there is Jack Bender who is balancing his current jealous girlfriend while going to save his former girlfriend he though was dead. Now Jill Morningstar is just batshit cuckoo. I guess guys will overlook that when the woman is beautiful and great in bed but batshit cuckoo. Come to think of it his old girlfriend leaves him for a mutant so she was a bit batshit cuckoo too. So far every woman seems to be batshit cuckoo. Crazy world after the mutant apocalypse.