Deathlands - Desert Kings

Deathlands - Desert Kings; James Axler novel
Topic Started: Jul 25 2008, 09:08 PM (169 Views)
mattblackgod	Jul 25 2008, 09:08 PM Post #1
Administrator Posts: 3,768 Group: Admins Member #1 Joined: Jul 22, 2008	Ok - this has to be one of the best Deathlands novels I have ever read. Deathlands is a great series set 100 years after a nuke war. It is filled with ideas for characters, places and factions for your table. However quite a few can be a bit samey. The companions roll into a bew place - get into trouble usually with a local town/baron and have to fight thier way out and escape via a redoubt bunkers Transmat (A teleporter). Still great to read for inspiration. Desert kings ties in some places and characters from previous books and links in with the Outlanders series - which is the same setting only 100 years later again (I find them a bit too sci-fi for my tastes). The book has mutants, bioweapons, cyborgs, droids, cool buggies, trucks converted into battle wagons, old knackered APCs and more. It is action filled from cover to cover and left me wanting to strip my car down into a real PA vehicle.... I recommend.
	Mattblackgod - Warlord in Charge and Wargames Anarchist! Bow Down to the Wasteland Warlords!!!! Mattblackgods world - A Post Apoc minis site Mutate & Survive!


TwoGunBob	Aug 5 2008, 07:40 PM Post #2
Ghoul Posts: 13 Group: Members Member #26 Joined: Aug 5, 2008	I read the first Deathlands novel, and let me tell you after all those books finding the first one at the used book store took awhile. I liked that it was more Road Warrior than Threads but the series never really grasped hold of me. I just really didn't like the Ryan Cawdor character (of course the fact that I remembered his name means it was more memorable than I guessed). It was better than that Johnstone Ashes series and lightyears better than C.A.D.S. which I just read last week. I can appreciate power armor after the nukes but talk about formulaic. Bad guys kill all men and rape the women in semi-graphic detail. CADS show up and kill all the bad guys. Remaining women are thankful. CADS move on to save the President! Repeat. Still, given that I'm struggling to read A.E. Van Vogt's Man with a Thousand Names I might go back to pick up some Deathlands just because it's easier to read about J.B. Dix keeping plastic explosive up his nose and a detonator in his wisdom tooth. (Yes, as far as I know Dix never did this but I wouldn't be surprised if he wished he had at one point in the series.)



mattblackgod	Aug 6 2008, 09:18 AM Post #3
Administrator Posts: 3,768 Group: Admins Member #1 Joined: Jul 22, 2008	Quote: Dix keeping plastic explosive up his nose and a detonator in his wisdom tooth. (Yes, as far as I know Dix never did this but I wouldn't be surprised if he wished he had at one point in the series.) Hush - one of the multitude of authors may be on these boards....and it might turn up in the next book! One thing I have noticed with the Deathlands novels is that the latest games and movies seem to be worked into the later books. For instance Zombie like mutants are in one book when Zombies became cool again and packs of mutant dogs similar to the ones in the Stalker game just after that came out.
	Mattblackgod - Warlord in Charge and Wargames Anarchist! Bow Down to the Wasteland Warlords!!!! Mattblackgods world - A Post Apoc minis site Mutate & Survive!


TwoGunBob	Aug 6 2008, 02:17 PM Post #4
Ghoul Posts: 13 Group: Members Member #26 Joined: Aug 5, 2008	I stopped by, what is it? jamesaxler.com?, awhile back and it's a collection of writers that have done the series right? Seems I recall reading that they started dimensional hopping or time travel or something... Did they find that at the cache in the first book?



mattblackgod	Aug 9 2008, 01:03 PM Post #5
Administrator Posts: 3,768 Group: Admins Member #1 Joined: Jul 22, 2008	The outlanders series is dimension hopping (if you fancy a VSF PA-ish read check out Refuge). From what I have seen of Deathlands it is creeping towards the Outlands series with cyborgs, Hi tech Sci-Fi stuff and the likes. Still the Deathlands series is good inspiration for places, towns, factions and characters for games. Quote: stopped by, what is it? jamesaxler.com?, awhile back and it's a collection of writers that have done the series right? Seems I recall reading that they started dimensional hopping or time travel or something... Did they find that at the cache in the first book? I have not read the whole series and I have one managed to pick up the offerings over the last couple of years. So I have no idea about the Cache. There is one character in the books plucked from 18th century America. Maybe its him they refer too. If the series keeps going in the same direction of Outlands then I might start losing interest.
	Mattblackgod - Warlord in Charge and Wargames Anarchist! Bow Down to the Wasteland Warlords!!!! Mattblackgods world - A Post Apoc minis site Mutate & Survive!


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