Post Apocalyptic SF in men's adventure series

[markd]

Dec 1, 2009 18:29:47 GMT andydecker said:

Of course this horse has left the barn a long time ago. Even with withholding the name again today you can find the info on the net if you look hard enough.

Definitely. I still remember back when Feroze became aware that GE writers could use the net to communicate with one another...he was absolutely apopolectic.

Trying to hide the names of the real writers beneath company psuedonyms was a cheap-ass tactic dating back to the pulp jungle of the 30s.

It might have been halfway effective during the days of crystal radio sets and tom-toms, but it's a totally useless and even laughable conceit nowdays.

[Jaqhama]

Hey Mark

You'll know my SF Reader forum buddy, Nathan Meyer I'm guessing?

He's doing some Bolan and Stony Man stuff.

[oatcakeredux]

Okay, a borderline case here. And it's British!

TRAUMA 2020

Three books:

Urban Prey
The Crucifixion Squad
Silent Slaughter

All published originally in 1984

Author: Peter Beere

These three are very much in the "urban decay" mould of such arguable post-apocalyptic works as A Clockwork Orange. Set in a crumbling future Britain where the gap between the haves and the have-nots has grown to truly epic proportions.

Our "hero" is an engaging coward named Bartholomew Kafka ("Beekay") Howard. Throughout the three novels, he is first drafted and goes on the run, pursued by a sinister government hitman named Homer: finds himself seeking refuge amongst the dregs of Society in a near "meths-drinkers-from-Theatre-Of-Blood" style, augmented by gang-committed crucifixions pour encourager les autres; and - after winning a lottery which allows him temporary access to the place where the richer bastards live - becoming forcibly addicted to and then equally forcibly weaned off of heroin.

Along the way, he makes memorable friends and equally memorable enemies, forever the eternal fall-guy struggling through with a lot of luck, some determination, and a lot of running for his life. Each volume of the three ends on a cliff-hanger, the last of which is Beekay looking down the barrel of a gun with the one person who could save him either dead or at least unconscious in front of him.

And there, sadly, we left Beekay Howard, his story not fully told. Unlike the American entries, he's definitely not the macho type, for all of the gunplay and mayhem that he finds himself mixed up in. The books have a real air of grit and squalor, plus lashings of the old ultra-violence - plus some genuine characterisation in among all of the cum and blood-soaked pulp.

If you can find 'em, then give 'em a whirl.

[Craig Herbertson]

Sorry Dem. Couldn't find the latest acquisitions thread

# No.6 The Savage Horde (1983)



# No.7 The Prophet (1984)



Thank goodness for the Vault or these might have been bypassed in my haste.

John's got a gun, he's lost his wife, he's found a Russian lover, the world's been more or less destroyed. The prose is terse, the chapters short. Nearly everyone has been brutally killed by the third page or at least you think they have. Fortunately Ahern manages to destroy any remaining people in the following pages. In fact there are times when you are simply exhausted reading the number of killed and varieties of killing. There's a great gun masturbation fetish running through the whole thing which beats sex any day. On pages125 there are 34 lines and and about 340 words within which our hero Rourke manages to personally shoot and kill 7 people. There was another page somewhere where the count was about double.

It's not literature but its well written and beats Jane Austen hands down for sheer entertainment. I'm only halfway through number 6 but hats off to Mr Ahern.

There is a plot too. Rourke is trying to find his family after The Night of the War - Communists attacking America but he has a Russian women with a gentle heart and a Jewish buddy. There is a general sense that Rourke, a doctor, might be delaying finding his family in order to shoot more people. If he does find them he's going to have very little spare time.

[Craig Herbertson]

Finally got to the end of 6. Rourke and an obvious double agent, Cole have had a fight (Rourke won) and the main protagonists and a couple of of guys who obviously never watched the security men in Startrek, finally reached their destination - a nuclear arms dump.

Now we are on to No 7. The Prophet


Given that's its occupied by friends I'll let you decide on your strategy of approach.

Did you guess. 'Wave a white flag, shout friends, wait till they come down'?

Nope. You charge forward shooting as you go, weave past the snipers trap, throw yourself over the electric fence amidst a hail of bullets shoot everything that moves until you are about to shoot your first direct opponent before he gets you.

Luckily its your old friend and both of you hold back from murder just in time.

All in days work for Rourke.

[Craig Herbertson]

Finished 7 The Prophet.

Bushwick would have been a bit unhappy that virtually no one is mercilessly destroyed for the first third of the book. Plot seemed to be taking the upper hand. However, suddenly Ahern remembers what its all about and gives our hero a plane/helicopter? (I forget because there are so many technical things here) with missiles. He sees a thousand wild men cavorting on a hill. On one page he gets 700 of them. After that the tempo ups and we're back to wholesale massacre plus loads of very nasty torture. Cole the anti hero proves inefficient on the destruction front and we're introduced to the prophet. The prophet doesn't do such a good massacre but excels in meaningless torture.

Nearly everyone is dead at the end except, through some somewhat dubious luck, all Rourke's usual buddies.

There were Some great criteria put forward for this genre earlier in the thread and Ahern fulfills most of what is required. If the series gets worse as it goes its definitely one to start collecting.

[andydecker]

I liked the sidekicks often more than the hero. The Rourkes were so damned perfect, but Rubinstein was kind of an everyman.

Ahern is a frustrating writer. He was good in some of his stand alone novels like Werewolves, something about Nazi werewolves in our time - even with a nice cover - or the Yakusa Tattoo, a nice (then) contemporary action thriller which even had a good idea at its core. Basically it partnered a Chuck Norris type street cop with a thinly disguised snobbish James Bond together against a bunch of ninjas and yakuza.

But some of his more rabid series are a hard read, like The Defender, where the evil commies infiltrate inner-city America. Kind of V with commies instead of lizards and a heroic resistance.

The Survialist went crazy (okay, ridiculous) after the time-jump in # 10.

But Ahern seems to be a professional guy. He was one of the few writers who answered letters from readers back then in the 80s, as mine proves. ;D

[Craig Herbertson]

Feb 6, 2011 14:35:43 GMT andydecker said:

I liked the sidekicks often more than the hero. The Rourkes were so damned perfect, but Rubinstein was kind of an everyman.

Ahern is a frustrating writer. He was good in some of his stand alone novels like Werewolves, something about Nazi werewolves in our time - even with a nice cover - or the Yakusa Tattoo, a nice (then) contemporary action thriller which even had a good idea at its core. Basically it partnered a Chuck Norris type street cop with a thinly disguised snobbish James Bond together against a bunch of ninjas and yakuza.

But some of his more rabid series are a hard read, like The Defender, where the evil commies infiltrate inner-city America. Kind of V with commies instead of lizards and a heroic resistance.

The Survialist went crazy (okay, ridiculous) after the time-jump in # 10.

But Ahern seems to be a professional guy. He was one of the few writers who answered letters from readers back then in the 80s, as mine proves. ;D

He's a sound pulp writer. His sidekicks leave me flat though. It was good he had a Russian and a Jew as friends - a very positive move in an 80's slaughter book, but the weakest moments in the books are when he moves away from gun masturbation and destruction to some justification or, worse still, shows of emotion. I got quite good at predicting the end of chapters where Rourke either
1. remains silent
2. grips something tightly
3. moves the conversation away from anything emotional

I like the fact he replied to letters.

[Craig Herbertson]

Jerry Ahern Survivalist no 9: Earth and Fire

You've read two of them and are astonished at the number of gratuitious killings that can be made on a single page. The crisp and terse writing has been impressive, the endless lists of guns, killings and more killings, the stoic hero who says nothing. Vault members have reliably informed you that the series gets worse as it goes along. Its a random volume and the bookseller is already staring at you as though you are mentally impaired.

So obviously you have to buy it.

'Can one man survive?' I expect he can.

I noticed an immediate deterioration. By page 15 no-one has been really killed and Rouke seems to be displaying emotions. We're verging on an SF plot and its not going to help. What happened to the mindless automatic destruction of everything in sight? Surely Ahern will sort it out.

Mind you he's hinting that the whole planet is up for grabs so there's still hope.

[corpsecandle]

It shocks me that nobody besigned the networks in the U.S during the 80's and early 90's to get Survivalist made into a T.V Series.

I mean if anything it would have been great "late-back-from-the-pub" television.

[Craig Herbertson]

Apr 22, 2011 17:45:36 GMT corpsecandle said:

It shocks me that nobody besigned the networks in the U.S during the 80's and early 90's to get Survivalist made into a T.V Series.

I mean if anything it would have been great "late-back-from-the-pub" television.

Thanks. You reminded me that I didn't finish off the review. I think there might have been two reasons for no film -

Perhaps it needed too big a cast. Rourke kills thousands in one go sometimes.

I heard it said about the Dumarest series that it didn't have a conclusion and TV companies like to have the story wrapped up before they film.


So what happened in Nine? Did Rourke get killed? SPOILER alert!!!!!

He survived.

Ahern seemed to go into a really flat phase in this book. Rourke and in fact the entire cast began to display emotions at the end of each chapter and they weren't anger or rage - they were girly emotions. People cried, held hands. The mitigating circumstance was that the world was about to end but it still didn't seem....right .

No gun masturbation, nobody killed. I nearly put the book down BUT Ahern was only building it up. Page 122, and that's most of the book, Rourke starts killing people wholesale, pulls out strings of names for weapons then keeps killing anything that moves. Even good guys get murdered in vast numbers.

Then, in the final page. Ahern kills everyone except Rourke, a few Russians and Rourke's family and mistress. I'm not sure it was 1984 - would that be about 9 billion people? Quite a lot really.

Must seek out number 10. The population could well have recovered in 500 years or so.

[andydecker]

Apr 22, 2011 20:51:08 GMT Craig Herbertson said:

Must seek out number 10. The population could well have recovered in 500 years or so.

I am really curious how you will like this. If I remember correctly this was the point where the concept became truly idiotic with its half-baked sf. But maybe I am wrong.

Still, the domestic scenes of the Rourke clan always were kind of - well - icky. Something straight out of Bonanza or Lassie, only with a mad gleam in the eye.

[Craig Herbertson]

Bonanza or lassie. You have it one - or two. If I can find 10 I definitely want it. 9 was bad if I'm honest and the only hope is that 10 is worse.

[fritzmaitland]

Deathlands : Atlantis Reprise (Altered States Book 2) DL No. 75 of 125.

Survive or perish in the dark heart of tomorrow.

GLORIOUS FOLLY

For Ryan Cawdor, leader of a small group of post-apocalypse survivalists, its the inner fire of survival that guides them through this hell on earth...to whatever lies beyond the daily fight for existence. There are times when the oblivion of death seems a most welcome journey out of Deathlands. But for Ryan, death is something his warrior's soul will never take on without a fight.

GRIM UNITY

In the forested coastal region of the eastern seaboard , near the Pine Barrens of what was New Jersey, Ryan and his companions encounter a group of rebels. Having broken away from the strange, isolated community known as Atlantis, and led by the obscene and paranoid Odyssey, this small group desires to live in peace. But in a chill-or-be-chilled world, freedom can only be won by spilled blood. Ryan and company are willing to come to the aid of these freedom fighters, ready to wage a war against the twisted tyranny that permeates Deathlands.

In the Deathlands, even the fittest may not survive.

(Gold Eagle December 2005)

I had a few of the early Deathlands novels prompted by my mild obsession with Laurence James, and hadn't thought about this sort of thing for a while, when this book turned up at the hospital. Rejuvenated, I checked th' internat and, Crikey, this was one of Andy Boot's!

The discussion above is fascinating, and I'm reasonably sure churning these out to a deadline isn't always fun. I also recalled that Andy's entries in the series were none to popular with the gun-totin' Incels who seemed to make up the hard-core fans (a recent check shows that some of his later entries did seem to hit the spot). I had high hopes for LJ style references but that didn't happen. It's all very odd. The hyperbolic blurb above gets it well wrong in that the companions' meet up with the breakaway population of Memphis, a small ville established by runaways from the bigger Atlantis, which seems to owe something to Greek mythology. Odyssey isn't all that obscene, disappointingly, just a portly demagogue who wants to fulfil some barmy prophecies. He has a crack team of 'sec' men and women, covered in an oily camouflage substance, with eye covers and (along with their boss) hypnotic powers. They're called The Nightcrawlers (a popular band in the UK, like Odyssey).
The book meanders along for 2/3 of it's 300 odd pages, and kind of cranks it up towards the end, when Odyssey kidnaps two of the companions, and the others plus so Memphis residents, launch an attack to retrieve their pals. A horrible maze and total destruction ensue - with some bloodletting in between. Beginning with a quote from Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism (not too common in Men's Adventure novels I'd warrant) and featuring characters called Xerxes, Affinity and Demis (which can mean only one thing to British readers with little knowledge of Greece - meanwhile, here's a Kenny Everett joke - What's yellow and wears glasses? Banana Mouskouri), it's a bizarre read, but a welcome entry in a long-running, and in danger of being buried in clichés series.

Pulps - if you're out there - tell us about it!

[andydecker]

Sept 5, 2019 11:49:05 GMT fritzmaitland said:

Deathlands : Atlantis Reprise (Altered States Book 2) DL No. 75 of 125.

meanwhile, here's a Kenny Everett joke - What's yellow and wears glasses? Banana Mouskouri)

I don't know who Kenny Everett is - and am too lazy to google, the info-vampire has sucked enough data out of me today - but this is funny. Silly but funny

Sept 5, 2019 11:49:05 GMT fritzmaitland said:

in danger of being buried in clichés series.

that ship had sailed at the time. I will never understood how LJ could churn out so many of these phonebooks. 125000 words according to an interview with him, six novels a year. His westerns were at 50000 words. He was ill at the time and still managed to do this.

And even successful enough that he managed to put this series on the map. Not being an American and having to fake the required gun-porn affinity you need for this. And still he did it. A true master.