Lets see
Deathlands
a long term story aim other.than the ages old "some place safe to settle"
Continiuity with a small group of writers working together to produce linked multi book threads.
No need to add or remove any characters.

Outlanders
call it a day as the story was complete after Mark finished his last book.

Jim

So, are u saying, have the companions finally figure out the matt-trans system?

Make a main home base? And kill no main characters off to add new ones?

Personally, I still like the unknown jumps. They just need to make it where there is really no way to figure out how to control the units. Should have done that from the get-go. But I guess it doesn't matter.

I'd like to see a whole series of chron jumps, having the companions lost in time, jumping from time continuum to another, a hodge-podge of real history and alternate, thus keeping each issue fresh.

The DL crew already know how the mat trans work in theory, they know about the LD button and that you require a unique code to jump to a specific gateway. They have done all this before in the LJ period, they also know the codes for several gateways and even have a CD with all the codes on it (remember this?)
You could have the crew discover the code for a safe redoubt and use this as a base of operation jumping at random to find suplies etc. at the end of the book they jump back home. sadly this makes them too much like OL so this won't happen.

Jim

Jim, Mildred lost the CD with the codes . Did you ever find out which book has "Tracker" on the back cover? Wish I could remember; just curious. I have all the books in PDF only, so I can't check.

What I would like to see is the team revisiting places that they have been before to see if the place has really improved after their first visit .
I know that they went back to Jak's home area and it had gone bad. I think going back to other parts of the Deathlands and visiting friendly places they helped would be fun.

I would like to see them get involved with scavenger teams either helping or fighting them. I would like to read about convoys of traders and the way the team interacts with them.

I would like it if a few more people joined the team perhaps some love interests for the single team members . I would like it if Rick gets a lead on his sister even if it turns out to be an old or wrong lead.

I would like to see the team pick up more gear such as Rad counters for each person , backup weapons for everyone more and different types of survival gear such as fishing gear,slingshots, snare wires , garrott wires folding shovels, axes etc.
  

I would like to see a trip by the team to another US embassy mat-trans. maybe in Australia or in the middle east somewhere. 
A trip to Germany or France could be fun maybe have them arrive and the Mat-trans breaks down leaving them with the choice of having to go either to Moscow or over to Britain to get to a working Mat -trans. unit .

* More recurring enemies. Magus is the only one left, and we haven't seen him since Perception Fault (there are a few enemies who are still alive, but fat chance of seeing them again...). All we get now are half-baked one-off bad guys. I want to see someone like Cort Strasser, Zimyanin, or Straub. Say what you want about LJ, but he could make some really good villains.

* Let's get back to the Totality Concept mythos. The writers got away from it for the last few years, and that was good, but now the series is starting to turn into an action-adventure series that just happens to be set after the holocaust. Toss in a new redoubt, a new secret project, or some experiements like the hunter-killers once in awhile.

* Go somewhere outside the US. We already know there are gateways all over the world and beyond - why not have a gate malfunction like LJ used to toss in for fun, where they end up in some random location and have to fight their way free.

* A multi-book story arc. We haven't had one of those in ages.

Posted By Kerrick on 9/7/2013 11:00:00 PM
* More recurring enemies. Magus is the only one left, and we haven't seen him since Perception Fault (there are a few enemies who are still alive, but fat chance of seeing them again...). All we get now are half-baked one-off bad guys. I want to see someone like Cort Strasser, Zimyanin, or Straub. Say what you want about LJ, but he could make some really good villains.

* Let's get back to the Totality Concept mythos. The writers got away from it for the last few years, and that was good, but now the series is starting to turn into an action-adventure series that just happens to be set after the holocaust. Toss in a new redoubt, a new secret project, or some experiements like the hunter-killers once in awhile.

* Go somewhere outside the US. We already know there are gateways all over the world and beyond - why not have a gate malfunction like LJ used to toss in for fun, where they end up in some random location and have to fight their way free.

* A multi-book story arc. We haven't had one of those in ages.

I really like your idea about the recurring Bad guy We do need more long lived bad guys . I would like to see a team of  bounty hunters or a freelance Sec team that is the evil mirror image of Ryan's team that would be cool .

 How about meeting some of the people who have traveled with the team like the animal trainer and her daughters . Maybe that bar maid Ryan made friends with the one with the acid rain wrecked face. Hey didn't the sec chief from the same village wind up threatening to hunt down Ryan and his team that could be the start of a story he could be the leader of the sec team I suggested . 

 

Wow!

 

You guys have really brought up some great stuff! Things I have not thought about from LJ years, and great concepts for future books. 

 

Keep 'e, comin'!

More Canadian adventure's. Revisiting old allies. Visiting anywhere other than the US. Magus coming back. Getting a totally kickass "Baddie" who will be around for a couple of books. A solo adventure for one of the companions. A Dean only story. Dean coming back. Ricky finding his sister and Ryan falling in love with her and a crazy love triangle ensues.
O.k not the last one.

I would love a long term goal for Ryan and company. They are smart, organized and willing to help. It makes no sense that they are not gathering people on the journeys in order to set up a thriving, well defended and safe community. They don't have to stay there, they could be the ones out looking for resources. It's just that after over 100 books the "Well, we found a safe place, let's leave it for no reason" is getting old. Give them some motivation or they really are just a waste of space.

I found that DL book with the name Tracker instead of Trader on the back cover . It was Time Nomads .

Edit issues even back then, eh?

 

I'd also like to see in a future DL book another time trawled person. Or persons.

 Why should Doc be the only one? Perhaps on the American whitecoat's side, but what about European whitecoats? Surely they were experimenting too.

And surely there are other small 'groups' like our erstwhile companions that trek the DL. Like to see a major showdown betwixt these two groups.

I would like to read more stories about trips to central America or to south America , they could find themselves in a US Embassy in Panama or Peru or even in Rio in Brazil .

I think adding a mutie pet dog or cat to the team could be interesting . The mutie could maybe be able to sense danger at long ranges or be capable of thought speech like those mutie gophers/squirrels Ryan encountered near the Grand canyon.

I would like to see the Tec-nomads again , maybe a return of some biker gangs . Going back to the Ant hill might be interesting .

I would like to see the team return to one of the Traders old bases and have it send JB & Ryan into flashbacks to when the Trader ran the place.

Been thinking about this question as of late.

Like to read about the companions breaking up for a bit. Perhaps over a misunderstanding. 

Something dramatic to break up Ryan and Krysty, thus giving Ryan the OK to go totally apeshit in the Deathlands.

Perhaps another group or secret paramilitary team that has the mat-trans system secret too. Gotta be SOMEBODY in the entire world that has unlocked this secret, right?

A minor breakup is in an upcoming book...

Yeah, i gotta inkling of something akin to that in the upcoming title Hanging Judge.

Hmm idk?.. A frozen predark special forces team, equipped with all the fixens accidentally thawed by a CPU malfunction in some long forgotten redoubt, commander still thinks America is at war, may even have access to mini nukes, or locations to unused nuke stock piles. Has intimate knowledge and free passage through the redoubts.

Add a supernatural element, hell it's already been proven that damn near anything can happen in the James Axler universe, some lone white coat like j'aimevous experimenting with forces far beyond time travel opens gateway to lost realm/dimension unleashes forces or creatures beyond his reasoning ala Stephen kings the mist,( US mil experimenting with gateway technology)


Bio weapon storage units on mars or the moon, ultra secret base, with accidental jump to these places, meet highly intelligent bio weapon who has been plotting invasion, kind of like kaa and the mutants except ultra psychotic and evil. A DOOM like scenario.

To play on the supernatural a little more, possession of humans by said creatures or forces as mentioned above. add more of a truly brutal or undead feel, that makes the companions truly question themselves and their beliefs of the intangible Ryan in particular.( something that could bring the true apocalypse in biblical sense) Something so terrifying to see that even mutants like flame crazed stickies would turn tail and run at first sight.

A master white coat from another casement who has perfected interspacial placement, individual attempts to merge his dimension with deathlands. Also more threats from other casements, see how their armies, tech and ways of thinking stack up against the companions.

More on Melphi and Kelphi cyborgs.

Companions make cron jump manage to thwart sky dark, but realize when they jump back home nothing has changed because each timeline is locked into its own linear path. Well atleast they saved another casement.

Operation chronos trawls Ryan back by accident after hunting for doc in the deathlands, doc gets pushed out of the way of the portal by Ryan and gets sucked in.

Companions find the true origin of jak, maybe he really is a bio weapon, foster parents found him at an early age ( could have came out of cryo storage by accident) alone in the swamp or woods as a small child. This might make a good origin story. Either way it shouldn't change the way the companions feel about him. (Maybe was part of a forgotten super soldier program)

The companions learn about the archons or bits and pieces of them.


Fight with ET a predator esque hunt type of deal, would be nice to see how they'd do against a totally non human origin threat, with an epic bloody hand to hand fight between Ryan and one of the alien hunters. Like Arnold and the pred. Hmmm maybe even kristi by some way able to lend Ryan her Gaia abilities for the task.


Ryan makes an appearance in outlanders......


Forgive me for reaching, these are just some of the many ideas I have dreamed up.

Holy Moley, Batman, I like the way you think, Obelmein!

 Where have you been hiding?

I just think it's time to get DL out of the box, pitch it to MARVEL as an on going graphic comic series, hell Stephen king did it with his dark tower series FINALLY! Golden eagle might as well sell the rights to the series to a production company who can milk the potential out of the series, and actually listen to the fans. BUT they won't. As they have their hearts set on mediocrity and just barely reaching the status quo. I can tell you right now I know of dozens of young and hungry new gen writers who are dying to get their hands onto this series. Maybe it's my old military days talking but if you have a good thing going the last thing you'd want to do is tolerate piss poor initiative. Which is exactly what GE seems to accept more often than not. I hope somebody smart does buy the series so they can do justice to what Laurence James set out to accomplish. I think the original creators of the walking dead could find loads of ways to make Ryan's life a living hell... I feel these characters are solid and have a solid backing, but they are not being use to their potential and basically being flushed down the pisser. It took over 20 years for the gunslinger/ dark tower to break into mainstream, with their graphic comics and even a future movie deal, now the mainstream can't get enough of it, with Stephen Kimg kicking himself for not doing it sooner. AND somebody if any writers are reading this please kill off Ricky, really? You replaced the son of Ryan Cawdor with that??? He doesn't fit in and he's just plain out of place trash him before he gets too engrained in the series. Anyway sorry for the rant, I just have a hobby of reading and preserving old books as well as campaigning for books who have solid characters and stories to work off of. They knew they weren't going to do a good job on the 2003 DL movie which is why they shouldn't have made it at all, and goes back to what I mentioned about piss poor workmanship. Hope I didn't melt anyone's eyes from this