Jim, does someone really find a Deathlands book in one of the dorms?

If you run into any Team Phoenix Zombies, you know its time to put the book in a shredder.

I can't believe I actually thought to compare Scarlet Dream to Shadow Scourge, how wrong could I have been? The books are NOTHING like each other, for a start Scarlet Dream is total crap...

I will post a review once I finish it.

Hey Baz,

What GE characters are the zombies? The DL crew? Mack Bolan? Rogue Angel?

Jake Strait?

Posted By The Phantom on 20 Jun 2011 08:20 PM
If you run into any Team Phoenix Zombies, you know its time to put the book in a shredder.

I might read that one! But weren't TP zombies anyhow?

As far as I'm concerned, all OL books not by Mark are zombies...dead travesties of something once alive and vital.

Posted By mikeclr on 22 Jun 2011 08:55 AM
Hey Baz,

What GE characters are the zombies? The DL crew? Mack Bolan? Rogue Angel?

Jake Strait?

I could say you will have to read it yourself, but as  I'm not a masochist...

Try to work it out...

Tall, well built (ermmm, its a zombie but thats what it says), eye patch. walking making trigger squeezing gestures with its hand pointing.

Tall, slim with a black walking stick, tries to use it as a sword.

Short, remains of white hair with a shard of glass in each hand that it uses like a knife -and throws at one point.

Short, dumpy with remains of beaded hair.

Answers on a postcard to...

Geez...that's just silly.

Posted By mikeclr on 23 Jun 2011 07:30 AM
Geez...that's just silly.

What the zeds or me asking for answers on a postcard

The Zs man, the Zs...

That comes off as not only stupid, but really, really desperate.

Scarlet Dream When I first read about this book I thought it was a direct rip off of an earlier Outlanders book called Shadow Scourge. How wrong I was. This book in no way a rips off of the other, in fact this one is nothing like it. If Shadow Scourge was a Porsche sports car then Scarlet Dream would be an Eastern European Trebant, such are the differences.
This is one of a small handful I have read since the creator of the Outlanders (OL) series, James Axler, left them behind and the new “rotating door” pool of James Axlers (a la Deathlands) took over.
All including this one have not read like a true OL book or held my attention like the other James Axler stories did. Characterisation, structure, depth of story and realism (if you can call Sci-Fi real) have all suffered tremendously as the new James Axler shows his total lack of knowledge and understanding of Outlanders as a whole. How many of the previous books has this writer (James Axler we are told inside) taken the time to read, three, two, maybe one maximum (and that most likely to have been one not written by James Axler) when researching the background for this book?
Scarlet Dreams villain goes by the wonderful name “Ezili Coeur Noir”, the queen of all things dead. Her name is used so many times in the first eight pages I was left wondering if the name had been chosen specifically to help the writer reach his word total! Ms Noir has this special knack of being able to raise the dead to help her get most things done and not just any old dead either. We are quickly introduced to several Zombies who have a certain similarity to other well known Gold Eagle characters and who would have died some 80 years earlier and yet, are still so well preserved to be both recognisable and functional. Ms Noir is using these zombies to help in her search for “the red weed” a experimental bio-weapon that has the ability to wipe out all life on the planet –good job good old H.G.W is long dead, hidden in a lost redoubt. I bet the author was so proud of his originality here. The heroes of the book are depicted throughout as wooden, flat and soulless nothing like the vibrant, living characters long term OL readers have come to enjoy.
Here James Axlers lack of background knowledge shows itself as he describes the main female character, Brigid Baptist, as slim, wearing Cowboy boots and having bright red hair. Sadly Brigid is described many times in past books as having a shapely, athletic body and golden red hair. Cowboy boots and Bright red hair belong to Krysty Wroth –the main female character from the Deathlands series!
The main story line takes up about 50 pages of the 314 in the book, the remainder is several long, boring fight scenes that run to more than a dozen pages each where the heroes continue to shoot zombies in the head despite us being told –and them seeing, that this has no effect on them what so ever. The tactical mindset of the “real” Grant and Kane (leading male characters) would have had them shooting the knees and legs out from under the monsters –a simple answer that the author chooses to ignore to add length to his pointless fight scenes.
A further section is taken up with a bizarre brothel run by a strange old woman that quickly finds one hero trapped in a painting, another being seduced by two strange foetal looking women who appear to him gorgeous and finally Brigid mesmerised by a third rate Mills & Boon romance novel. The origin of these strange looking women is not explored neither is the reason they are doing what they do. What we do find though is a legless voodoo priest in a wheelchair trapped in a picture also. It is here that we also discover that Ms Noir is none other than one third of a re-born Lilitu a major Overlord killed in an earlier book!
One third?
Yes!
Somehow she has survived the destruction of the huge spaceship she was on and is sent crashing back to earth in an escape pod? So badly hurt –I believe so hurt that she is actually dead Mr. Axler, that the “rebirth sequencer” something that just happens to be part of the escape pod, has problems repairing her. The sequencer also finds problems with her memories as she has lived several lives. Unable to comprehend the situation it does what it can and decides to split her personality apart and make three new Lilitu’s? Confused yet? I was and still am?
One part is Noir the zombie maker, the second the woman that runs the brothel and the third is an old woman found sleeping in part of the escape pod in the brothels basement!
Anyhow, back to the climax of the book. The heroes discover that to kill Lilith/Noir for good and stop her releasing the “red weed” they have to get her inside a prototype fusion reactor located on the lower level of the “Red Weed” redoubt and activate it... Another boring zombie fight with lots of pointless headshots later we get inside the redoubt –to find it is now being flooded by the fire sprinklers activated by Lakesh back in the Cerberus redoubt to dissolve the red weed and reduce its effectiveness. A short silly fight ensues and Noir ends up in the reactor with seconds to spare and she dies...
That’s it!
The heroes then use the mat-trans to jump back to the Cerberus redoubt leaving the secret Redoubt Mike wide open and insecure only to find that the Cerberus redoubt is under attack, but that’s in the next book folks...
Overall I was dissatisfied, bored and confused by this book. The author has thrown together several vague plots and bound them together with the most tenuous of links to a proven previous title in the series. It fails on so many levels and left me certain I would not be reading another book in the OL series, unless of course it was a re read of a previous book by the true master of Outlanders James Axler.
Rating 2/10

Edited (by Baz) to make review more JamesAxler.com friendly.

It appears the Rik Hoskin didn't approve of my review on Amazon and had them remove it.

Was it THAT close to the truth?

Your review was back up a couple of days ago and then it was gone again.

Must be because you compared Hoskin to Mark's work. Hoskin must think that there is a whole new fan base for Outlanders who has replaced all of Mark's fans and he doesn't want any reminders that Mark created the series.

Or wrote the best books.

Blah Blah Blah Mark Good Rik Bad Blah Blah Blah

Look, guys, I'm not saying you have to like any of the books published since Mark left the series. You surely don't. And I can't really argue the merits of this specific book, since honestly I am about three years behind in my Axler reading (but slowly catching up again).

That being said, I think you are both very much aware that Mark has his own website. It's over at MarkEllisInk.com. You are both big fans of his (and hey, so am I), so that is the site for you.

It seems like all either of you have done here in the last few years is piss in my pool. I am asking you nicely to please stop doing that. I am trying very hard to expand the content here, and to grow the membership. Your axe-grindy posts about the post-Ellis books have become every bit as tedious and predictable as any DL-weapons-and-clothing posts, and all you are doing is helping to create a negative environment that drives away new members.

Posted By Wordsmith-reprise on 19 Jun 2011 05:18 PM
Jim, does someone really find a Deathlands book in one of the dorms?

Sorry I missed this post.

Yes they do. Let me find it in the book and I will give you a quote...

Posted By Ron Miles on 05 Jul 2011 11:25 AM
Blah Blah Blah Mark Good Rik Bad Blah Blah Blah

Look, guys, I'm not saying you have to like any of the books published since Mark left the series. You surely don't. And I can't really argue the merits of this specific book, since honestly I am about three years behind in my Axler reading (but slowly catching up again).

That being said, I think you are both very much aware that Mark has his own website. It's over at MarkEllisInk.com. You are both big fans of his (and hey, so am I), so that is the site for you.

It seems like all either of you have done here in the last few years is piss in my pool. I am asking you nicely to please stop doing that. I am trying very hard to expand the content here, and to grow the membership. Your axe-grindy posts about the post-Ellis books have become every bit as tedious and predictable as any DL-weapons-and-clothing posts, and all you are doing is helping to create a negative environment that drives away new members.

Perhaps Ron you should do as you told me to do a few months back and actually read the book before you go trashing my review of it. How do you know I am wrong in what I say? Are my comments made without cause? Try reading the book first and THEN come back and trash my review.

As for "pissing in my pool" over the last few years I belive is follk like Cerberus Man, Mikeclr, the Phantom and I that have kept this place alive. If all I can do is "piss in the pool" then its time I got out, dry off and watch the waters stagnate from the sidelines.

Do you have a new side line job vetting Amazon reviews as it appears my review here, like there, is as welcome as a turd in a swimming pool.

In the words of Depeche Mode "Enjoy the silence."

Jim out...

PS

I have edited my review above to make it more JA.com friendly -no more mentions of that bad boy Mar... oh sorry can't say his name here any more can I?

Blah-blah-blah, there's so much more important topics of discussion on this board that you guys are keeping from happening, blah-blah-blah, let's focus on machine guns and new boots, blah-blah-blah, you're driving the intellectual crowd back to reading The New Yorker instead of discussing stickies blah-blah-blah.

Bull.

People have been comparing the revolving door DL writers to Laurence James since Day One without a single bit of bitching from you.

All the posts about DL characters who need new guns or clothes you let stand without comment. You always have and you probably always will

Your rules are that members are not to name call or insult or other members but you do both whenever it suits you.

A couple of years ago, you allowed a crazy racist moron with multiple screen names have his run of this fan site of yours without standing up to him. You were so desperate for activity here, you encouraged him.

Do you honestly think there are OL readers who just now discovered the series through the books written by Hoskin and so all the posts about MARKMARKMARKELLISELLISELLIS will upset them and sent them home sobbing?

Interesting that when long-time members like Baz, Mike, Chris, Daniel and myself make a stand about how we feel concerning the rotten treatment of MARK ELLIS by GE and how in our opinion the series MARK ELLIS created isn't being served by the standard GE revolving door system of writers, then YOU make a stand about US making a stand.

So us being fans of a writer is worth it to you to drive long term members away from the board?

Why don't you apply that same standard to the Laurence James fans?

Baz posted once that your behavior is draconian.

In my opinion it's closer to being bi-polar, but I think the more appropriate word is hypocritical.

If you weren't, then you'd lay down the law that no DL book could ever be compared to one written by Laurence ever again.

In the case of Scarlet Dream, the plot is similar to a book written by Mark, featuring characters created by Mark, tying in the plot in with an earlier book written by Mark.

How could you expect anybody NOT to draw comparisions?

So--hypocritical is most appropriate word.

You want to ban me after this post, go ahead.

That won't change your hypocrisy.

You and Baz have both completely missed the point. It's not the review comparing the book to Mark. You'll notice I let that review stand completely unedited and without comment (although Baz has apparently decided to go back and edit himself). It was the coming back a week later by both of you to take additional swipes without provocation. That's not "taking a stand", that's just crappy behavior. You can call my a hypocrite all you like, but your behavior on this forum has been consistently troll-ish for as long as I can remember. Can you point to anything positive you have contributed here? Ever? You have a very clear axe to grind. You will be happier grinding it somewhere else more receptive.

Posted By Ron Miles on 06 Jul 2011 10:20 AM 
You can call my a hypocrite all you like, but your behavior on this forum has been consistently troll-ish for as long as I can remember. Can you point to anything positive you have contributed here? Ever? 

Not only will I call you a hypocrite, I'll call you a liar.

Instead of addressing the issues I raised, you post groundless accusations and lies about me.

You ignore the many, many posts I made over the years about the Annunaki, stealth aircraft, UFOS and physics so you can score a cheap point for the newer members who can't refer to earlier posts of mine since they've been deleted in the many revisions of this site.

Trollish behavior like the kind you allowed One Eye Vengeance and his many racsist sock puppets to practice and then only put a stop to it when the ass hole started threatening people, me, you and Mark among them?

And now when weeks go by without any activity on this fan thiing of yours, when something the slightest bit controversial pops up, you throw a drama queen hissy fit and make what has been posted an even a bigger deal than it was ever intended to be, drawing even more attention to it just so you can pretend to be a bad-ass.

I've lost all respect for you, Ron. I'll never be back.

Enjoy the fascinsating topics brought up by the great new expanded membership.

Oddly enough, I never had the impression you had any respect for me to begin with.

As for OEC/OEV/Whatever, I'm not entirely clear how my continually banning him under (at last count) more than a dozen different aliases counts as allowing his behavior.

In any case, good journeys. I am sure you will be very happy elsewhere.