I liked this book, although I found the idea of open air villes without protective walls around them to be a bit odd in the DL. .

I liked the idea of a fully trained Combat Librarian to be something that could have been expanded on a bit more.
I liked Mikey-Bob the idea of a mutie caused by a birth defect instead of radiation is a novel idea.
I wish that Sand's Sec boss was written better he seemed a bit two dimentional to me .
The Bikers were silly if you asked me I felt they could have been much meaner and tougher than they were .
Still as DL books go it was a good read.
I liked that there was no Bio Weapons or strange new mutie beasty to deal with .
The idea of a ville built on top of a dump was interesting I liked that they were scavenging and selling stuff from it .

I agree - a good read, one of the better ones that's come out lately. I was hoping we'd find out the relationship between Sand and DL, and what DL was hiding in her mouth (my guess was some kind of mutation). Honestly, the whole thing between Sand, DL, and the circus felt odd, like there was something more that either got cut or was never fully developed.

Siamese twins aren't a mutation - it's just an egg that doesn't fully divide. There's actually a set of twin girls who look like Mikey-Bob (I read a story about them a couple years back); I wonder if Milan got the idea from them.

Posted By Kerrick on 12/10/2013 11:05:40 PM
I agree - a good read, one of the better ones that's come out lately. I was hoping we'd find out the relationship between Sand and DL, and what DL was hiding in her mouth (my guess was some kind of mutation). Honestly, the whole thing between Sand, DL, and the circus felt odd, like there was something more that either got cut or was never fully developed.

Siamese twins aren't a mutation - it's just an egg that doesn't fully divide. There's actually a set of twin girls who look like Mikey-Bob (I read a story about them a couple years back); I wonder if Milan got the idea from them.

I wonder if the DL was one of the  Mutie women we see in Savage Armada the ones with forked tounges who eat poison dart frogs without bad side effects?

I also wonder if Sands and DL were sisters or ex lovers ?

.

Wow, Ryan and his gang taken down in minutes by members of a Mutie / Freak show.  His crew is supposed to be the # 1 badasses of Deathlands.  You would have thought that Jak at least could have beaten both spider kids and what's with Ryan being disarmed so easily by the lizard man.  The only thing I can figure is that the author decided that Ryan's group, after countless victories over would be ambushers, needed to be humiliated just to show that they aren't perfect.  Thank goodness, shrewd JB saved the day by taking the Mutie show owner hostage and forced her minions to stand down!  I liked the part about Trumbo using the bulldozer as a juggernaut to smash DL's ville, it sort of reminded me of an old 70's TV movie, Killdozer.

I got bored with this one about 120 pages in, it just didn't click with me or hold my atention like the last few have.

Jim

You know, it's funny, Jim. These days I can't figure out what the readers will like. Sometimes I'm so far off base it's unreal. I thought everyone would not like Nemesis, but that's not the case. I thought readers would like Motherlode, but by and large they don't.

Posted By WoT Vet07 on 1/7/2014 6:53:53 PM
Wow, Ryan and his gang taken down in minutes by members of a Mutie / Freak show.  His crew is supposed to be the # 1 badasses of Deathlands.  You would have thought that Jak at least could have beaten both spider kids and what's with Ryan being disarmed so easily by the lizard man.  The only thing I can figure is that the author decided that Ryan's group, after countless victories over would be ambushers, needed to be humiliated just to show that they aren't perfect.  Thank goodness, shrewd JB saved the day by taking the Mutie show owner hostage and forced her minions to stand down!  I liked the part about Trumbo using the bulldozer as a juggernaut to smash DL's ville, it sort of reminded me of an old 70's TV movie, Killdozer.

I think that the companions were hampered by the no kill request from the DL . The companions are some of the best killers out there ,but when it comes to non lethal combat ,they don't have too much experence in not killing their enemies . Most of the time they just kill anyone/thing that attacks them. 

I do like that they got caught flat footed ,it showed that no matter how careful you are things can still go bad .

Posted By Wordsmith-reprise on 1/8/2014 5:32:09 PM
You know, it's funny, Jim. These days I can't figure out what the readers will like. Sometimes I'm so far off base it's unreal. I thought everyone would not like Nemesis, but that's not the case. I thought readers would like Motherlode, but by and large they don't.

I think the problem for me is that writers now

trying to fit 700 plus pages of story into just over 300 and loosing there way after 200 pages then rushing to get it finished. They cut corners and forget about arcs they opened on page 35 or so.
They keep writing the same story but with different character bad guys again and again and again ad nausium! Yes stick with formula that GE want but think out of the box.
Stop making the characters do stupid things or get themselves caught out in situations that just scream TRAP that even the most unskilled people can see.

Go back and see how LJ and Mark did it and learn that this is what made the series (both DL and OL) what they are and readers coming back for more. If a store only sold two types of pizza how long would it be before you got bored of it and went someplace else?

Jim

I stopped reading 3/4 of the way through. It could have a been a cracking read but it just fell flat. Was bored through it.

I think the best writers that are  'thinking outside the box' and giving us fans untypical storylines - or just superior storylines - has been John Helfers and Chuck Rogers.

And Victor Milan at times. He's a hit or miss author.