Ron MilesWebsite Owner  Commander In Chief Posts:864  
| 10/1/2009 9:10 AM |
|
This is the official thread for comments on Deathlands #91 - Blood Harvest
The bibliography page is located HERE
You can submit your own review HERE
Be warned, this thread may contain spoilers for the book. "Sadly then I knew the answer. All her life she was a dancer, but no one ever played the song she knew." - The Residents
|
|
|
|
ChuckPublished Author  New Member Posts:55 
| 10/1/2009 8:28 PM |
|
|
I don't know who wrote the black cover blurb but I read it today for the first time, (thanks for the great site ron), and i got excited. Loved the word "internecine." For good or ill? My first crack at the Deathlands series is in the pipe! Hope you all like it!
Chuck
|
|
|
|
Sin-EaterNew Member Posts:42
| 10/1/2009 8:54 PM |
|
|
Best of luck with Deathlands and may the readers be kind to you!
Fan of your Bolanverse books.
|
|
|
|
mikeclr Basic Member Posts:197 
| 10/2/2009 10:28 AM |
|
|
Chuck, sounds really interesting and different! I'm looking forward to it!
"Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It's knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what." - Atticus Finch
|
|
|
|
Ron MilesWebsite Owner Commander In Chief Posts:864
| 2/22/2010 9:42 AM |
|
|
I just finished Blood Harvest last night. It was truly an excellent book. It grabs you from the beginning and doesn't let go right up until the last page. I will write up a review as soon as I can.
"Sadly then I knew the answer. All her life she was a dancer, but no one ever played the song she knew." - The Residents
|
|
|
|
)3az )3aziahBritish Bloke  Veteran Member Posts:1060 
| 3/31/2010 7:09 PM |
|
|
I'm about 2/3 of the way through this one and I have to say it is by far one of the best DL books I've read in a long time (Cannibal Moon I think was the last good one).
If Chuck keeps writing them like this (or GE allows him to keep writing them like this) we may be onto a winner. Roll on his next one please ASAP.
Finished
A first class DL book up there with the best of the LJ books in my opinion.
Doc was spot on here, not the bumbling old fart that almost all the new crop of scribblers want him to be.
Keep 'em like this Chuck and you got yourself a new fan.
If I can get some time in the next few days I will post a review here and on Amazon.
9/10
=============================== Billy Fish: He wants to know if we are gods.
Peachy Carnehan: Not gods - Englishmen. The next best thing.
Please check out my FLICKR photos
|
|
|
|
GrantboNew Member Posts:46
| 6/2/2010 10:11 PM |
|
Outstanding book. The author has an extremely good grasp of the characters and content. The ideas, like how to start the car, and the 2 at a time mat-trans, JB's handeling of the stickies and the sling volley's were all ingenious. The sequence of events really kept me guessing. The mass combat along with the retaking of the town was very well done. Now, if all the books were written by this guy/girl.  Now to be picky: Ryans took a lot of damage.  A LOT.  In reality, after having his rib snapped he would've found himself in bed for weeks and weeks. The later damage would've killed him. I know the writer tried to overcome this by saying that he was the toughest person in all the Deathlands, but it just wasn't believable. Also, before Ryan and Doc hit the beach they spent an hour in the sea. There is no way that Doc's gun powder would be dry and usable for an extended period of time after that. Lastly, I don't know why these books keep referring to Doc's LeMat as an ancient firearm? As we all know, his original was lost in the Kansas adventure about 60 books ago and was replaced with a modern version. This is why the gun shoots .44 cal instead of the original .36(?). ----- By the way, the site hasn't let me log in over the past few days. |
|
|
|
| 6/8/2010 9:48 PM |
|
This book is one of the best! I hope Chuck Rogers has many more in the chute.  |
|
|
|
NicodemusNew Member Posts:17 
| 6/9/2010 2:14 AM |
|
Have to agree with the common consensus here, an absolutly scintillating book.
Love the fact they ended up in the Azores, considering I'm portuguese It's a shame they didn't venture to mainland Europe though.
The only beef I have with the novel was how Doc so easily understand portuguese with his latin backround from the 19th century, but thats really nitpicking since realistically if ones patient, communication can be done...and i realize the author didnt exactly have pages of verbal conundrums to spare.
All in all, well done author!
|
|
|
|
| 8/12/2012 10:43 PM |
|
Got this in the mail yesterday from amazon. Finished it this morning. Absolutely loved this book, and really appreciate the author's writing style and sence of humor. Thrill packed from page 10 to the very last page.
Only gripes I actually have is I had really wished that Sylvano had lived. Also Doc could have possibly thrown one into Zorime at the end, as her temptations towar's Ryan at the end failed and she seemed to allready have a discourse with Doc.
But no matter, what an excellent read! A 9.5 to be sure.
Great work Mr. Chuck.
|
|
|
|
ChuckPublished Author New Member Posts:55
| 8/13/2012 12:30 AM |
|
What! 9.5??? I hope God kills your goldfish! |
|
|
|
| 8/13/2012 1:18 AM |
|
Posted By Chuck on 13 Aug 2012 12:30 AM
What! 9.5??? I hope God kills your goldfish!
"Short of his fellow human being's there was hardly anything that flapped, flopped or crawled across the James Axler site that SP haden't eaten"
page 22
|
|
|
|
silentalbino Advanced Member Posts:742
| 8/17/2012 6:09 PM |
|
|
Hell I´d have given it an eleven if I could.
|
|
|
|
| 8/18/2012 12:27 AM |
|
Posted By silentalbino on 17 Aug 2012 06:09 PM
Hell I´d have given it an eleven if I could.
Well you couldn't. So there.
|
|
|
|
MaximusAdvanced Member Posts:518 
| 8/18/2012 1:58 PM |
|
Like Alan Philipson did, Chuck raised the writing bar level high for this series. Thanks Chuck!
Outlanders needs a fantastic author like Alan and Chuck to come out and raise its level to what Mark Ellis had given it. |
|
|
|
| 5/10/2015 9:38 PM |
|
|
Just read this book over the last couple days. Just WOW ! I really enjoyed it. Compared to the last 30-40 DL books it was phenomenal ! I hate to say it but most of the deathlands novels in the 40's right up to the this book (91) have been poor to okay at best. Only a few standouts. This book was refreshing. I also agree this was in line with the best of the original LJ books.
Characters were just about spot on. Things fit well and made sense (some minor stuff, but nothing immersion breaking). No bizarro jumping in the sequence of events. The action was excellent. No unrealistic / lame reason the companions were captured / forced to do someones bidding / etc. I WANTED to keep reading.
Compared to a lot of previous novels where I had a lot of trouble finishing the books because of bad writing and / or bad grasp of the characters and setting, this one was hard to put down.
I recently traded a couple posts with Ron stating that an author should have a solid grasp of the characters and settings before being able to write in a series like Deathlands. I stated they should have at least read a number of the better books and be familiar with characters and setting. Ron said it was unrealistic to expect that. However here we have an author who seems to have done just that. It shows in the quality of the characterizations, the world setting, and even some previous references. Too bad this wasn't the norm and the bar set at this level for all of the series. This is what I would have expected out of all authors. And this was this authors first book to the series as far as I can tell. What a first entry !!!
And full credit to the authors ability to craft such a terrific story on top of knowing the characters and setting.
Thank you for this gem.
|
|
|
|
ChuckPublished Author New Member Posts:55
| 5/10/2015 11:56 PM |
|
WarZ,
Thank you for your kind words. To be honest? I never really read any of the books before I started writing DL. I skimmed a couple I was sent and didn't really like them. But I read the DL bible, (a binder with notes on all the characters, the war, mutants, what happened since, slang dictionary, etc), and I felt the series had a lot of promise and said I would like to write for the series. GE kindly gave me the chance. I liked Doc as a damaged, and surprisingly dangerous library of the past rather than a babbling, annoying idiot and wrote him that way. I looked at Mildred as our/the reader's eyes observing the apocalypse from our time and perspective and throwing in references and humor. With the rest of the characters I tried to maintain that this was the new normal, and threw in elements of them drinking, dancing, and just living life as it was in the Death Lands. I also thought the gun choices were somewhat ridiculous and managed to re-arm Ryan, and i was pleased when GE asked me to pick a new gun for Krysty. It was my humble opinion that DL's written like post-apocalyptic westerns had been done, ad nauseum, ad infinitum. It has been mentioned before, but i wrote three DLs, and none were set in the Death Lands. After nearly a hundred books in the series I wanted to explore the rest of the planet.
Thanks again for the compliments, check out Hell Road Warriors and Blood Red Tide sometime. Love to hear your feedback.
Cheers!
Chuck |
|
|
|
| 5/12/2015 8:48 PM |
|
The "deathlands bible" you read gave you a good grasp of the characters and setting. Was the material really expansive ? Was the "dl bible" something you received from the publishers ? Is it something that is online somewhere ? I'd love to see the material in it. For not having read previous books, your characters and setting worked very well. Character focus and abilities seemed to harken back to the LJ books. It just felt very good. I look forward to your (for me) upcoming books. I'm reading the series in order so it looks like I've got 11 mores books before I read Hell Road Warriors. Blood Harvest restored my faith in the DL books  Again ty. |
|
|
|
ChuckPublished Author New Member Posts:55
| 5/12/2015 9:46 PM |
|
|
WarZ, yes. I have written for the GE series DL and Mack Bolan. In both cases the publishers sent me a "bible" that included character profiles, weapons, and basic guidelines on how they wanted things written. Thank you for the compliments. I read the profiles and saw the promise that the characters and the world held. 100 years after total Armageddon. What's not to like? My philosophy was, accepting all the basic premises and canon of the DL world, what might things might really be like? With that in mind, I jumped the reservation, and had a hell of a lot of fun writing them. I would have to do some inquiring, but I am tempted to scan a copy of the bible off to Ron, (our humble JamesAxler site overlord), for the amusement of the fans.
|
|
|
|
Ron MilesWebsite Owner Commander In Chief Posts:864
| 5/12/2015 10:15 PM |
|
|
Your humble site overlord would not say no to that offer.
"Sadly then I knew the answer. All her life she was a dancer, but no one ever played the song she knew." - The Residents
|
|
|
|