This is the first Deathlands book I've read. It's an interesting contrast to the Outlanders series. It's a much harsher universe and the regulars have to be tougher to survive. They certainly rack up a body count as they fight to rescue Jak and a group of kidnapped children.
It's a gory, violent adventure. The mystery of the train's purpose is well built up within the story, so its a shame the blurb on the back of the book rather gives most of it away!
Amongst the fighting, a sub-plot involving Jak becoming responsible for a group of traumatised children is moving. An ancient witch imprisoned aboard the ship provides some decent moments as well.
Are there any particular earlier DL novels folk would recommend. There are quite a lot of them

Are there any particular earlier DL novels folk would recommend. There are quite a lot of them

You may have opened yourself up a DL can of worms - just read through the threads and you'll pick up what the die hard DL fans prefer!

I also just read my first DL, Shadow World. AP introduced memorable characters and interesting foods - Beefie Cheesie, Tater Cheesie. You'll find yet a harsher Earth parallel here.

Posted By Gazhack on 09 Sep 2009 08:11 PM

Are there any particular earlier DL novels folk would recommend. There are quite a lot of them

If you go to the home page and scroll to the bottom, you will see the current and upcoming DL cover images, and next to that is a list of the top ten highest rated books in the series.  Also, if you browse The Books section for Deathlands you can see each book in the series along with reviews and an overall rating (and you can submit your own reviews, as well).

Thanks alot for that info Ron. I should have known the answers would be under my nose! When I do read more DL books I'll certainly post some thoughts back here.

Sure thing, and welcome aboard. If you have any questions, or any suggestions for the website, please feel free to post them.

Posted By Sin-Eater on 09 Sep 2009 11:10 PM

I also just read my first DL, Shadow World. AP introduced memorable characters and interesting foods - Beefie Cheesie, Tater Cheesie. You'll find yet a harsher Earth parallel here.

Sin-Eater,
Glad you were amused by SW.  There are/will be three novels in the SW cycle.  Breakthrough (2002) brings an invasion force of desperate SWorlders back to DL.  And the final book in the trilogy, Doom Helix (due out sometime in 2010) completes the story--the seeds planted in SW and Breakthrough bear unthinkably toxic fruit.    I love writing monster-books, and as this was my last DL I tried to go out BIG and AWFUL.
 
You might also want to check out Slaughter Realms/Iroquois Vengeance (see the banner on the ja.com home page)--a new , in-progress project Ron and I are undertaking.  It's a different sort of post apocalypse with original characters. 
AP

My copy of this book arrived today from trusty old Amazon!  I must say I am impressed. I've only read the first 5 chapters so far, but if the rest of the book is as good as the first 63 pages, this one is definitely a KEEPER!!!

Posted By AP on 10 Sep 2009 11:45 AM

Posted By Sin-Eater on 09 Sep 2009 11:10 PM

I also just read my first DL, Shadow World. AP introduced memorable characters and interesting foods - Beefie Cheesie, Tater Cheesie. You'll find yet a harsher Earth parallel here.

Sin-Eater,
Glad you were amused by SW.  There are/will be three novels in the SW cycle.  Breakthrough (2002) brings an invasion force of desperate SWorlders back to DL.  And the final book in the trilogy, Doom Helix (due out sometime in 2010) completes the story--the seeds planted in SW and Breakthrough bear unthinkably toxic fruit.    I love writing monster-books, and as this was my last DL I tried to go out BIG and AWFUL.
 
AP

When Doom Helix comes out, I plan on reading those three books as a trilogy.  
I'm very much looking forward to them.

Wow.. I really need to get back on this board full time! lol Anyways, I picked up Alpha Wave today and although I haven't started it (another thing I have to do.. I'm really behind.. I think the last six books I haven't read as of yet!) one thing I did notice.. they've changed the font.. books appear to be thinner..but I guess they aren't.

Oh btw.. AP.. thank you so very much for your works in this series.. they've been amazing, truely amazing. The Graphic Audio of Plague Lords was just outstanding! I know you're probably heard this before, but Mr. James would be proud of your stories!

Alan -

Huh, Shadow world was yours eh? I think that was one of the last DL I actually read, and if I remember correctly I thought it was pretty damned good. Might actually be a review still up around somewhere...

Kudos to you for that one, Alan. If I ever decide to read DL again, I guess yours will be the ones that I track down. Sounds like they're the best out of the bunch.

Chris

Just started this one.Already like it better than the last one.
I have a small problem with Ryan's cavalier attitude about Krysty's being near death at the start though?
To the gentleman who asked what are the best DL novels?
Mr.Miles is correct,the better one are listed and rated accordingly.
I have to disagree with how Stone Face is #1.
I do believe the person/s who rated that one were under the influence of strong narcotics.
A decent read to be sure.
"Blood Lines" is far better.(IMO)

Posted By Girl's Gun's & Guitar's on 20 Sep 2009 03:25 AM

I have to disagree with how Stone Face is #1.
I do believe the person/s who rated that one were under the influence of strong narcotics.
A decent read to be sure.
"Blood Lines" is far better.(IMO)

<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> <!--[if gte mso 10]> Hi there,

Welcome aboard.

Do you have any reasons for thinking that Stome face should not have the number one spot ?

What do you dislike about it and how would you rate it out of 10 ?

Why not post a review here also, it might just drop its average and take it from the number one spot. You have to remeber if you don't post your reviews and rating you can't have an effect on its standing here.

Stone face in my opinion is one of the best of the post Laurence James DL books and it took quite some time thereafter for another DL book of this calibre to come along.

 

“Blood Lines” is one of my favourite DL books also along with Dectra Chain and Time Nomads.

 

Take it easy,

 

 

Jim

 

 

Jim

First,thank you for behaving like an adult and politley stating your case instead of the brutal attack I recieved prior to you sir.
I do think StoneFace was indeed as you say "The Best Post LJ book".
I simply was a bit dissapointed that LJ was no longer writing the books and I was able to tell right off that something just was not the sameis all.I prefer LJ's writing to all other DL writers.
It is just a personal preference.I actually like everything but perhaps 1/2  books by LJ that I thought were better than any post LJ books.
I guess what I am saying is that I do not wish to dethrone Stone face from the top spot,I just disagree that it is rated number one over anything by LJ.
I mean this as no insult or disrespect to any StoneFace fan or of said author.
I am simply biased as far as Laurence James writing is concerned.
It was a pleasure conversing with you.
It it ok to call you "Jim"?
You may call me Steve if you like?
 

BTW,
I give it a solid 8/9 (it was a great read to be certain)
I like Chill Factor,Red Holocoust,Bloodlines,and too many other LJ books more for the top slot.IMO only sir!

Steve,

You can call me Jim without problem.

Books can only get on the review list if people post reviews and I know I am more than guilty of fsailing to do just this with a lot of both DL and OL books. I have read all of them and think I have only ever posted reviews on less than 6 of them.
Perhaps I should start to re read the whole lot and post a review and rating for each ? Its been so long since I read the older books I would find it hard to remeber the plots of most.

If I remeber rightly -and Ron may put me right on this, being able to review a book and rate it only came about after LJ stopped writing the DL books so it was only the newer books that got reviewed as they got published.

I forget when exactly I wrote the review module. It was before the move to DotNetNuke, because I remember having to port over the existing reviews when I wrote the Books section from scratch again. At a guess, I think I added the reviews around 2004. Certainly it was added well after LJ stopped writing for DL.

Well thanks Jim and Ron (if I may say Ron?) I did not know how the books were rated and it was certainly not my intent to stir the pot.

I have tremendous respect for Mr.Ellis as a writer.I am just a die hard Laurence James fan.

If I had my druthers,Mr.Ellis would be writing the DL books now,along with my other favorite post LJ writer Allan Phillipson!

I've finished reading Alpha Wave and must say, it almost got there for me.  At first I thought that 150+ pages on a train was just a bit much, however I open my frame of mind to the overall story of the trip progression which made me more comfortable with the results. 

I particularly like the how the baron got taken out in the end.  This was creative and interesting.  I kinda doubt that such small amount of chemical could affect so much liquid?  I also wonder what's gonna happen when the chem wears off and he wakes up.  I know I know he won't.

It was difficult getting around the things that just don't make sense:

Leaving Ryans gun in his holster when captured wasn't gonna happen.  Someone, anyone, would've taken everything off him for their use. 


You can bet that the gun fight along the train when hundreds of people were nearby was gonna be heard by about everyone.  Shooting guns can be heard along ways away. 

The fight at the dias happened when 'everyone' was looking at the train.  You'd think that maybe, just maybe a few dozen sec men would want to protect their baron.  Maybe?

Ryan reloading his Sig with mags that JB had randomly pulled off some shelf also showed a lack of understanding of how guns work.  The odds of a Sig mags sitting there were 1 in a 1000.  

Describing the ZKR-551 revolver shooting until the 'clip' was empty was a rolling eyes moment for me.  It doesn't have a clip, it has a cylinder...duh!

Returning to Fairburn with the kids expecting to 'make a few apologies' after what they did would only get themselves killed. 

Overall I give this one a 5 out of 10.

My coppy arrived this morning -only 3 weeks late from Amazon !!

Will start it after I finish "The Road" which I have to say is rather a good read.

Posted By Jodes on 11 Sep 2009 09:49 PM


Oh btw.. AP.. thank you so very much for your works in this series.. they've been amazing, truely amazing. The Graphic Audio of Plague Lords was just outstanding! I know you're probably heard this before, but Mr. James would be proud of your stories!

Jodes--Thanks for the kind words. Sorry your post slipped past me.    I haven't listened to GA's version of PL.  They definitely do excellent work, though. 

Have you looked at Slaughter Realms, yet?  A new chapter will be going up some time tomorrow, and Karl Altstaetter, the graphic artist, is completing a final sketch of the Iroquois Ninja Princess which will eventually be colorized and turned into the novel's cover.
AP