It took only minutes for human history to derail in a mushroom cloud -- now more than a century later, whatever destiny lies ahead for humanity is bound by the rules that have governed survival since the dawn of time: part luck, part skill and part hard experience. For Ryan Cawdor and his band, survival in Deathlands means keeping hold of what you have -- or losing it along with your life.
In the ancient canyons of New Mexico, the citizens of Little Pueblo prepare to sacrifice Ryan and his companions to demons locked inside a twentieth-century dam project. But in a world where nuke-spawned predators feed upon weak and strong alike, Ryan knows avenging eternal spirits aren't a part of the game. Especially when these freaks spit yellow acid -- and their creators are the whitecoat masterminds of genetic recombination, destroyed by their mutant offspring born of sin and science gone horribly wrong....
Another quality entry in the series from Alan Philipson. This story takes place in the New Mexico region, mostly at a predark dam and the town next to it. After a weird dream, Ryan and his companions trek across the desert till they come to this town, where the story really starts to take shape. Before this, nothing much noteworthy takes place, but after arriving at this settlement, things go from weird to bad to worse very quickly for the group.
A good series of scenes in the town, captures, escapes, gun battles, and more lead the group separated, to the final portion of the story, which is the highlight of the book, and is what I consider to make this a horror novel in Deathlands.
Ryan and JB are thrown into the depths of the Dam, while the rest of the group investigate the mysterious redoubt now exposed by the lowered water level. Within these is the terrifying science gone wrong products of genetic engineering, and the horrors the group deals with inside is great reading indeed.
The story elements of the strange townfolk and the predark demons in the dam are tied together in an interesting way. There is science in the fiction. Good action, and edge of your seat terror, and more, this is a book in the series you should not miss!