HELL RISING is an epic adventure, another classic entry in a series which has already had quite a few. I won't say it's the best Outlanders novel but it's definitely my favorite. It has just about anything anyone would want--a larger than life villain, fast action, interesting locales, a world threatening menace and of course--sex.

But it also has poignant moments, good character development and interaction and a new take on Kane's "past life" sub-plot which has appeared occasionally.

The main draw of this book and the entire series are the characters. They're intelligent, funny, desperate and courageous and the reader will follow them anywhere. HELL RISING is highly recommended.

Hell Rising is a sequel to Savage Sun, bringing Kane and Grant back to England to find out what the latest problem is arising there. Some characters return, like Fand, Morrigan, and Phin, and many of the scenes occur in the same places Kane and Grant were before.
I was a little confused about Morrigan's role in the earlier book, but it was more clear what she was doing in this book. Fand has a link to Kane in his dreams, but more than that, there is a whole history behind Fand and Kane, as well as the main villain Quayle, as past lives are involved in the story as well. Some of these past lives are briefly depicted, adding some interesting look into the history of the heroes and villains.
The adventure is action packed and full of gunfights, swordfights and an awesome finish.

One of my favorite parts of the book was the beginning, when Kane and his friends are in an Antartican redoubt in a bloody battle with a sasquatch named Jacko, who is controlled through an implant in his brain by Otto Skorzeny. Followed by a duel between Brigid and Otto himself with giant wrenches. Awesome stuff!
Once again, Mark Ellis has written a top-notch sci-fi adventure novel that will keep you reading into the early morning hours.

Here we have another instalment of the mythical and legendary exploits of Kane, Grant, and the rest of the exiles of Cerberus.

This particular adventure is a truly global spanning affair, with ventures to the most remote and inhospitable local on the planet, the Ant Arctic, where the exiles discover a two hundred and fifty year old nazi stronghold. I won't go into any more detail, lest I spoil it for my fellow readers.

This trip does explain a few mysteries that linger to this day on what happened after the fall of the Third Reich, but it comes at a very high price.

However, it doesn't stop there. Once again the exiles find themselves returning across the Atlantic to Imperial Britannica.

Kane, summoned by the hybrid Fand, is once again swept across the ocean to defend a land that he wasn't born in, to prevent ancient technology falling into the wrong hands. If certain parties were to obtain these ancient devices, it could well mean a second skydark.

Upon reaching British soil Kane and Grant discover exactly what happened to the Dragoons after the disappearance of Lord Strongbow. The Irish Celts have returned to Britain with a vengeance. The Dragoon leadership fell to the hands of a massive, one eyed man named Quayle, who with the help of the Irish Doomie Morrigan, uncovered the location of a mythological isle off the coast, that is supposedly one of the Outposts of the lost continent of Atlantis.

A beaten and battered Kane, with his brother in arms Grant must once again take on the Dragoons in a last ditched effort to eliminate the imperium once and for all, and prevent Quayle from obtaining his goals.

Over all, a rousing adventure well worth reading, and as usual, the author has gone out of his way to explain mythology and mesh it wonderfully into the Outlanders setting.

After being burned by the lackluster Deathlands (they must call it that because it kills so many brain cells), I was afraid to take a look at the Outlanders series. However, on the recommendation of a couple authors I respect - you know who you are - I picked up this and the next book.
And I learned immediately why you hardly ever find used Outlanders books laying all over the place.

The universe of the Outlanders is only nominally that of the Deathlands, conceived in a different set of attitudes, where three heroes fighting a geriatric Nazi suddenly becomes a thrilling unfair fight - on the part of a Benzadrine-hopping madman, and his pet Australopithicus, Jacko.

And that's just the setup -

We have our main hero, Kane, a man of action who takes lumps and cuts and other bangs, who can do his own research, who is the reincarnation of a legendary Celt warrior, summoned to England to prevent an apocalypse from Atlantean times.

If you're looking for boring, indestructable hero gunfights, go look at some other crud.

If you're looking for some real adventure and excitement, wit and humor and fantastic mythology plugged into a dreary and wasteful genre, made fresh and new again, YOU GOTS TA CHECK OUTLANDERS!

All in all, highly recommended, and it will inspire you to look up the legends of Balor and his fomori, Lyonesse, and Cuchulain, if you weren't familiar with them already.

HELL RISING was stupendous in action/adventure entertainment.

Jumping to new continents is always a good thing, especially when Kane and compoany do it. Awesome backgrounds with colorful back guys lends this one yet another fun-filled read by Mark Ellis.

A writer with verve.