The 10th book here by veteran action/adventure author Victor Milan in this particular series was pretty good.

By far not his best, not his worst, either. Mediocre adventure. His Storm Breakers and Nemesis books were much better, but this was still a fast-paced adventure read that takes the Deathlands adventurers into a strange kind of power struggle between two pretty different women barons. They are first introduced to a female baron who dresses like someone from the Victorian era, and has a giant two-headed protector that would make a solid Halloween idea. The other is something like a pirate queen, with a mix of bi-sexually driven cohorts.

Although it is overall not a bad book, it is a mixed bag, and the last book, Dark Fathoms, was much better. This felt more like filler than anything else. Kinda familiar territory here, with a couple of new items the companions have not encountered before, but too much of the same to make it truly unique in the series.

I really like this particular author, but he has penned much better. hey, we gather they can't all be gold, eh?

What I liked about this book: The pacing is pretty good. I never felt bored. Just a little let-down, because I've read fantastic past adventures by this author. Some of the action sequences were written well, but, overall, it was a fly-by-the-numbers. The writer knows the companion's character, so this wasn't one of those weird books where the characters don't act like themselves. This author knows them by now very well. Now he just really needs to shake them up, get them more out of their comfort zone in his next book.

There was some intrigue, double-crossing, and even some detective type work done by Mildred. It worked...to a point.

The two lady barons were pretty interesting. The author hints throughout the novel that they have a past. That there may be a more underlying reason for their power struggle to find and/or steal from each other the predark goods buried in their area.

And therin lies the problem with the book.

What I didn't like: The baron vs baron storyline has been done to death. Although this particular volume tries to break away from that mold, by utilizing the various mutant group who are being used as a vaudeville act, along with two very different strong-willed women with a dark past, these strings of storyline are never fully developed or delved into. Only touched upon. In fact, the colorful mutant characters totally disappear from the storyline altogether.

Also, the 'stolen relic' that this whole storyline was supposed to be about, is never shown. And if it was, then it was totally lost to us! Having a weapon of the past, or something like that, would have made this story much better.
It is not a bad book, just not one of those shining, memorable ones.