Red Holocaustby James Axler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Deathlands 2: Red Holocaust / 0373625022
Someday, scientists will locate the part of the brain that enjoys Deathlands. I hope so, because I'm curious to know why I like these books. They're full of every trigger warning imaginable -- death, murder, guns rape, torture, bestiality, mutant animals chewing your face off, and painful grotesque radioactive deformities. Fun for the whole family!
However, they're also delightfully campy in a B-movie kind of way. The heroes are fun to laugh at, as well as the writing, as both strive to be Serious and Edgy and instead land smack dab in Silly and Stupidly Bullheaded territory. And the novels are such a quick read -- they're like literary popcorn, liberally doused in Movie Theater Butter.
"Red Holocaust" is the second book in the Deathlands series and the first decent one to read. It's written by a different author from "Pilgrimage to Hell", as we now have Laurence James writing as James Axler instead of Jack Adrian writing as James Axler. There is more rape and torture in this book, but significantly less bestiality, which I'm going to tentatively count as a plus. It's a far shorter book than its predecessor, the writing is punchier, and while there are Russian Bad Guys, there's a lot less of a Cold War fantasy feel to the whole thing. Good news all around.
If you're reading through the series and decide to give this one a miss but want a plot synopsis, here are some spoilers (otherwise skip to the end of the review): Ryan and company teleport into an Alaskan military facility to restock and gain a new member to the team, the blond teenager Lori. This part is particularly amusing because Ryan et. al. basically announce that they are going to take as many supplies as they want and then get touchy when the local population of three point out that there is something objectionable about this behavior. Our heroes, ladies and gentlemen! They explore the area for awhile, find some Russians to shoot up, make an oblique reference to the planet Hoth sequence in the Star Wars movie, and then smash up a local cult for good measure before teleporting out again. For science!
If you're still trying to decide whether to read the Deathlands books or not, "Red Holocaust" is really a great microcosm of the series -- if you like this book, you'll like the rest, at least for various meanings of the word "like".
~ Ana Mardoll
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10 comments:
At first I thought the cover said "DEATH HANDS", which is awesome. The spy-grit equivalent of jazz hands, I'm guessing.
I'm trying to get over the part of my brain that likes schlock. I *want* to want to read Dickens, but I don't. At all. Ever. Under any circumstances. But I did get the audio book for Eragon this weekend. So . . . yeah.
Death hands WOULD be awesome. Sort of a jazzy victory thing.
I don't actually in fact like Dickens, despite having a degree in English literature, but I understand what you mean. But most people can't live on high literature all the time, variety is a good thing for most. ;)
I've got a literary quote at home... Need to look it up, but I think it says,
There is a difference between a tired man wanting a good book to read, and an eager man wanting to read a good book.
Or something. The idea being that sometimes you want book candy and sometimes you want to sample high literature. :D
At first I thought the cover said "DEATH HANDS", which is awesome. The spy-grit equivalent of jazz hands, I'm guessing.
This is fantastic. Would one just do jazz hands immediately after a successful assassination, or would there be a different gesture involved?
I do actually really like Dickens, which is odd given my usual tastes, but in turn trying to read the entirety of any of his books is like trying to eat an entire bowl of frosting. It tastes so good but it's far too rich to actually stomach that much at a time.
That was how I envisioned it: jazz hands stooped over a dead body. Kind of a classier version of FPS "tea-bagging". (Felt icky just typing that.)
I'm tickled to find a real Dickens liker. I've always struggled with him. I also am not truly enamored with Austen, which put me in a VERY LONELY PLACE in my English department. I think only one other girl in my major didn't like Austen. And we didn't like each other. Ha.
All my "eager learning" energy goes into other things, I think. I just never feel the urge to read high literature. Sometimes I do (by accident, usually), and am glad, but it's not something I ever thirst for.
Really? I've not read much Dickens, but I've liked what I've read and intend to read more. Let's see, I've read The Pickwick Papers (very episodic, but fun), Martin Chuzzlewhit (Sarah Gamp is an inspiration), and, as a child, abridged versions of Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, and David Copperfield. And I have a vague recollection of having read Nicholas Nickleby, but I might be recalling a radio adaptation.
I like Austin too. Does this make me weird?
TRiG.
If my English class was anything to go by, you're pretty normal and I'm the outlier, ha. But since "weird" is a compliment in my family, I want to encouragingly point out that I bet there's SOMETHING weird in your makeup we can have fun with!
When I worked at the first book store (I've worked at two), I made several attempts to broaden my reading, none of which went all that well. I tried to read a Grisham novel and didn't get very far at all, for reasons I no longer remember. I tried to read an Oprah recommended book and didn't get very far because I despised the main character and could only imagine the book getting better if it became a murder mystery, with her as the victim. I tried reading classics, which went marginally better, though I ran out of steam after getting through David Copperfield. It wasn't bad. But holy shit did it need to be re-edited. You can tell he wrote it as a serial. (Either that or he thought people had the IQ of a turnip.) So. Much. Repetition.
Trying to think of some classics that are public domain, not sad, and well edited by modern standards. Not doing so well - the not sad condition is fiddly.
There's Sherlock Holmes and Alice in Wonderland and Verne, of course. There's also SILAS MARNER, and TREASURE ISLAND, and maybe MOLL FLANDERS. They're pretty fun and short as far as classics go.
But, really, I think people should read what they like. Enrichment happens anywhere, and I wish I'd spent less time reading certain classics and more time reading this lesbian steampunk I keep hearing about.
At first I thought the cover said "DEATH HANDS", which is awesome. The spy-grit equivalent of jazz hands, I'm guessing.
I'm trying to get over the part of my brain that likes schlock. I *want* to want to read Dickens, but I don't. At all. Ever. Under any circumstances. But I did get the audio book for Eragon this weekend. So . . . yeah.
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